by Tess Vrbin and Antoinette Grajeda, Arkansas Advocate
March 30, 2025

Arkansas legislative leaders say they expect long days at the Capitol during the home stretch of the 2025 legislative session, which they anticipate ending by April 16.

“We’re going to start earlier in the day and we’re going to work late in the day” to move bills through committees and through the House and Senate, Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, said in an interview Wednesday.

For any Senate bills that don’t pass Senate committees this week, “it’s going to be very, very difficult for them to move forward,” he said.

House Speaker Rep. Brian Evans echoed those sentiments Friday, noting that Monday and Tuesday will likely be heavy bill filing days because waiting to file beyond that will make it really difficult for legislation to make it all the way through the process. Many bills already have been delayed due to drafting, amendments and last-minute changes, as well as waiting on fiscal impact statements, according to Evans, who said he wasn’t aware of any urgent or controversial bills that have yet to be filed. 

The Cabot Republican said he’s been speaking with House committee chairs about how to clear their calendars and ensure bills that will be heard are placed on the active agenda. The latter is important for transparency and ensuring constituents have time to make arrangements to speak for or against legislation, he said.

In addition to finalizing the state’s fiscal year 2026 budget, the Legislature is expected to consider some of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ policy priorities for the session that have not yet become law.

Two such bills are sponsored by Hester: Senate Bill 377, which would eliminate the state’s 0.125% grocery sales tax, and Senate Bill 426, the Defense Against Criminal Illegals Act. The latter would mandate that Arkansas law enforcement agencies participate in a federal program that deputizes them to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the apprehension and deportation of undocumented migrants held in local jails and state prisons.

Hester said he hopes to present SB 426 for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. SB 377 is on Monday’s Senate Revenue and Tax Committee agenda.

Regulating minors’ access to cellphones and social media has also been a priority for Sanders. Two bills modeled after federal legislation passed the House with bipartisan support this month: House Bill 1717 is the Arkansas Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, and House Bill 1726 is the Arkansas Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

Arkansas panel advances children’s online safety and privacy bills modeled after federal efforts

Senate committees will make time to consider both bills even if special orders of business are necessary, Hester said. A special order of business compels consideration before other items on a committee agenda. 

Sanders said in January, during her State of the State address, that the Legislature should amend the Social Media Safety Act of 2023 “so that it’s no longer held up in court and can begin to be enforced.” The enjoined law would have been the first in the nation to require minors to receive parental permission before signing up for a social media account.

So far no such amendments to the law have been proposed, but Hester said he expects it to “happen one way or another” since the governor said it is important to her.

“It may be something we don’t have to handle because it’s getting handled in other ways,” Hester said. “Maybe we’re confident that we’re going to end up winning in court. Maybe we’re confident that… President [Donald] Trump’s executive orders will handle it or something that they’re doing on the federal level.”

Compensation, prisons and China

The Senate is set to take up a proposed revamp of the state employee pay plan Monday, which passed the Joint Budget Committee on March 20. Sanders announced the plan in November and said it should make most state employees’ salaries competitive with the private sector and improve recruitment and retention.

The pay plan has not been controversial, unlike Sanders’ plan to build a 3,000-bed prison on 815 acres the state purchased in Franklin County. Earlier this month, the Joint Budget Committee approved a $750 million appropriation for the project, which has sparked frustration from some lawmakers and Franklin County residents.

Evans said he anticipates the prison appropriation legislation, Senate Bill 354, will continue generating discussion and could take a couple of tries to meet the required vote threshold in the House. Most bills need a simple majority of lawmakers’ support to pass, but budget-related bills need three-fourths of the support of each chamber, or 76 House votes and 27 Senate votes.

“When you’re talking about 100 members, it’s a lot of different opinions, a lot of different ideas, last-minute questions that come up,” he said. “Maybe there’ll be some folks not vote for it the first time just so that they get some extra time, make sure they have all their questions answered.”

Hester said he expects the bill to come before the full Senate on Tuesday. He said he could not predict how the Senate will vote; there is no limit on how many votes an appropriation bill receives before it reaches the three-fourths vote threshold.

Sanders urged passage of the appropriation in an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette op-ed Friday and called on state lawmakers to “[r]eject the tired excuses of politicians who don’t want criminals behind bars. Fund the prison, public safety, and a better future for all Arkansans.”

Sanders has also expressed support for a package of bills that will ban certain interactions between state entities and the Chinese government. She and other Republicans have criticized China’s activities in the state, including its past ownership of farmland in Craighead County.

Only one of the six bills has been signed into law and the rest are at various stages of the legislative process, but Hester said there is “nothing more popular with constituents than pushing back on China and what they’re doing to us.”

Constitutional amendments and education

Prior to last week’s recess, the House State Agencies Committee spent three weeks considering 20 proposed constitutional amendments. Evans anticipates the committee will begin ranking the proposals this week and likely send the top five to the House for further consideration. The Senate has 24 proposals to consider.

The Arkansas Legislature can refer three proposed constitutional amendments to voters during a legislation session, with each chamber generally selecting one and jointly selecting a third, Evans said. However, it’s not a requirement that lawmakers always refer three amendments, he said. 

“I think it’s really, really important to understand that just because we can do three, does not mean that we have to do three,” he said. “But also with the understanding that if we are going to present something forward, refer something out to the public to vote, I think it needs to be something that is really important statewide.”

Also this week, Evans said he anticipates Rep. Keith Brooks, a Little Rock Republican who succeeded him as chair of the House Education Committee this year, will run the biannual public school funding bill, which dictates per-student funding. House Bill 1312 was expected to be considered prior to the break, but was held up because it was awaiting a fiscal impact statement, Evans said. Fiscal impact statements explain how much money a bill would cost to implement, and they are compiled by either the Bureau of Legislative Research or the Department of Finance and Administration.

The per-pupil funding amount for the current school year is $7,771. If lawmakers approve HB 1312, the amount would increase to $8,162 for the 2025-2026 school year and $8,371 for the following academic year. 

New bill would dissolve Arkansas State Library and its board, set new library funding criteria

Overall, the session has been “very smooth,” according to Evans, who said he’s noticed “a different feel, a camaraderie in the House” when it comes to “good policy for all Arkansans.”

“Where things tend to get difficult is when you start looking at policy that’s more culture-driven,” he said. “So while we’ve had a few of those things that have crept up this session, there hasn’t seemed to have been as many. And so the body has really been able to just focus more on policy and members representing their districts, and how that policy’s going to affect their district rather than the culture of the district.” 

One such “culture-driven” bill is Senate Bill 536, which Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, filed March 20. It would dissolve the Arkansas State Library and its board after the board did not take what Sullivan said were appropriate actions to keep “age-inappropriate” materials away from minors.

Hester supports SB 536 and has expressed support for Sullivan’s past promises to abolish the library board, which has repeatedly refused to divest from the American Library Association and to withhold funding from libraries where “sexually explicit” materials are within children’s reach.

“I don’t know how clear we could have been with the library board that they need to take stances to not provide pornography to kids, and they are insistent on it,” Hester said Friday.

The General Assembly resumes its work Monday morning. Meeting schedules, agendas and livestreams are available on the Arkansas Legislature’s website.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.

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