Committee approves five bills including AI guardrails, youth driver-license change and towing rules

A committee meeting of the 2025 Legislative Meetings on Oct. 12, 2025, approved five bills by voice vote, ranging from changes to teen and young-adult driver licensing to limits on towing charges and a bill described as offering guardrails for businesses using generative artificial intelligence.

The measures matter because they change how state agencies and private businesses will handle enforcement, oversight and proprietary use of AI models, and they set limits and complaint processes for towing services that affect motorists and commercial carriers.

Senators and representatives moved quickly through the agenda and used voice votes for each item. The committee adopted a concurrence on Senate Bill 397, approved House Bill 1913 addressing driver-license consequences for 16- to 18-year-olds, passed House Bill 1876 described by its sponsor as an AI “guardrail” bill, approved House Bill 1988 adjusting Arkansas State Police oversight and fund use related to auto auctions, and approved House Bill 2001, a compromise towing-and-recovery bill that restructures the towing and recovery board and sets percentage caps on certain charges.

Senator Matt Stone (State Senate, District 2) presented House Bill 1913, saying the measure “clears up a loophole that’s currently in the law for driver's license for young people.” Stone said the bill would allow an 18-year-old who had lost a license after a wreck to obtain an intermediate license so the person could “get on with your life” while remaining under some supervision. The committee moved to pass HB 1913 by voice vote and the bill was approved.

Representative Scott Richardson (House District 13) presented a bill identified in the meeting as HB 1876 and described it as “a sort of a guardrail kind of bill” aimed at clarifying ownership and protection for businesses that invest in proprietary model-training workflows for generative AI. Richardson framed the bill as protecting businesses’ investments in detailed modeling and training inputs used to produce consistent outputs; the committee passed the bill by voice vote.

Senator Ricky Hill presented House Bill 1988, which he said would “allow the state police to further inspection and oversight of the auto auctions” and permit changes in how related funds are used by the Division of the Arkansas State Police. The committee approved HB 1988 by voice vote.

Representative Stetson Painter (House District 3), joined by Senator Kim Hammers (State Senate, District 16), presented House Bill 2001, which Painter described as “a compromised bill” that does three things: reconstructs the towing and recovery board (the current board had expired), places a 20% cap on cargo towing charges and a 5% cap on personal-vehicle towing charges, and requires towing invoices to include either a telephone number or a website for filing complaints (to be defined in rules). The committee passed HB 2001 by voice vote.

The meeting also opened with a concurrence motion adopting the House amendment to Senate Bill 397; the amendment was adopted and the bill approved by voice vote.

All votes during the meeting were taken by voice; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the transcript. Several motions to pass were made and seconded from the dais (motions and seconders were sometimes named in the record, for example motions and seconds credited to senators including Deese and Stone in the transcript), and the chair called each voice vote, with no recorded opposing votes in the meeting record.

The committee chair closed the session after the approvals and adjourned the meeting.