House Management Committee

January 10, 2023

Rep Wing: Welcome to House Management Committee. We’re going to welcome all of our members. Because of the time with regards to the inauguration going on, we’ll introduce everybody at our next meeting. So we’ll just go ahead and jump right into item A on the agenda. And we’d like to recognize Representative RJ Hawk.

Rep Hawk: Members of the House, the resolution that’s before you right now is to recognize the 7A state football champion, the Bryant Hornets, who set a state record in consecutive state championship games. This is something that’s never been done. And I want to thank Chairman Wing because Bryant had to beat his team to get to this point. And so we’re going to honor the entire football team in both the House and the Senate if this passes through. So I would appreciate you guys allowing this to go. Thank you.

Rep Wing: Any questions from the committee? Representative Richardson, you’re recognized.

Rep Richardson: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Whose record did they beat?

Rep Hawk: I believe it was the Little Rock Central had it, and Barton, and then Pulaski Academy also. They had four in a row. So Bryant, in modern time, Bryant’s the only team to do it. Central was the last team to get four, and Pulaski Academy as well.

Rep Wing: How many times did you beat North Little Rock in that run of five?

Rep Hawk: All five years.

Rep Wing: All five years?

Rep Hawk: Yeah.

Rep Wing: You beat North Little Rock all five years?

Rep Hawk: Mm-hmm.

Rep Wing: Did North Little Rock ever beat Bryant?

Rep Hawk: Not in the last five years.

Rep Wing: Oh, they did. They–

Rep Hawk: Not in the last five years.

Rep Wing: Six years ago. Six years ago.

Rep Hawk: Six years ago, they did. Yes, they did. And so, yes. And I do want to say there’s going to be– I haven’t gotten to it, I was going to do it this afternoon because I didn’t realize it was going to be on the committee, Representative Brooks is also going to be on this at a later date. But he just informed me today that he would like to be on the resolution as he is a former representative for Bryant.

Rep Wing: All right. Sounds good. Any other questions from the committee? What’s the will of the committee? Got a motion? Do pass? All in favor say aye. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. Congratulations, Representative Hawk. Regrettably, from the words of the North Little Rock Charging Wildcats, your resolution has passed. All right. All right. We’d now like to recognize our parliamentarian, Buddy Johnson. He’s going to go over some things that will be coming up, I believe, tomorrow with regards to our House appropriations.

Parliamentarian: Thank you, Mister Chairman, and members of the committee. Congratulations on your appointment to this committee. This is my favorite committee. No doubt about it. One of your duties is to oversee the operations of the House of Representatives. And we, in doing that, there are two appropriation bills that you will be involved in. One is our session appropriation bill. It will be on the House floor calendar tomorrow. And for your information, it’s the same amount as it has been since 2017. Excuse me. And in 2017, it was actually reduced from what it had been previous to that. The greatest draw on that appropriation is member per diem and mileage for coming to the session. It also includes funding for maintenance and operations, supplies, and for temporary employees. So that’s our first appropriation bill in the House. The full House will consider that tomorrow.

Parliamentarian: Our second bill is our operations bill. It is the appropriation that funds our staff positions, primarily. And it is in development. It will be finalized soon, and I will come back before the committee soon to present that to you for your consideration. And at that time, I’ll explain to you the nuances of it. The Speaker has been very dutiful in years past to methodically cut the appropriation amount. I don’t think he will do that this go around, but he’s been very consistent about cutting it in his previous fiscal years. So again, stay tuned for that. And I don’t expect anything substantially different in it compared to years past, but we always tweak it a little bit to adjust for staff positions and the like. So thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Rep Wing: Any questions from the committee? Representative Richardson, you’re recognize.

Rep Richardson: How much is the appropriation that’s coming to the floor tomorrow?

Parliamentarian: It is, I think, $1.9 million.

Rep Richardson: And that’s been consistent over the last couple of years?

Parliamentarian: In 2017, the amount of that was lowered–

Rep Richardson: The $1.9.

Parliamentarian: –to the amount that it continues to be today. And that, I think it was lowered at that time to in recognition of reduced– well, we looked at the numbers and realized we didn’t need as much in it as we had, beginning in 2017.

Rep Richardson: Will we get a copy of the appropriations that’s going to the floor–

Rep Wing: Absolutely.

Rep Richardson: –before the floor?

Rep Wing: We can do that.

Rep Richardson: Okay.

Parliamentarian: It’s House Bill 1001. And that, traditionally, it goes straight to the calendar when we read it. And we read it twice yesterday, and put it straight to the calendar. But the operations bill will come through the committee.

Rep Wing: Good deal. Yeah, the current appropriation bill, the one that I believe will be tomorrow, is $1.975. And that was down. In 2015, it was about $2.1 and change. And so it was cut down to $1.975, and we’ve held that for ’17, ’19, and ’21. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you very much for that presentation and that information.

Parliamentarian: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Rep Wing: All right. Thank you. Seeing no other business, we are adjourned.