Arkansas Legislature

Aug 5

Written By A R

What do they do that

matters to my everyday life?

The legislature meets in full session for several months every other year.

In 2021, a full-session year, they passed

more than 1,100 laws.

Legislators decide where your tax dollars go.

They distribute tax revenue to our state agencies for tourism, education, the environment, and more.

Many laws have direct impacts, large and small, on our everyday lives, affecting some people more than others.

For example, this year, the legislature passed laws that:

■  Regulated the operation of bicycles and cars 
■  Created a commission to ensure that public schools comply with the American with Disabilities Act 
■  Modified the rules by which the government can seize an abandoned property 
■  Allowed telemedicine for medical marijuana consultations  
■  Relaxed rules on selling homemade food products
■  Made available free mammograms and prostate screenings for incarcerated individuals  
■  Required training for public safety officers on how to respond appropriately to individuals experiencing mental illness or who are behaving aggressively 

Major legislation this session included:

▬ Education: K-12 public education got a large funding increase, which includes teacher raises 
▬ Gun violence: Existing “Stand Your Ground” law was broadened, making it legal for someone to shoot someone if they think they are a threat, rather than requiring that they simply safely retreat. 

This new law is likely to lead to increased gun violence and homicides, especially among people of color. Testimony against the bill by people of color was ignored.
▬ Health care: 

    🞇 New laws outlaw abortions in all cases except to save the life of the mother.

    🞇 New law makes it a crime for healthcare providers to give gender-affirming care to trans youth, interfering with personal medication decision-making between doctor and patient.
▬ Voting: A new law will shorten the absentee ballot deadline by four days, making voting harder. A number of other laws are criticized for making it easier for partisan politicians to interfere with election outcomes. 
▬ Immigration: A bi-partisan bill passed allowing DACA teachers to become licensed in Arkansas. This will provide our schools with more qualified teachers.

There was no significant legislation passed in 2021 in these critical areas:

COVID recovery
Jobs and individual income growth
Safer housing (renter protections)

The issues that Arkansans say matter are:

■  Affordable healthcare 
■  Living wages for anyone who wants a job 
■  Safe schools 
■  Reduced gun violence 
■  Easy voting where you know your ballot will be counted 
■  The ability for Arkansans living with disabilities to lead full lives 
■  Equality and safety for Arkansans who are LGBTQIA+ 
■  Good quality education for every child  
■  A clean and healthy environment 
■  A community where people don’t go hungry or homeless 

What our state legislators think about the

role of government in people’s lives,

the needs of our state, &

who they serve,

will be reflected in how they vote

and which issues they

choose to ignore.

An important part of the Indivisible mission is to educate voters about how their lawmakers represented them and their interests.

Voter education enables us to support lawmakers who care about what matters.

Who are my state lawmakers?

To find out your representatives in the Arkansas Senate and House of Representatives, go to the websites https://senate.arkansas.gov and https://www.arkansashouse.org/learn/district-map.

Enter your address information in the search box on each site.

How do I find out what my state lawmakers stand for and how they vote?

To learn about your representatives, here are a few tips from Indivisible National that can be applied to state politics:

▬ Find your state legislators, their official websites, and their office contact info.

▬ Review your lawmakers’ voting history.

Go to the current legislative session to read up on all the bills that passed and how each legislator voted.

▬ Research your reps’ biggest campaign contributors.

▬ Sign up on your legislators’ websites and social media platforms to receive updates and invitations to local events and to understand their viewpoints and policy positions.

Every legislator has an e-newsletter.