On Wednesday, the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced HB1211 which states the Governor shall not prohibit or limit a religious organization from continuing to operate religious services during a declared emergency. The bill does not prevent the Governor from requiring religious organizations to comply with neutral health, safety, or occupancy requirements that are applicable to all organizations and businesses.
The House Rules Committee advanced SB76 which creates a permitting process for excursion trains to serve and sell alcoholic beverages.
The full House passed HB1003. This bill ensures respectful language is used in Arkansas code regarding individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing and removes from the Arkansas code the term “hearing impaired”.
The House passed HB1151 which suspends the public school rating system for the 2020-2021 school year due to the disruption to education caused by the pandemic.
The House passed HB1009 which allows a public school or an open-enrollment public charter school to distribute excess food to students for consumption on the school campus or at home.
The House passed HB1032 which allows taxpayers with military retirement benefit under $6,000 to claim a total retirement exemption up to that amount if the taxpayer has additional retirement income. The Department of Finance and Administration estimates this bill affects 700 Arkansans.
The House passed also SB115. This bill renames the College of the Ouachitas in Malvern to Arkansas State University Three Rivers in Arkansas code.
The House will reconvene on Thursday at 1 pm.