Legislative leaders Tuesday afternoon shut down the Legislature’s budget hearings of state agencies for the rest of this week after three lawmakers tested positive for covid-19.
Senate President Tempore Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, announced to lawmakers that the Senate has had one member of the Joint Budget Committee — Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron — test positive for covid-19.
“He is feeling better,” Hendren said. “Nevertheless, I would ask keep him and the House members that are infected in your prayers as they recover from this.”
Afterward, House spokeswoman Cecillea Pond-Mayo said Reps. Stu Smith, R-Batesville, and Michelle Gray, R-Melbourne, also have tested positive for covid-19.
Hendren said that causes a great deal of concern "for us and our operations here and how we move forward, who needs to be quarantined, who needs to be tested, and we are working through all those issues.
“We are hopeful that it is limited and contained to the two House members and the one member that has tested for positive,” he said.
"Until we know that, we are going to ask the meetings to be suspended the rest of this week and that we adopt a rule change that would allow for remote participation of members because they can’t be here because of covid, either quarantine or isolation,” Hendren said.
Hendren said that legislative leaders expect lawmakers will be able to resume their budget hearings and “pick up our business, perhaps with a slightly modified schedule.”
He said he and House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, have agreed that the Legislature will not suspend operations during future budget hearings or the regular session if there is a positive test.
“We have work to do. We will get it done. We will have a session. We will complete complete our hearings, but we’ll also try to do it in a safe as a manner as possible,” Hendren said.
The announcement comes as Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he would limit his activities after a person who was in a meeting with him last week tested positive for the coronavirus, and the cumulative number of covid-19 cases in the state passed the 100,000 threshold.