2015 Arkansas Code
Title 10 - General Assembly
Chapter 3 - Committees
Subchapter 3 - Legislative Council
§ 10-3-313 - Meetings -- Agenda -- Procedures and practices.

(a) (1) The Review Subcommittee of the Legislative Council, the Administrative Rules and Regulations Subcommittee of the Legislative Council, and the Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Subcommittee of the Legislative Council shall each meet monthly on a date approximately two (2) weeks preceding the date on which regular meetings of the interim committees are held.

(2) At the meetings, the respective subcommittees shall screen the various matters required by law to be submitted to the Legislative Council by the state agencies and which have heretofore been referred to the respective subcommittees by the Legislative Council and shall determine which of such matters need further review and which are routine and need no further review or both.

(3) Those matters which the respective subcommittees determine need further review shall be referred to the respective subject matter interim committee, which committee referral shall be made by the subcommittee after taking into consideration the committee which is usually assigned such matters by the respective houses as well as the workload of the various interim committees, it being the intent to allow as much meaningful participation by the members in as many committees as possible.

(b) (1) (A) At the next regular meeting of an interim committee, all matters referred to the committee by the Legislative Council or appropriate subcommittee of the Legislative Council shall be placed on the agenda for review by the committee.

(B) When any member of the General Assembly submits any proposal or issue to the Legislative Council for legislative study or review or input, the Legislative Council shall refer the matter as follows:

(i) If the proposal states a preference on referral, the proposal shall be referred to the committee of preference unless the proposal is clearly not germane to that committee as determined by the Legislative Council;

(ii) If the proposal was initiated by the Legislative Council or by a member of the Legislative Council, the Legislative Council may appoint a subcommittee to conduct such study; and

(iii) All other proposals shall be assigned to the appropriate interim committee.

(2) Notice that such item is being placed on the meeting agenda of the interim committee may be furnished to the various state agencies involved upon direction of the cochairs of the interim committee in order that the agency may be represented at the interim committee meeting to explain the item and to answer questions in regard thereto if raised by the committee.

(3) Upon conclusion of the committee's consideration of an item, the committee or designated subcommittee thereof shall notify the state agency that it has completed its review of the item.

(4) The purpose of this subsection is to enable appropriate interim committees of the General Assembly and the various state agencies to jointly discuss the various matters referred to the respective committees in order to enable the committees to perform a legislative oversight function of keeping the General Assembly informed with respect to activities of the various agencies and to enable state agencies to receive the benefit of recommendations and comments of the respective interim committees concerning various actions or proposed actions of the agencies.

(5) The respective interim committees of the General Assembly are hereby authorized to adopt appropriate procedures and practices, including the utilization of subcommittees, to enable each committee to carry out its responsibilities under the provisions of this section.