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Committee approves bill to create joint committee on military and veterans affairs
Summary
House Bill 1056, sponsored by Representative Bridal Evans, was approved to add a joint committee on military and veterans affairs to the House Rules with an emergency clause; sponsors said the committee will centralize legislative focus on military and veterans issues and could be appointed quickly.
The Arkansas House Committee on Rules voted to pass House Bill 1056, which would add a joint committee on military and veterans affairs to the House Rules and include an emergency clause to allow the panel to form during the current session.
Representative Bridal Evans said the committee is intended to centralize focus on military and veterans issues across the state. "I have a growing burden and heart for what we are trying to do as a state in regards to our relations with our military, most especially also with our veterans across the state," Evans said, citing growth at installations including Fort Smith and Little Rock Air Force Base and work at Camp Robinson. Evans thanked the governor for appointing a new secretary of veterans affairs and said Senator Hester had joined her in sponsoring the effort.
Evans described the procedural steps after the committee-level approval: adopting the change into house rules, amending the rulebook, and following with a resolution to remove military affairs from the Aging, Children and Youth Committee's jurisdiction. She estimated the appointment process and rule amendments could be completed in roughly two weeks and said several filed bills intended for the new committee are being held until it is formed.
A committee member asked whether the emergency clause would make the committee active immediately; Evans and the parliamentarian described the process (adoption into rules, amending the rulebook, then a resolution) and said the committee would be ready once those steps are completed. The committee moved and passed the bill in committee; no roll-call vote counts were recorded in the transcript.
