Latest news with #KimHammer
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Two federal lawsuits challenge Arkansas anti-PBM law
Rep. Jeremiah Moore (right), R-Clarendon, and Sen. Kim Hammer (second from right). R-Benton, listen to opposition to House Bill 1150 from Randy Zook, president of the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, during the Senate Committee on Insurance and Commerce meeting on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) Two federal lawsuits filed Thursday argue that a new state law will harm hundreds of thousands of Arkansans by affecting access to needed medications. Two of the country's largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) filed the complaints in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, both arguing that Act 624 of 2025 violates the U.S. Constitution by interfering with interstate commerce. The suits also allege that federal law preempts state laws that affect employee health plans and Medicare coverage. The suits filed by Express Scripts Inc. and CVS Pharmacy Inc. name the eight members of the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy and its executive director as defendants. The new law empowers the pharmacy board to enforce its provisions. Both complaints ask the court to bar enforcement of the law as well as declare it unconstitutional. Act 624 'imperils the health' of 50,000 Arkansans who rely on Express Scripts for pharmacy benefits through their health insurance, the PBM's complaint says. The General Assembly created the law 'for the exclusive benefit of Arkansas-based pharmacies who spearheaded the legislation in order to increase their market share by eliminating out-of-state competition,' the complaint states. Health insurer Cigna owns Express Scripts; CVS Pharmacy owns the PBM Caremark Rx. Together with OptumRx, owned by United Healthcare, the PBMs manage 79% of prescription drug claims for approximately 270 million people, according to a 2024 Federal Trade Commission report. Arkansas became the first state in the nation to ban large, vertically integrated healthcare companies from also operating drugstores in the state when Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed House Bill 1150 into law in mid-April. The law doesn't take effect until January 2026. 'If left to stand, the law will have devastating consequences across Arkansas — including forcing numerous pharmacies operating in the state out of business, costing the more than 600 Arkansans employed at those pharmacies their jobs, and creating pharmacy 'deserts' for the nearly 40% of Arkansans who live in rural areas that often lack brick-and-mortar pharmacies,' Express Scripts asserts in its complaint. 'The law will also dangerously limit patient choice and deny access to lifesaving drugs at affordable prices by high-quality pharmacy providers. And it will create mass confusion among Arkansans about where and how they can receive needed prescription medications,' the suit adds. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In its complaint, CVS says that if the law takes effect on Jan. 1, the company 'will have to cease not only its operations at 23 CVS retail pharmacies across the State, but also its mail-order and specialty-pharmacy services. Indeed, the law will likely shut down a substantial portion of all mail-order and specialty-pharmacy prescriptions flowing into the State because the majority of such providers are out-of-state pharmacies with PBM affiliations.' The complaint notes that CVS's 23 pharmacies served more than 340,000 patients and filled over 2.4 million prescriptions in 2024. Complying with the law will impose undue burdens on CVS because of the intricacies of its corporate structure, the complaint says. CVS further claims the law already has begun affecting its business, as it has lost patients to in-state competitors and it's become harder to attract and retain employees in Arkansas. The CVS complaint calls Act 624 'a blatantly protectionist measure,' a characterization echoed in Express Script's argument for a court-ordered injunction: 'Because Act 624 is unconstitutionally protectionist, unconstitutionally punitive, and preempted by federal law, enforcement of the statute must be enjoined.' Both lawsuits argue that the Arkansas law violates various commerce provisions of the Constitution, and CVS argues that it violates the equal protection clause by banning CVS and most other PBM-affiliated pharmacies from Arkansas while exempting 'the only Arkansas-based pharmacy affiliated with a PBM [Walmart], without a rational justification for this distinction.' Express Script's complaint also notes that Act 624 will adversely affect members of the military, their families and veterans because the PBM is the primary mail-order pharmacy provider for Tricare, the military's health insurance program. The law allows the state pharmacy board to issue limited permits to PBMs if they provide 'drugs that are otherwise unavailable in the market to a patient or a pharmacy that would otherwise be prohibited' under the law. Republican Sen. Kim Hammer of Benton, the law's co-sponsor, told the Senate this will allow Tricare beneficiaries to continue receiving medications while PBMs transition out of Arkansas. Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement that 'Arkansas is standing up to PBMs on behalf of consumers' via Act 624 and vowed to defend the law. 'Pharmacy benefit managers wield outsized power to reap massive profits at the expense of consumers. The rise of PBMs as middlemen in the prescription drug market has resulted in patients facing fewer choices, lower quality care, and higher prices. PBMs leverage their affiliated pharmacies to manipulate prices, corrupt the market, and destroy competition,' Griffin said, echoing many of the talking points of the law's proponents as it made its way through the Legislature. Shortly before Act 624 became law, Griffin was the lead signatory of a bipartisan letter to Congress from attorneys general in 39 states and territories, advocating for the policy in Act 624 to be enacted federally. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Pernicious and unnecessary' laws make life harder for ordinary Arkansans
Arkansans protest several bills introduced by Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, that would change the citizen-led ballot initiative process Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, at the Arkansas Capitol. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) Over the course of the recently concluded session of the Arkansas Legislature, the media have reported in bits and pieces on various measures passed by lawmakers that infringe on Arkansans' rights, target marginalized groups, erode the wall of separation between church and state, limit free speech and squash democratic participation, usually with the stated purpose of solving 'problems' that only exist in the minds of Republican legislators. But if we stop and take a moment to look back on their collective handiwork over the last five months, the destructive scope of these pernicious laws — and the expensive litigation they're likely to trigger — becomes breathtakingly clear. Elementary school librarians face possible suspension of their teaching licenses if they don't lock away books about 'sexual ideology,' which is not defined but will almost certainly be aimed at books with LGBTQ themes. Schools will be left to figure out how to comply. Doctors who provide gender-affirming care to transgender patients could open themselves up to malpractice suits unless they read their patients a lengthy screed about their care that contains information that's untrue, misleading, or merely misguided opinion sprung from the fevered imagination of Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, who has made targeting transgender Arkansans her pet cause. The process for collecting signatures for ballot initiatives will now be so cumbersome, convoluted and arduous that direct democracy — a cherished constitutional guarantee in a state whose motto is 'The People Rule' — could be a dead letter for grassroots groups without deep pockets. Voters who choose to vote by absentee ballot because they find it more convenient will now have to find a witness to sign their ballot paperwork, impacting minority, disabled and elderly voters in a state that already has tragically high rates of ballot rejection — but almost no voter fraud. Schools and public buildings will have to display a mostly Protestant version of the 10 Commandments, a practice the U.S. Supreme Court forbade 45 years ago. And discrimination against LGBTQ people will be protected by state law if done on religious grounds, including refusing to place kids in adoptive homes with LGBTQ parents. The state plans to start suffocating death row inmates with nitrogen gas, an experimental execution method that's cruel and unusual, and will trigger years of litigation. And noncitizens without legal documentation who commit crimes will face harsher criminal penalties than citizens, up to 20 more years in prison with no chance for parole. Never mind that, like U.S. citizens, noncitizens are protected by the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. As you might expect, this tsunami of ill-conceived nonsense is keeping folks at the Arkansas ACLU busy — sorting through which of these new laws are likely to cause the most immediate harm, working with prospective clients, and preparing litigation to counter unwise and unconstitutional laws that state taxpayers will pay to defend. 'Some people ask us what we do to relax and refresh at the end of the session, and I say, 'File lawsuits,'' jokes Holly Dickson, the ACLU's executive director, who likens dealing with legislators on civil liberties issues to 'trying to do ballet across quicksand.' Dickson would not comment on when, or over what, the ACLU might sue, other than to say that 'we'll announce any litigation when it's filed.' But the Arkansas League of Women Voters has already filed a federal lawsuit to strike down the new restrictions on citizen-led ballot initiatives, calling them an unconstitutional restraint on core political speech. Some of the baloney Arkansas legislators offered up to feed their base this year may have limited effect because it's impractical, illogical or will be quickly laughed out of federal court. For instance, even a cursory reading of the 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision Stone vs. Graham that forbade posting of the 10 Commandments in public schools — or the scathing decision by a federal judge in Louisiana last November invalidating a similar 10 Commandments law — would have shown legislators that this bill would lead directly to a spanking in federal court. Yet, all but two Republican legislators plunged ahead, because, as Dickson puts it, 'they know that voting against the 10 Commandments is going to affect their reelection.' Likewise, the law that prevents the state from taking action against employers who discriminate against transgender people for religious reasons runs straight into a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision — penned by that well-known radical leftist Justice Neil Gorsuch — that the Civil Rights Act precludes employment discrimination based on gender identity. Another new law allowing people to sue if they — gasp — encounter transgender people in a restroom or changing area in a public facility may be difficult to use because, thankfully, legislators didn't authorize the genitalia inspections necessary to establish someone's gender identity in a court of law. The law expanding malpractice suits against doctors providing gender-affirming care was clearly designed to intimidate them into not treating their patients. Rather than forcing them to give their patients inaccurate information — problematic on First Amendment grounds — it merely entices them to do so by providing a 'safe harbor' against lawsuits if they comply. But Arkansas doctors who provide this care have largely stood up to that pressure by ignoring the 'safe harbor' provision in a similar law passed in 2023 targeting gender transition. 'The game of chicken doesn't really play well with people who aren't chicken,' Dickson said. Unfortunately, legal challenges take time, and some of these ineffectual laws may be hard to challenge because until someone can demonstrate actual harm, it could be difficult to get cases into court. In addition, so-called facial constitutional challenges, which seek to block laws before they go into effect, also have a high bar — made higher by the Arkansas Supreme Court's recent supineness in standing up to legislative excess as well as a new law that takes original jurisdiction in these cases away from judges in Pulaski County Circuit Court, who have been willing to say no to legislators. Perhaps the most disheartening thing about all of this is how unnecessary it is. None of this sound and fury does anything to make the day-to-day lives of ordinary Arkansans easier or better; indeed, it wastes money on litigation that could be better spent on things that would. And what we've seen over the past five months also plays fast and loose with the oath every legislator took when they were sworn into office: 'I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Arkansas, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of upon which I am now about to enter.'
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Arkansas afterschool programming appropriation targets DEI policies
Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, asks a question about House Bill 1489 on the Senate floor Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) Youth organizations that promote diversity initiatives would be prohibited from receiving state grants under an appropriation bill approved by a legislative subcommittee Tuesday. Senate Bill 362 states that grant money will not be awarded to an organization that 'compels' a person to subscribe to an idea 'in violation of Title IV and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.' This would include any requirement that an individual is 'inherently superior or inferior' depending on their race, sex, age, religion, national origin, or 'other characteristic protected by federal or state law.' Bill sponsor Sen. Kim Hammer, a Benton Republican, said during the Joint Budget Committee's Special Language subcommittee meeting that it was important the grant funding goes to groups 'that align with the educational goals of the governor and General Assembly.' 'Some of this language is borrowed … out of Senator Petty's bill, because I think it's good language that kinda identifies that we want youth organizations that are meeting in the afterschool setting to align with the educational goals of the state of Arkansas with any of the programs that they may initiate,' Hammer said. The bill also lifts some language from the LEARNS Act of 2023, Hammer said, as far as 'what's allowable.' Nonprofits affiliated with a broader, national organization that wish to receive youth organization funds must submit a memorandum of understanding signed by both that acknowledges the state-level organization intends to comply with the law's provisions prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Legislators both in Arkansas and across the country have taken aim at DEI in public education in recent years. In a Joint Performance Review Committee meeting in 2023, Hammer questioned representatives of Arkansas Boys and Girls Club affiliates about the national organization's directives on the use of pronouns and other DEI issues. 'The Boys and Girls Club has a longstanding tradition of being built on traditional values. We'd hate to see that lost to any 'wokeism,'' he said in that meeting. The LEARNS Act, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' signature education law, prohibited 'indoctrination' by the Arkansas Department of Education or state public schools, while explicitly stating that the law did not ban the discussion of the ideas and history of the ideas otherwise banned or public policy issues that some might find disagreeable or offensive. SB 362 would appropriate $4 million for youth organizations. Appropriation measures specify funding amounts but no money becomes available until approved by the Legislature through the Revenue Stabilization Act. Only 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) organizations that have operated for at least five years, with 'a record of financial stability,' can qualify for the grants, according to the bill. Those operating for less than five years can still qualify for the grants if they provide a financial plan and are in good standing with the Arkansas Secretary of State's office. Regular afterschool programming and educational activities in specific categories would also be needed to qualify an organization for the grant funding; an organization would need to provide programming for four days a week, with a total of 12 hours, during the school year. The organization would need to provide regular programming in two out of five categories to qualify for the grants as well: STEM (science, technology, engineering and math); academic support; goal setting and leadership activities; career exposure and workforce readiness; and community service opportunities. The bill was accepted by the subcommittee with no audible dissents, and will go to the Joint Budget Committee next. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Arkansas panel again rejects investigative powers for Secretary of State over initiative petitions
Four Republican members of the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs listen to discussion on Thursday, February 27, 2025. From left: committee chairman Sen. Scott Flippo of Bull Shoals, Sen. Kim Hammer of Benton, vice chairman Sen. John Payton of Wilburn and Sen. Alan Clark of Lonsdale. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) An Arkansas Senate committee again rejected a proposal to create an enforcement agency within the secretary of state's office that could investigate the validity of submitted documents related to elections and ballot initiatives. Senate Bill 212 previously failed in the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Feb. 11. Bill sponsor Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, amended the bill and presented it to the committee again Thursday. Hammer announced in January that he will run next year for Secretary of State, the office that oversees elections. The proposed 'Document Validity Division' in SB 212 would have the power to 'investigate documents and activities related to the validity and truthfulness' of petitions signed by registered voters in support of proposed ballot measures. 'A document determined by the division to contain fraud or falsity by a preponderance of the evidence shall be declared null and void for any legal purpose overseen by the Secretary of State,' the bill states. The division would have subpoena power, and an amendment Hammer added to the bill this week would allow the agency to seek a court order to enforce a subpoena if the recipient fails to comply. Hammer told the committee that allowing the secretary of state's office to collect evidence and build a case against alleged petition fraud would relieve law enforcement officers and prosecuting attorneys of their investigatory responsibilities in these cases. '[Secretary of State employees] are the ones who are involved in the election integrity process,' Hammer said. '…We're not turning them loose. We're giving them the ability to investigate.' Arkansas Senate advances two stalled bills that would change citizen-led ballot initiative process Despite the use of the term 'law enforcement' in the bill, Secretary of State employees would not be certified law enforcement officers and therefore would not be required to adhere to the state's official law enforcement standards, said Nathan Lee, deputy secretary of state and the office's chief legal counsel. Hammer is sponsoring several other bills that would alter Arkansas' ballot initiative petition process and has said the legislation would deter fraudulent behavior. Opponents of the bills have called them a threat to the public's right to change laws and the state Constitution. Arkansas is one of 24 states that allows direct democracy, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. SB 212 again failed to garner five votes from the eight-member committee. Sen. Clarke Tucker of Little Rock, the committee's only Democrat, continued to oppose the bill, as did committee vice chair Sen. John Payton, R-Wilburn. 'I believe in a rigorous investigation of any wrongdoing when it comes to this petitioning process,' Payton said. 'I believe it should be prosecuted and it should be investigated, but I also believe that our [nation's] founders were very concerned with separation of powers… I believe that giving every agency police powers is a violation of the principle that we would have separation of powers.' Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, voted for SB 212 on Feb. 11 but joined Payton and Tucker in voting against it Thursday. Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, voted against the bill Feb. 11 and was absent Thursday. Hammer and the remaining three committee members voted for the bill, including Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, who was absent Feb. 11. These kinds of obstructionist laws imply that some of you simply do not trust the people of Arkansas. – Davis Hendricks, one of six speakers against Senate Bill 212 Six members of the public spoke against SB 212, with several saying the bill lacked due process for petition signers whose signatures might be discarded by the Secretary of State. 'This particular bill increases barriers to voting, targets vulnerable populations, raises privacy and civil rights concerns and contradicts values that I represent as a social worker,' Kellie Fugere said. Fugere described herself as politically liberal. Other witnesses described themselves as conservative, including Lorri Justice, a constituent of Hammer's and a former Republican candidate for the Pulaski County Quorum Court. Justice said she opposed 'weaponizing state agencies' against the public and believed SB 212 would do this. 'We have President [Donald] Trump slashing our federal government, but we're building our government and making it bigger here in the state, and I don't like that,' Justice said, referring to recent firings of federal employees. Joey McCutchen and Jimmie Cavin, both conservative advocates for government transparency, also said they opposed expanding state government via SB 212. McCutchen called the proposal 'Orwellian' and 'authoritarian.' Cavin said he opposed giving the Secretary of State 'the sole discretion' of disqualifying petition signatures 'based on an opinion,' which the officeholder could use to 'force their will over the people.' 'I'm absolutely against abortion, but say somebody wants to get an abortion amendment on the ballot, and let's say the Secretary of State doesn't want that to happen,' Cavin said. 'It's really easy to use this as a political weapon, and the same is true in reverse [if we] have a liberal secretary of state.' A proposed constitutional amendment that would have created a limited right to abortion received more than 102,000 signatures last year, but it did not make the November ballot after the Secretary of State's office disqualified more than 14,000 signatures on a technicality. At the committee's Feb. 11 meeting, supporters of Hammer's package of bills alleged fraud and misconduct by canvassers collecting signatures for the abortion amendment. The other two speakers against SB 212 were Carol Egan, who spoke against another of Hammer's bills Tuesday, and Davis Hendricks, who said allegations of petition fraud are 'the exception and not the rule.' Several of Hammer's bills might be challenged in court if they become law, which would waste taxpayer money, Hendricks said. 'These kinds of obstructionist laws imply that some of you simply do not trust the people of Arkansas,' he said. No members of the public spoke for SB 212. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Panel approves amended mandate for Arkansas canvassers to warn petition signers of fraud crime
Sen. Kim Hammer (left), R-Benton, and Rep. Kendon Underwood (right), R-Cave Springs, present an amended bill to the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday, February 19, 2025. Senate Bill 207 would require canvassers for proposed ballot measures to disclose to signers that petition fraud is a criminal offense. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) A bill that would require canvassers for ballot measures in Arkansas to disclose the criminality of petition fraud to potential signers passed a legislative committee Wednesday after being pulled down for amendments Monday. Senate Bill 207 is one of a slew of proposed laws sponsored by Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, and Rep. Kendon Underwood, R-Cave Springs, that would alter the citizen-led initiative petition process. Arkansas is one of 24 states that allows this process to change laws and the state Constitution, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Hammer and Underwood have said their proposed legislation would protect the integrity of the initiative petition process and deter fraudulent activity. The section of Arkansas code governing initiatives and referenda designates petition fraud a Class A misdemeanor. House members pointed out Monday that the statute pertaining to fraud against the government designates petition fraud a Class D felony. Underwood subsequently amended SB 207 to require canvassers to state that petition fraud is simply 'a criminal offense.' The House is expected to take up the amended bill Thursday. Two people spoke against the bill Wednesday before the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. Existing state law includes a list of actions considered fraud on initiative or referendum petitions, but SB 207's mandated statement for canvassers does not include such specifics, said Christin Harper, policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. 'The vast majority of Arkansans already know fraud is illegal and are entering the petition process not with nefarious intentions, but with a desire to participate civically in their communities and support issues they care about,' Harper said. 'A better way to prevent fraud is to enforce current laws and to train canvassers to ask voters if they have already signed.' Brady Shiers, database administrator with the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, said the legislation would 'have a serious chilling effect, not only for signers but also for canvassers.' The bill would make a canvasser's failure to disclose the criminality of petition fraud liable for a Class A misdemeanor charge. Shiers called this 'a gross overreaction.' 'If I'm a volunteer with a grassroots petition campaign and I now see that accidental failure to say a few words means I can not only ruin the campaign I believe in but also end up having serious legal consequences, I'd be scared to death to even sign up to be a canvasser,' he said. House Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, expressed similar concerns about a chilling effect on participation in direct democracy. Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle, offered a different perspective. 'Every time I've ever gone to purchase a gun and I fill out the background check form, I'm asked a series of questions… It states very clearly on the form that if I respond to any of those questions in a way that I know is inaccurate, I'm committing a felony, but that has never had a chilling effect on my intent or ability to purchase a firearm,' Ray said. The same House committee met for nearly six hours Monday and heard much public testimony, mostly in opposition, before passing two other bills related to ballot initiatives and sponsored by Hammer and Underwood. Senate Bill 208 would require canvassers to request a photo ID from potential signers, and Senate Bill 211 would require canvassers to file a 'true affidavit' with the secretary of state certifying they complied with the Arkansas Constitution and state laws related to canvassing, perjury, forgery and fraudulent practices in the procurement of petition signatures. Signatures submitted without the affidavit would not be counted. Underwood amended both bills Tuesday, meaning the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs will have to pass them again. The change to SB 208 clarifies the type of photo ID the bill would require under existing state law, and the change to SB 211 would exempt signatures from disqualification due to the 'inability of a canvasser to submit an affidavit due to death or medical disability.' Members of the public could not comment on SB 207 during Monday's meeting after it was pulled from the agenda. Committee members acknowledged that inclement weather likely prevented more speakers besides Shiers and Harper from testifying at Wednesday's meeting. The committee considered waiting to vote on SB 207 until the next meeting Feb. 24 in order to allow more people to testify then, but a motion to do so failed despite bipartisan support. The bill passed on a roll call vote with nine Republicans voting for it, including Ray. Five committee members voted against it: Republican Reps. Julie Mayberry of Hensley, Mark McElroy of Tillar and Jeremy Wooldridge of Marmaduke; and Collins and his fellow Little Rock Democratic Rep. Denise Ennett. If the amended SB 207, SB 208 and SB 211 pass the House, they will return to the Senate, which they passed last week with at least 24 votes each. The bills' emergency clauses require a minimum of 24 votes, two-thirds of the Senate, and would allow them to go into effect immediately upon the governor's signature. Hammer and Underwood are sponsoring two more initiative petition bills that received 22 Senate votes each, meaning the bills passed but their emergency clauses failed. Senate Bill 209 would disqualify signatures collected by canvassers if the secretary of state finds 'by a preponderance of evidence' that they violated state law collecting the signatures. Senate Bill 210 would require potential signers to read the ballot title of a petition or have it read aloud to them in the presence of a canvasser. It would also make it a misdemeanor for a canvasser to accept a signature from people who have not read the ballot title or had it read aloud to them in the presence of a canvasser. Hammer said Tuesday that he will bring the two emergency clauses back to the Senate floor Monday. Six senators were absent from the chamber Wednesday due to inclement weather. Arkansas' elections are overseen by the secretary of state, a position Hammer is seeking in 2026. Another bill he sponsored, Senate Bill 212, would have created a law enforcement agency within the secretary of state's office that could investigate the validity of submitted documents related to elections and ballot initiatives. The bill failed in committee last week. Bills to improve Arkansas maternal health, change ballot initiative process head to Sanders' desk Hammer is also the Senate sponsor of two bills introduced by Ray that are currently on the governor's desk: House Bill 1221 and House Bill 1222. HB 1221 clarifies that the certification of ballot titles for initiatives, referenda and constitutional amendments as well as the signatures collected for those measures would only be valid for the next general election. HB 1222 expands the attorney general's existing authority to reject a proposal if it conflicts with the U.S. Constitution or federal statutes. It would also prevent a sponsor from submitting more than one conflicting petition at the same time.
