Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders addresses Arkansas’ 95th General Assembly for her State of the State Address on Jan. 14, 2025. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
By Antoinette Grajeda, Arkansas Advocate
The 95th General Assembly began Monday with much pomp and circumstance at the Arkansas Capitol in Little Rock.
The day’s festivities featured the swearing in of lawmakers, some of whom were surrounded by family members and holding young children. Others had loved ones loudly cheering them on from the public galleries upstairs.
The House of Representatives welcomed 13 new members — a dozen true freshmen plus former state lawmaker Tracy Steele, who’s returning to the Capitol after some time away. Steele previously served in the state Legislature from 1999 to 2013.
The Arkansas House also welcomed its newest speaker, Rep. Brian Evans, R-Cabot. He succeeds Rep. Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, who was the longest-serving House speaker in state history, having held the post for six years.
In a speech from the House floor Monday, Evans lamented his late father was not there to witness the moment, and called on his colleagues to focus on “sacrifice over self.”
“I ask you to join me in … a service where we won’t be seeking a headline, a service where we praise those who make a sacrifice on our behalf and the benefit of the constituents,” he said.
House Speaker Brian Evans and Lieutenant Gov. Leslie Rutledge preside over a joint session of the Arkansas House and Senate on Jan. 14, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)
On the south side of the Capitol, the Senate welcomed its sole new member, Rep. Jaime Scott, D-Little Rock, who moved from the House to the upper chamber to replace Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, who retired.
The main attraction of the session’s first week was Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ State of the State address Tuesday. There were no major surprises as she cited higher education, public safety, immigration and children’s mental health as her policy priorities for the session.
Arkansas has the worst food insecurity in the nation, according to a 2024 U.S. Department of Agriculture report, so Sanders’ proposal to use revenue from the state’s medical marijuana industry to make a federal summer nutrition program and schools’ free lunch and breakfast programs “financially sustainable,” and make school breakfast services “completely free for any student that chooses” to participate, was generally well-received.
Meanwhile, an element of her expected proposal for higher education — which she dubbed Arkansas ACCESS — that would allow for the firing of college and university instructors who “waste time indoctrinating” students during class time received less universal praise.
“Arkansas students go to our colleges and universities to be educated, not to be bombarded with anti-American, historically illiterate woke nonsense,” she said.
Arkansas Democrats responded to the speech with a press conference during which party leaders said they would work with the governor on policies on which they agree, but push back against those that are deemed harmful.
Sanders supported a wide-ranging education bill called the LEARNS Act in 2023 that, among other things, bans “indoctrination” in K-12 schools, but doesn’t define the term. A federal lawsuit challenging that portion of the law is working its way through the courts, and a judge issued a preliminary injunction in the case last year.
Much of the rest of the week featured organizational meetings for committees, where lawmakers discussed rules and procedures for the session.
Legislators approved a resolution that permits them to recess for four days (they can recess for three with no action). At the start of the session, lawmakers generally don’t work on Fridays and regularly enjoy three-day weekends. As noted in the Senate Wednesday, the resolution will allow for the honoring of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday as well as the presidential inauguration, which some Arkansas lawmakers will attend.
Proposed legislation
Bill filing began in November, but the pace of filing increased this week with the official launch of the session. Much of the proposed legislation was appropriation bills, which give state agencies the authority to approve the funding allocated to them during last year’s fiscal session.
Lawmakers convene for the legislative session in odd-numbered years and the fiscal session in even years. Regular sessions last 60-75 days while fiscal sessions are limited to 30 days. They can be extended by votes of the legislators. Committee meetings are held periodically between sessions.
In addition to these standard finance-related bills, other legislation of note filed this week include:
House Bills 1082 and 1083 by Rep. Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, which aim to protect children’s safety and privacy online. The connection between social media use and kids’ mental health has been a focus for the governor, who called on lawmakers during her State of the State address to ban students’ use of cellphones during school hours.
Senate Bill 59 by Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, would provide a free breakfast each school day to Arkansas students regardless of their eligibility for the federal free or reduced meal program.
Senate Bill 60 by Sen. Ricky Hill, R-Cabot, would amend state law to prohibit a digital asset mining business from being located within a 30-mile radius of a military facility. This bill continues an ongoing conversation around cryptocurrency mining. The spread of the industry around Arkansas has caused issues for some communities. Legislators attempted to address a few of those problems by approving a pair of laws regulating the industry during last year’s fiscal session.
House Bill 1150 by Rep. Jeremiah Moore, R- Clarendon, would prohibit a healthcare payor or pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) from obtaining certain pharmacy permits. PBMs are another controversial issue that lawmakers have long tried to address. The proposed bill aims to minimize conflicts of interest by stopping PBMs and healthcare payors from being a “fox guarding the henhouse” by being both the price setter and price taker.
The 2025 legislative session will resume Tuesday, when both the Senate and House are scheduled to convene at 1:30 p.m. in their respective chambers.
The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy.
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