House approves bill to let Beebe break up agency
Posted on Wednesday, March 7, 2007
The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill that would allow Gov. Mike Beebe to split the Department of Health and Human Services and rescind a 2005 act intended to save money and improve efficiency.
House supporters of Senate Bill 191 by Sen. Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, dubbed the 2005 combination of the departments of Health and Human Services a failure, saying the merger caused problems in the delivery of social services at the combined agency.
“This has not worked,” said Rep. Pam Adcock, D-Little Rock. If the governor splits the two agencies, “maybe it will be a little more easy to handle.”
Rep. David Evans said the combined agency, the largest in state government, simply is too big to operate efficiently.
“They’re much better separated than they are together,” said Evans, a Searcy Democrat. “I absolutely trust the governor. He’s had enough experience; he understands the situation.”
The House approved the measure 85-11. It now returns to the Senate for consideration of an amendment.
Opponents of the bill said the Legislature hadn’t given the merger enough time to work. They also questioned the wisdom of undoing legislation that took effect less than two years ago.
Rep. Daryl Pace, R-Siloam Springs, urged members to have patience with the combined agency, which serves roughly 1 million Arkansans a year.
“Give it a chance to work,” he said on the House floor. “If you’ll just let it run its course, you’ll be very pleased.”
Rep. Johnny Key, R-Mountain Home, who voted against the measure, acknowledged problems surfaced after the two agencies merged. But, he said, “any time you combine entities of that size, you’re going to have some problems. I just didn’t think it was time to give up on it.”
The merger took effect in August 2005, combining the Human Services Department’s nearly 8, 000 employees and $ 4 billion annual budget with the Health Department’s 2, 700 employees and $ 280 million to $ 300 million annual budget. It yielded $ 3. 6 million in savings to the state.
The bill wouldn’t immediately divide the agency, but would allow Beebe to carve out the department’s Health Division, formerly the Department of Health, and re-establish it as a separate agency.
Beebe spokesman Matt De-Cample said the governor supports the bill but will decide after the end of the legislative session whether he plans to split the agency if given the authority.
Ten of the 11 nay votes came from Republicans, although GOP representatives said the 25-member caucus didn’t discuss the bill and didn’t take a position on it.
Asked if Republicans voted against the bill in a show of solidarity with former Gov. Mike Huckabee, who made the merger a top legislative priority, Key, the House minority leader, speculated that if loyalty played a role in members’ votes, it would be to former Rep. Doug Matayo. The Springdale Republican sponsored the merger, Act 1954 of 2005.
Rep. Dan Greenberg said political partisanship didn’t factor into his vote against the bill.
“I’m loyal to taxpayers. Taxpayers are going to foot the bill for everyone tromping from one office to another office every two years,” said Greenberg, a Little Rock Republican. “We pay entirely too much attention to where things fit on some kind of an organizational box, and we pay very little attention to producing concrete results for taxpayers. I prefer to leave things alone.”
Meanwhile, the Senate balked at concurring with a House-approved amendment to a bill that would ban lawmakers from registering as lobbyists for a year after their term ends.
The amendment would make Senate Bill 16 by Sen. Robert Thompson, D-Paragould, apply to current lawmakers. Without it, the bill would exempt lawmakers currently in their last terms and junior members who chose not to run again.
The Senate’s 16-8 vote on the amendment fell short of the 18 votes required for approval. The Senate later voted to expunge the vote, allowing the measure to be brought up again.
Thompson said 89 House members voted for the amendment after Rep. Chris Thyer, D- Jonesboro, warned his colleagues that the amendment would kill the bill.
“They are playing us for fools, and I don’t want to be part of it,” Thompson told senators.
Afterward, Thompson said he probably would ask the Senate to approve the amendment, but he wasn’t sure when he would do so.
Also Tuesday, the Senate approved a measure that would extend the legislative session until March 30, then adjourn it in April.
House Concurrent Resolution 1018 would authorize House Speaker Benny Petrus, D-Stuttgart, and Senate President Pro Tempore Jack Critcher, D-Batesville, to reconvene the House and Senate before April 27 to complete work on constitutional amendments, to consider action on vetoes or to correct errors and oversights.
A proposed rule aimed at improving the decorum of the Senate also fell six votes short of the 24 votes required for approval.
The vote was 18-2 on a proposal by Sen. Ruth Whitaker, RCedarville, which would bar the use of cell phones, audible pagers or similar electronic devices in the Senate and its galleries and Senate committee meeting rooms while the body is in session.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
