Weekly Updates

Fiscal Year 2023, which just ended, was one of the best in Arkansas history. The state closed out the fiscal year with a budget surplus of $1.161 billion.

Arkansas officials announced that the state is about to receive more than a billion dollars in federal funding for expanding broadband access throughout the state. Before the end of the year, the state Broadband Office will submit a five-year plan with details of how we intend to spend the funds.

In 2021 the legislature approved Act 626, making Arkansas the first state in the nation to prohibit physicians from performing gender transition procedures on minors. Since then at least 19 other states have enacted similar laws to prohibit procedures such as hormone therapy and surgery for adolescents under 18 who wish to change their genders.

The secretary of Human Services told lawmakers that the Arkansas Medicaid program would continue to reimburse assisted living facilities at the higher rate they were getting during the Covid-19 pandemic, at least until November. Meanwhile, the Department of Human Services (DHS) continues to review the entire Medicaid system, and will recommend methods of ensuring the long-term sustainability of the program.

The Arkansas Human Services Department has officially petitioned the federal government for authority to make changes in the Medicaid expansion program. 

The Division of Workforce Services will close nine offices around the state as of a restructuring of offices that administer welfare programs.

As soon as the 2023 legislative session adjourned, the Senate and House Committees on Education began work on school funding in preparation for the 2025 session. Every two years the committees issue an adequacy report that sets a level of state funding of public schools that will comply with the state Constitution and state Supreme Court orders in school funding cases.

The Arkansas Medicaid program is re-examining the cases of hundreds of thousands of recipients to determine whether or not they remain eligible for services. By the end of April 72,802 cases were closed.

The major provisions of the new Protect Arkansas Act are well known, but they are only a few of the many measures passed during the 2023 regular session.

The scheduled finish of the 2023 regular session of the legislature is May 1, when lawmakers adjourn sine die. However, during the interim legislators will have plenty of influence over the daily operations of state government. The Legislative Council meets regularly to closely monitor state agency policies.