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Arkansas’ 95th General Assembly began Monday afternoon with the swearing-in of new and returning lawmakers, including new House Speaker Brian Evans, R-Cabot.
Evans overwhelmingly won the chamber’s vote for the speakership in May 2024 and was elected to a fourth House term in November. He took the oath of office as speaker after he and his colleagues all took the oath as state representatives, led by Supreme Court Associate Justice Shawn Womack.
“Twenty-six years ago, as a 26-year-old freshman representative, I stood right over there and took this same oath,” said Womack, who served in the Legislature from 1999 to 2009.
He added that it was “an honor” to administer the oath; Supreme Court Chief Justice Karen Baker swore in the Senate.
In a nearly 15-minute speech on the House floor marking the start of his speakership, Evans said “sacrifice over self” should be one of lawmakers’ primary goals.
“I ask you to join me in … a service where we won’t be seeking a headline, a service where we praise those who make a sacrifice on our behalf and the benefit of the constituents,” Evans said.
Republicans have a supermajority in both chambers, with 81 House seats to Democrats’ 19 and 29 Senate seats to Democrats’ six.
On Monday, returning Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, a Republican from Cave Springs, welcomed his fellow veteran lawmakers and one new senator with a reflective and forward-looking speech.
Hester noted Arkansas’ $3 billion budget surplus, recent efforts to lower income taxes, the state’s strong support of the Second Amendment and commitment to education and election integrity. He also highlighted past policies that prioritized public safety, from an overhaul of the prison system with the Protect Act to faster turn-around times on DNA testing kits for sexual assault.
“Over the 95th General Assembly, we’ve still got plenty of work to do,” Hester said. “Leaders like [Sens.] Josh Bryant and Missy Irvin will push Arkansas to be a national leader in protecting victims of human trafficking, while sending a stiff message to the traffickers that we’re going to find you and we’re going to deliver the harshest penalties in the country.”
Bryant is the lead sponsor of a bill that proposes to offer a free lifetime hunting and fishing license to commercial truck drivers who provide certain information related to human trafficking.
State of the State
Lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and the Senate will convene together Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. to hear from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders as she delivers the State of the State address.
Hester said he hasn’t discussed the speech with the governor, but he expects Tuesday to be consistent with previous addresses.
“If she’s anything, she is consistent,” Hester said. “I think she will talk about accountability with people that are receiving taxpayers’ dollars, if that’s through Medicaid or education. She wants results and accountability. She’s always got a few surprises in there; I don’t want to know, because I don’t want to be the person ruining the surprise.”
During a press conference, Evans said he expects Sanders to mention in her speech that Arkansas has restructured its tax system over the past few years, most recently in June 2024. He also said maternal health and higher education should feature in the address.
“She has been very clear that she intends to be the education governor and Arkansas is the education state, so with the paramount work that we did in the 94th [General Assembly] with the LEARNS Act addressing education in K-12, I think now that work is going to shift into higher education,” said Evans, who chaired the House Education Committee from 2023 to 2024 and spent 10 years on the Cabot school board before being elected to the House.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, will chair the Senate Education Committee. He is sponsoring a bill to eliminate required minority recruitment and retention plans and reports from public school districts and higher education institutions.
Education and public safety were the main themes of Sanders’ 2024 State of the State. Sanders has named higher education policy as a priority for the 2025 session but has not shared details.
The House
The LEARNS Act was Sanders’ signature legislation during the 2023 regular legislative session. The wide-ranging law changed many aspects of the public education system, including raising teachers’ minimum annual salary to $50,000, creating a school voucher program, requiring literacy screenings for third-graders and repealing the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act.
Rep. Keith Brooks, R-Little Rock, co-sponsored the LEARNS Act and is the new chairman of the House Education Committee. His priorities as chairman include “a clear student focus” on the continued implementation of LEARNS, he said in an interview.
House leadership
In the House, the speaker is elected by a majority of the 100 members to conduct the business of the chamber in an orderly fashion, certify all measures that pass the House and assign committee leadership positions.
Rep. Brian Evans, R-Cabot, won 91 votes from his colleagues last year to succeed Rep. Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, who was speaker for three legislative terms, or six years. Evans was first elected to the House in 2018.
The House has a speaker pro tempore, a Latin term meaning “for the time being,” to oversee the chamber when the speaker is unavailable. Four members are on standby as assistant speakers pro tempore.
The speaker is fourth in the line of succession if the governor is unable to serve, behind the lieutenant governor and the Senate president pro tempore.
Freshman Democratic Rep. Jessie McGruder of Marion has a background in education and will serve on the House Education Committee. He said the Legislature should reinstate the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act, which a Democrat-led bill has already proposed.
“I’ve got to figure out how to learn as much as I can as quick as I can up here so I can get something done,” McGruder said in an interview.
Evans said he also expects maternal health care to be a focus of both Sanders’ speech and the legislative session at large. Maternal health has become a bipartisan concern for elected officials due to Arkansas’ consistently high rates of maternal and infant mortality.
Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Andrew Collins of Little Rock, have introduced a wide range of bills that would repeal some Republican-led 2023 laws. The party’s priorities are maternal health, education, mental health and helping the public participate in democracy.
Sanders’ and Republicans’ priorities include a plan to build a 3,000-bed prison on 815 acres the state purchased in Franklin County, where community members have expressed frustration about the plan. The Legislature has set aside $330 million for the prison project, with another $75 million in reserves.
“I think we’re going to see that project move forward, but I don’t think it will come without some great debate in committee as we continue to work on the funding for that,” Evans said.
He added that while the Legislature values transparency with the public, it is incumbent on Arkansans to do their part to engage with the lawmaking process.
“Their first contact with [their representatives] should not be in a moment of crisis,” Evans said. “There should be some relationship-building, and that just helps the whole process of communication.”
Evans chose Rep. Carlton Wing, R-North Little Rock, as speaker pro tempore. In an interview, Wing called the appointment “an incredible honor” and agreed with Evans that the Legislature owes transparency to the public.
“In this day and age, it’s very easy for a lot of folks to have concerns about this self-government concept that we have, so we want to bring the government to the people and give them confidence that their representatives truly have their best interests at heart,” Wing said.
The House’s four assistant speakers pro tempore are Rep. Dwight Tosh, R-Jonesboro; Rep. Kendra Moore, R-Lincoln; Rep. Les Warren, R-Hot Springs; and Rep. Fred Allen, D-Little Rock.
Rep. Howard Beaty, R-Crossett, is the House Majority Leader. Rep. Stetson Painter, R-Mountain Home, is the majority whip, while Rep. Denise Garner, D-Fayetteville, is the minority whip.
The whip leaders are primarily responsible for counting heads and rounding up members for votes. They will occasionally stand in for the majority or minority leaders when they are absent.
The Senate
After the Senate adjourned, Hester said his statewide priorities include finding consistent funding for water and sewer infrastructure projects and working on establishing incentives for affordable housing.
“I think we get there by supply and demand,” Hester said of affordable housing. “The more supply, prices will come down. That’s an economic fact. We just have to create a bigger supply of all housing.”
When asked where the biggest debates may occur this session, Hester named higher education and the budget. Sanders’ proposed fiscal year 2026 budget totals $6.49 billion and raises spending by 2.89%.
“At the end of the day, there’s a lot of people going to be asking questions — wanting funding, increased funding,” Hester said. “…I don’t know of any hot button issues that are coming up.”
Sen. Greg Leding, a Democrat, said afterward that he was especially interested in the session’s imminent higher education bills. Fayetteville, which Leding represents, houses Arkansas’ largest state-funded institution, the University of Arkansas.
Leding is also the Senate’s minority leader.
“As for the Democratic caucus, we’re going to do what we’ve always done: Work to make Arkansas fairer and brighter for all Arkansans, protect public education, strengthen public education [and] strengthen access to health care,” he said.
Operating with a minority means Democrats can’t pass bills on their own.
“We know we’re going to work together, as Democrats we know we have to, but we also want to work across the aisle,” Leding said. “Same with Gov. Sanders, where there are things that we can support, we’ll absolutely do so. But we’ll also be sure to call out things that we don’t think are good for Arkansans.”
Leding said though he anticipates higher education and public safety to be the biggest issues lawmakers discuss this legislative session, “it always seems like there’s at least one giant surprise that catches the Legislature off guard while we’re down here, and who knows what that might be.”
While the numbers of the party ratio didn’t change in the Senate, one new face joined the crowd. Former Rep. Jamie Scott, D-North Little Rock, will represent District 12, which was previously held by Sen. Linda Chesterfield.
Scott served three terms in the House from 2019 to 2023. She is the youngest African-American woman to be elected to either body.
“I’m excited to continue to build upon the success of Sen. Chesterfield and my mentor, [former Sen.] Joyce Elliott,” Scott said in an interview after the Senate adjourned Monday. “I’m proud of the work that I accomplished [in the House] fighting for youth, whether it was in the juvenile detention centers or foster or homeless students.”
Now 42, Scott said she plans to continue to be a staunch, fearless advocate.
“I know that I’m prepared to do this work,” Scott said. “I have a heart for the people, and I’m always someone who is willing to work with people who don’t agree with me. … I’ll be praying a lot. I pray a lot anyway. I’m excited for the opportunity to represent people up here at the state Capitol, especially people who feel like they don’t have a voice, the most vulnerable populations.”
Hester said that while he may disagree with Scott on a lot of policy, he thinks Arkansans are electing representatives who work well with each other, which he said is good for the state.
“It was so interesting today — our galleries were all full of her people,” Hester said. “We know that she’s a dynamic personality. People really like her. If you’ve been around her much, you have to enjoy spending time with her.”
Leding said he was thrilled to have Scott on board and he looks forward to the months ahead.
Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning, was named majority leader. Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville, is the majority whip, and Sen. Fredrick Love, D-Mabelvale, is the minority whip.
Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. This article was published with permission from the Arkansas Advocate. Contact Editor Andrew DeMillo for questions: [email protected]. Follow Arkansas Advocate on Facebook and Twitter.
