{"id":35,"date":"2013-01-25T05:16:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T05:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/2013\/01\/25\/89th-general-assembly-recap-week-2\/"},"modified":"2017-06-20T16:16:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T16:16:16","slug":"89th-general-assembly-recap-week-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/2013\/01\/25\/89th-general-assembly-recap-week-2\/","title":{"rendered":"89th General Assembly Recap – Week 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is likely the last really placid week at the
\nArkansas General Assembly. They did not meet on Monday in honor of Martin
\nLuther King Day and are not meeting today due to a lack of pressing issues. So
\nthey really were in session for about two and a half days this
\nweek.<\/p>\n

\n
\nThey are approaching 300
\nbills filed so far, but most are standard appropriation bills that will be
\nconsidered in context of an overall budget. The only political heat generated
\nthis week came from gun-related legislation as the national debate over
\ngun-control spilled into the General Assembly.  <\/div>\n
\n
\n

The House State Agencies
\nCommittee recommended passage of HR1003, which would encourage preservation of
\nArkansans’ right to bear arms. This is what I call a “soap box” bill since it
\ncannot directly impact policy and is simply an opportunity to publicly take a
\nposition on an issue. With one out of every two southerners being a gun owner
\nand more than 127,000 concealed carry permits in Arkansas, being pro-gun is
\nusually safe political ground in this state.
\n <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThe General Assembly also
\nsaw legislation (SB71<\/a>) filed
\nto allow concealed carry permit holders to take their handguns into churches if
\nthat church allows it. While, HB1035<\/a>
\nwould authorize staff or faculty at higher education institutions to carry a
\nconcealed weapon on campus.<\/div>\n
\n

 <\/p><\/div>\n

\nThe Senate also dipped its
\ntoe into the Medicaid expansion debate this week as the Public Health Committee
\nheard testimony from Arkansas Surgeon General Joe Thompson and University of
\nArkansas Medical System Chancellor Dan Rahn. Both Drs. Thompson and Rahn
\nsupport expansion of Medicaid to Arkansans earning up to 138% of the federal
\npoverty level. Both were questioned about the possibility of partially
\nexpanding the program to Arkansans earning up to 100% of the federal poverty
\nlevel. The federal government has not indicated a partial expansion is possible
\nat this time. Roby Brock with Talk Business reported on this story, which can
\nbe found HERE<\/a>.
\n <\/div>\n
\n
\nWithout some sort of partial
\nexpansion solution allowed by the federal government, Medicaid expansion could
\nhinge on developing a plan to fund the future state share that Arkansas must
\nassume beginning in 2017 and what happens if the federal government reduces
\ntheir current funding commitment. Leadership in the House have stated that once
\nthe new Medicaid recepients are added to the system the possibility that the
\nstate would throw them off if federal funding is reduced seems very unlikely.
\nSo mitigating future budget risks will be an important component of the
\nexpansion negotiation.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is likely the last really placid week at the Arkansas General Assembly. They did not meet on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Day and are not meeting today due to a lack of pressing issues. So they really were in session for about two and a half days this week. They are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,18,45,46,37],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chambernews","tag-89th-general-assembly","tag-arkansas","tag-concealed-carry","tag-medicaid-expansion","tag-state-legislature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8RhO8-z","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}