Arkansas House approves package of bills on firearms merchant codes, ballot readability, energy and other measures

The Arkansas House of Representatives on the floor session considered and passed a slate of bills covering firearms merchant codes and bank liability, ballot-title readability standards, energy project financing, and several other measures, while voting separately on emergency clauses and related items.

The most debated measure, House Bill 15-09 (Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act), passed 80–14–1 after a lengthy floor debate over whether the bill should protect community banks from liability for merchant category codes tied to firearms merchants. Representative Tre’ (Beatty) sponsored the bill and said the measure “does not create a gun registry in the state” and is intended to protect Arkansas community banks from being held liable for codes set by card networks. Representative Pilkington argued the bill was drafted to protect banks and said it amounts to a “bankers protection bill” rather than a pure Second Amendment measure. The House approved the bill by recorded vote: 80 yays, 14 nays, 1 present.

House Bill 16-04, prohibiting state agencies from purchasing promotional items made in China, passed 79–15. Representative McElhenden (sponsor) framed the measure as aligning state purchasing with Governor Sanders’s policy and said it would not affect private citizens’ purchasing choices.

On election-related measures, House Bill 16-37, requiring a short fiscal impact statement on statewide initiative and referendum measures, passed 80–14. The bill directs the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) to prepare a concise, unbiased fiscal statement (generally capped at 100 words, with a longer allowance in certain tax-related cases) for any ballot measure that would change state revenues, costs, or indebtedness.

House Bill 17-13, which would require ballot titles for initiated measures to meet an eighth-grade Flesch–Kincaid readability standard and declared an emergency, passed the House on the measure itself 60–23–10 but failed the emergency clause…