12 bills we're watching in the Arkansas legislature
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Your Arkansas state legislature begins its session Jan. 13, but your state representatives and senators are already busy filing bills to be discussed and voted on next year. Stay tuned for more coverage.
💧 SB4 would allow voters to decide whether to have fluoride in their drinking water.
- This comes as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called for an end to adding fluoride to drinking water. The U.S. has widely practiced adding fluoride to drinking water to prevent cavities since the 1940s, although there is no federal mandate.
🏳️🌈 HB1032 would ban healthcare professionals from engaging in conversion therapy, the practice of seeking to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. About half of states ban or offer some protections against conversion therapy, according to Human Rights Campaign.
📚 HB1028 would repeal the law that allows librarians to be criminally charged for furnishing "harmful materials" to minors.
- The bill would also protect librarians from prosecution for disseminating materials claimed to be obscene and would require libraries to have a policy against "banning books or other materials because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval" to receive state funding.
🏫 HB1020 would repeal the Arkansas Children's Educational Freedom Account program, the school voucher system approved as part of the LEARNS Act that allows funding for public schools to be used for tuition to private schools or homeschool programs.
- The bill also seeks to create more funding for special education students ($3,862 per student) and create a Community Schools Act Fund comprised of general revenues, private or public grants and donations that the Education Department can use for the purposes of the Community Schools Act.
🩺 HB1011 would overturn the state's near-total ban on abortion and allow the procedure "up to the point of fetal viability" plus "limited exceptions following fetal viability for the health or life of the mother or in case of rape or incest perpetrated on a minor."
🤰 HB1013 would protect fertility treatment rights, and HB1014 would require the State and Public School Life and Health Insurance Program to cover in vitro fertilization.
🍼 Two bills, HB1004 and HB1008, were filed to require Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers one year after giving birth.
💰 HJR1002 seeks to fully ban slavery and involuntary servitude, which are still allowed as punishment for a crime. The bill would ensure prisoners are paid for their work.
🚓 HB1046 would establish a "blue envelope program" intended "to ease communication between an individual with autism spectrum disorder and law enforcement during a motor vehicle-related interaction."
- People with autism would be able to request a blue envelope from their local police department to keep documents like their driver's license and vehicle registration.
🗳 HB1035 would allow for online voter registration.