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Committee clears three technical bills on agency transfers and emergency response
Summary
The Senate committee voted to pass several noncontroversial measures: SB30 (technical cleanup and agency title changes), SB128 (transfer of continuity-of-operations program to Emergency Management), and SB145 (aligning Arkansas law with the Emergency Management Assistance Compact).
The Senate State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs Committee approved a set of technical bills covering administrative transfers and disaster-response alignment.
Sen. English presented SB30 as a technical cleanup that amends references to account for departmental changes under the 2019 reorganization; a witness summarized the main change as substituting the chief financial officer reference to the Secretary of Transformation and Shared Services. The committee passed the bill by voice vote.
SB128 moves administration of the Arkansas continuity‑of‑operations program from the Department of Information Systems to the Division of Emergency Management; sponsors described the transfer as straightforward. The committee passed SB128 on a voice vote.
SB145 was presented by Sen. Ben Gilmore with AJ Gary, director of the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management. The bill updates state statute to reflect changes in the Emergency Management Assistance Compact so Arkansas remains aligned with the national compact and preserves interstate liability and workers‑compensation protections for personnel deployed across state lines during disasters. The committee passed SB145.
All three bills were passed in committee with little debate and will advance through Senate procedures.
