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welcome back to arkansas where we try to make sense of the issues affecting arkansans and today we're going to talk about bills at some point you've probably heard about a bill or law in arkansas that has been proposed introduced considered filed okayed sent to committee or something along those lines unfortunately these terms are often used interchangeably and may not give you a great idea of how far along a bill is or how likely it is to pass so here's a really important question if you love or hate a particular bill how do you find out more information about it how do you interpret that information and then how can you use that information to make a difference to answer this today we're going to talk about the timeline for a bill becoming a law in arkansas we'll also cover how to know where in that timeline a particular bill is and how you can use that information to get involved but before we can talk about how a bill becomes a law we have to answer a more basic question what is a bill a bill in this context is a proposed law in the arkansas general assembly which is made up of two chambers the senate and house of representatives if passed a bill becomes an act and functions as state law an act in most cases supersedes city and county level laws but is below the level of the state constitution federal laws and the u.s constitution bills aren't the only kinds of proposals that go through the general assembly though there are also things like resolutions official statements or declarations like naming a post office and joint resolutions used most commonly to propose amendments to the state constitution resolutions and joint resolutions fall under a different set of rules so for today we'll only be talking about bills the process of a bill becoming a law starts when a state legislator comes up with the idea whether that comes from themselves a lobbyist or one of the people they represent like you once your legislator knows the law they want to make or change they'll call in someone from the arkansas bureau of legislative research the blr is a non-partisan state government group which does a lot of things to help legislators including writing the actual language of the bill they're in charge of making sure the wording fits with existing laws translating what your representative wants into the correct legalese once the bill is written your representative gives it to the chief clerk of the house or the secretary of the senate whichever chamber the proposing lawmaker serves in the bill then gets a letter and number designation for example sb7 for senate bill 7 or hb1006 for house bill 6 because the house starts counting from 1001 and the legislator who proposed the bill is listed as the bill's sponsor at this point the bill is officially considered filed its information is publicly available and will be updated for each subsequent step of the process you can find this information by going to the arkansas state legislature website and searching for its letter and number designation or for key terms in the bill once you find it you'll see a history of everything that's happened to the bill with the most recent action at the top you'll also find the text of the bill who's sponsoring it any amendments any fiscal reports and the results of any votes taken so far the site also allows you to track a bill and get email updates anytime something happens to it once the bill has been filed it's added to the schedule of the chamber it was proposed in for a first reading but the first reading of the bill and the other steps of the legislative process can only happen during specific times and that's because the arkansas general assembly doesn't work year-round in fact they're only scheduled to meet for one 30-day session during even-numbered years in one 60-day session during odd-numbered years though they can call additional special sessions as something important comes up in between on top of that the even year sessions are fiscal sessions focused almost exclusively on setting the state budget not much else gets proposed or passed in those years for example in 2019 during the regular legislative session 1670 bills were proposed but during 2018 when there was both a budget session and a special session only 281 bills were proposed about a sixth as many so if you notice you're hearing about a lot of new bills being proposed around the same time it's probably the beginning of an odd numbered year session which in turn means all of those bills will pass or fail within the next 60 work days when the bill's scheduled date for its first reading arrives it's red allowed in the chamber where it was proposed the bill has to be officially read three times before there can be any final vote on it technically these readings are supposed to happen on different days but usually the rules are suspended to allow for the first and second readings to happen on the same day after that second reading the bill will be assigned to a committee committees are small groups of legislators focused on a specific area of law like public health or education here's a list of the committees from the 2021 arkansas legislative session the house and senate have separate committees for most things though there are a few joint committees once a bill is referred to a committee they'll schedule it for a hearing and then it's time for debate and discussion the sponsor of the bill will give a detailed presentation on what their bill would do including any estimated costs or revenue after hearing these arguments and looking at any impact reports the committee will debate the bill and may choose to amend it to rewrite it a bit it's also at this time that you the general public get a chance to show up at the capitol and speak out for or against the bill when the hearing is finished the committee can vote one of three ways if the majority votes do not pass the bill dies if they vote do pass or do passes amended the bill can move on to the next step if for some reason the committee votes do pass as amended but lawmakers vote down those amendments during the next step the bill is sent back to the committee to go through the whole process again once a bill makes it out of committee it heads back to the chamber it was proposed in for a third reading followed by debate and discussion legislators may also propose amendments which are each voted on individually finally the whole bill along with any amendments that passed is given a yes or no vote most bills need a simple majority 18 out of 35 in the senate or 51 out of 100 in the house but there are some things like tax increases that require a two-thirds or even three-quarters majority once a bill passes in the first chamber it heads to the second to begin again a bill that passed in the senate is transmitted to the house and one that passed in the house is transmitted to the senate and then it repeats much of the same process it starts with a scheduled first and second reading and then it'll go to committee again unless it went through a joint committee the first time and finally it's back to the chamber for debate potential amendments and a vote if any amendments have been added since the bill passed in its first chamber it has to be sent back there to be passed yet again the two chambers have to pass a bill with the exact same language and if they can't come to an agreement they'll form a joint committee to try and hammer their differences out if a bill is never officially voted down in a chamber or committee but is still stuck somewhere between first reading and final passage when the legislative session ends it fails cena d a a latin phrase meeting without a date as in there's no future date at which it will be considered again but if an identical version of a bill passes in both chambers before the end of the legislative session then that bill heads to the governor the governor has three options for what to do with a bill they could just sign it in which case it becomes a law it also becomes a law if the governor chooses to do nothing about it for more than five days but the governor can also veto or say no to the bill generally the governor has to do this with the whole bill but there's also the option to veto specific items in spending bills if the governor vetoes a bill the whole thing or just one part of it then it goes back to the legislature along with the governor's explanation for why the legislature then has the option to vote to override the veto arkansas is one of only six states where overriding a governor's veto doesn't require a super majority only a simple majority in each chamber any bill which is passed both chambers with the same language and then is signed by the governor not acted on by the governor or vetoed but passed again becomes a law and at that point it's no longer called a bill but is instead called an act and given a number designation the act usually takes effect 90 days after the end of the legislative session in which it was approved though some bills include language which makes them take effect sooner except there may be one last set of hurdles once a bill is an act there are generally three ways for it to be overturned one of course is another bill or a change in a higher level law which renders it no longer effective the second way is a veto referendum during the 90 days following a legislative session arkansas citizens can put together a petition to overturn any act if they're able to gather enough signatures then the act goes on hold until the next statewide election when all of arkansas can vote on whether to overturn it finally an act may be overturned in court especially if it's ruled to be in violation of the state constitution federal law or the u.s constitution the interpretation of whether there's a conflict is up to the courts so when those courts change members state legislatures might try to pass a law similar to one previously struck down hoping to get a different ruling this time meanwhile it's up to a judge whether the law can still be enforced while it's being challenged so now you know how a bill becomes a law in arkansas with all the ways it's possible for a bill to fail it's easy to assume there'd be a decent rate of failure but that's not the case here's a chart of how many bills were proposed and how many became acts in arkansas in the odd year sessions between 1987 and 2019. as you can see each odd year around 1500 to 3 000 bills are filed and as a rough average about 60 percent of those become law this is a relatively high rate of passage compared to other states though there's not a single explanation for why it's likely helped by the fact that one party has consistently been in control of both legislative chambers democrats from 1874 to 2011 and republicans since then through at least 2022. finally let's talk about when and how you can get involved in this process as we said earlier the odd years only legislative session lasts for 60 working days minus breaks that usually works out to about three and a half months and fiscal and special sessions are even shorter plus it's not like bills all have their first readings at the beginning of the session and their final votes at the end to get through over a thousand bills in under four months they have to be introduced throughout the session and each one moves at its own pace some taking a few months while others are done in just a couple of weeks and the further along in the process the bill is the fewer people remain who will likely be able to vote on or influence it waiting even a week after you hear about a bill could severely cut down on your options as to who you can contact so if a bill is far enough that it's in the news or being talked about online either it's too late or the time to do something is now so what can you do if you're able to go to the capitol to speak at one of the public committee hearings that's fantastic and might be the most effective thing you could do but that's out of the question for a lot of people especially since committees can announce scheduled meetings as few as 18 hours in advance but which committee the bill is going to is announced days or weeks in advance and listed on the bill's official page and those committees list their members online along with their contact info so any time after the bill has been assigned to a committee you can call or email them and if the bill is still in its early stages remember it's not just going to one committee it'll have to head to the second chambers version of that committee too so that's another group of people you can contact and then there are the two people who should always be your go-to contacts when you want something done at the state level your two representatives you have one member of each chamber whose entire job is representing you and some of your nearest neighbors if you don't know who they are head to openstates.org put in your address and it will show you which legislative districts you're in you can also check sos.arkansas.gov for a map of all the districts and both sites will link you to your representatives official websites which will have their phone number and email addresses you might think your opinion is unlikely to make a difference but frankly that's more true of your representatives in congress generally speaking state government officials don't hear from constituents nearly as often as federal ones do so they're more likely to take the time to listen and don't stop yourself from saying something just because you're afraid you don't have the right words most people never contact their representatives so by saying anything at all you've increased your chances to make a difference exponentially and while you're talking to them maybe you've got an idea for a piece of legislature you'd like them to try and pass after all every one of those thousands of proposed bills has to start with an idea from someone it might as well be you and that's it thanks so much for watching if you enjoyed this video please like and subscribe so you can join us on more explorations of arkansas politics and history and if you want to help us create more videos like this consider donating to arkansas on patreon patreon is the easiest way to support content makers in a way that works for your budget you decide how much you want to give each month and you can change that amount at any time and bigger donations get bigger perks including picking a topic for an upcoming episode and speaking of perks thanks to patrons zach green alan archer blake hultz jason sanders jordan little and zack clark as well as everyone on screen right now for making this video happen thanks again and see you next time for more arkansas