Committee voice votes advance a package of agriculture and natural-resources bills

The Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development Committee advanced a group of largely agency-sponsored and technical bills by voice vote during its Oct. 12 meeting.

Key measures the committee approved included:

- Senate Bill 267: Repeal of the Arkansas Alternative Motor Fuel Development Act, which sponsors said has not distributed funds since fiscal year 2014–15. Presented by Representative Jeremiah Moore, who said the bill was brought by the Oil and Gas Commission as an agency bill.

- Concurrence with Senate amendment No. 1 to HB1279: Committee member Roger Lynch asked for concurrence on the amendment; committee approved.

- Senate Bill 224: Repeal of the Natural Organic Fertilizer Act of 1988 because no product was ever registered under that law and the current fertilizer law already covers natural ingredients. Representative Howard Beatty presented the agency-backed repeal.

- Senate Bill 250: Amendments to the pest control law to remove dated employment language, shorten the re-examination waiting period from three months to 14 days, and require license-holder names on both sides of motor equipment for licensed operators; committee approved.

- Senate Bill 259 (numbered variously in discussion): Clarifies appointment authority for the director of the waterways commission, transferring formal appointment power to the governor and specifying that the director serves at the governor’s pleasure and reports to the secretary of commerce; committee approved.

- Senate Bill 251: Removes a statutory requirement that a particular office serve as executive secretary to the trails council while maintaining the agency’s role on the council; committee approved.

Committee members approved each item by voice vote; the transcript records committee approval for these measures but does not show individual roll-call tallies in the record. No public testimony for or against these bills was recorded in the transcript.