Citizen Portal
Sign In

Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!

Contentious committee debate ends with tie on bill restricting paid lobbying for Chinese, Russian entities

3103308 · April 7, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

House Bill 16 62, which would bar paid lobbyists from representing the People's Republic of China or the Russian Federation, produced extended debate about First Amendment and commerce-clause issues and resulted in a tied committee vote, effectively blocking it at that time.

House Bill 16 62, sponsored in the Senate by Senator Blake Johnson and presented by Representative McKinney, faced protracted and sharply divided debate in the Judiciary Committee and ended without passage after a recorded vote resulted in a 4-4 tie.

Senator Blake Johnson, the senate sponsor, told the committee the bill would bar paid lobbyists from representing or being paid by covered foreign entities — specifically the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation — when lobbying the Arkansas…

Already have an account? Log in

Subscribe to keep reading

Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.

  • Unlimited articles
  • AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
  • Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
  • Follow topics and more locations
  • 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
30-day money-back on paid plans