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Senate committee reviews House Bill 17 63, directs staff to prepare single omnibus amendment
Summary
Members of the Senate State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee spent a day reviewing and reconciling language in house bill 17 63, agreeing to fold many technical corrections into one large amendment and to monitor a related tax-appeals bill for potential inclusion; no votes were taken.
Members of the Senate State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee met to continue markup of "house bill 17 63," a broad reorganization and transformation measure, and agreed to consolidate line-by-line corrections and policy clarifications into one large amendment rather than submit multiple smaller amendments.
The committee focused on technical and substantive language across dozens of sections. A recurring issue was the role of agency secretaries in appointments: members concluded the bill should be rewritten to make the secretary a nonvoting participant in some boards and to remove any implication that the secretary must "approve" public members. As one participant put it, "Eliminate and the secretary of department of commerce shall serve as non voting member." Staff member Sherry was directed to record that change for the omnibus amendment.
Other corrections agreed for the amendment included removing obsolete references, clarifying which positions require Senate confirmation and which require only governor approval (the committee noted a prior change requiring only governor approval for a director appointment), and standardizing titles (for example, replacing "deputy director" with "assistant commissioner" where agencies requested it).
Members debated whether statutorily allowed designees should be preserved for certain appointments. On the venture capital investment trust, the committee agreed to include language permitting the secretary's designee unless a member raises objection, with one member saying the secretary "should do it" unless the body wanted to prohibit a designee.
The committee also discussed a separate Senate bill, introduced by Senator Blake Johnson, that would create an independent five‑member tax appeals panel. That bill has passed the Senate and may pass the House; members agreed to monitor it and, if enacted, incorporate any necessary changes into the transformation amendment.
Practical housekeeping occupied much of the session: the Bureau and staff (including Marty and Sherry) reported numerous "okayed" corrections already applied to the spreadsheet, fixed section citations, and handled agency requests such as moving specific programs between education and higher‑education divisions. Committee members asked staff to ensure that language affecting the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Commission, Career and Technical Education, the Public Service Commission, and other agencies be reconciled in the omnibus amendment or removed as requested by agencies.
Committee members raised a handful of policy clarifications. For example, staff noted current practice charges fees "in proportion to the size" of an entity rather than usage; Amy (department staff) and Ann Purvis confirmed changing that approach would be a substantial policy change. Members discussed bonding requirements and whether small bonds (one example cited: $2,000) should remain attached to directors or be shifted to secretaries under the transformation.
No formal votes on the bill were recorded in the transcript. The committee set a direction: staff should combine outstanding edits and agency requests into a single, large amendment to be adopted when the committee reconvenes. The session adjourned with the committee planning to finish the remaining items later.
