Gov. Sanders touts legislative wins, Dems cite power grabs
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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited progress on several fronts during this legislative session. Screenshot: Sanders administration
The 95th General Assembly of the Arkansas Legislature wrapped on Wednesday after 94 working days at the state Capitol. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited progress, while some Democrats decried the session's power plays.
The big picture: During the biannual full session, Arkansas lawmakers negotiated changes to the management of state government, budgets, infrastructure, education and public safety.
State of play: Sanders signed more than 600 bills into law. Some of those bills include:
- Increasing the general revenue budget to $6.49 billion for fiscal 2026, up nearly 3% from 2025.
- Elimination of the state's grocery tax of 0.125%, which generated about $10 million annually.
- Creation of Arkansas ACCESS, a higher-education reform package to prepare high school and nontraditional students for the workforce while also setting guidelines for state-supported schools to lose funding if they engage in certain diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
- Passage of the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act, designed to improve maternal health outcomes, especially for low-income women.
- Lawmakers also approved a cellphone ban in public schools, granted parents the right to sue social media companies if harm is done to a minor, and passed legislation to provide a free breakfast to every public school student.
- Arkansas also became the first state to prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from owning pharmacies, seen as a step to protect independent operators and mitigate drug-price hikes.
Sanders signed a bill to allow for nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution for state inmates on death row.
Reality check: In her speech marking the end of the session, Sanders notably did not mention the $750 million appropriations fight over the proposed Franklin County prison project, which failed five times to garner enough support to make it through the state Senate this session.
What she's saying: "We went after big tech companies exploiting our kids, big drug middlemen manipulating drug prices, big government subsidizing junk food at the taxpayers' expense, lobbyists working for adversaries like China, woke faculty trying to indoctrinate our students, and the far left that wants to coddle dangerous criminal illegals and threaten our elections with petition fraud," Sanders said Wednesday.
The other side: "This session will be remembered for out-of-control spending on misguided policies, power grabs away from the people of Arkansas, and divisive national politics continuing to seep into our state," Rep. Andrew Collins (D-Little Rock) said in a news conference Wednesday.
- He acknowledged there were some bright spots in the session that came from bipartisan cooperation.
What's next: Bills are still on Sanders' desk to sign — including the general revenue budget for fiscal 2026.