January 31, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode of Including You, we explore the Arkansas legislative session of 2025 and its implications for the disability community. Join host Amber Quaid as she speaks with Christian Adcock, a voting rights and public policy specialist at Disability Rights Arkansas.
They discuss the ins and outs of the legislative process, the types of legislation on the horizon, and how individuals can get involved to advocate for their rights. From understanding the importance of committee meetings to the power of public testimony, this episode is packed with essential information for anyone looking to make their voice heard.
Tune in to learn how you can impact legislation that affects you and your community!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Amber (00:00):
Welcome to Including you a podcast by Disability Rights
Arkansas.
On this podcast, we shine alight on the real everyday
experiences of people withdisabilities the challenges,
triumphs and all the moments inbetween.
At Disability Rights Arkansas,we're committed to providing
guidance to people withdisabilities on navigating their
(00:22):
rights, tackling everydayissues and accessing the support
they need in a complex world.
In this podcast, including you,we bring that information
directly to you, the listener.
We'll cover topics likeaccessibility questions,
building your career, securingthe care you deserve and even
(00:44):
navigating the nuances of loveand relationships as a person
with a disability, becauseeveryone has the right to know
their rights Everyone, includingyou.
So, whether you're a seasonedadvocate or someone just
starting to think differentlyabout disability, you're in the
right place.
I'm your host, amber Quaid, andtogether we'll explore how
(01:06):
small, meaningful changes canmake a big difference.
Let's dive in.
Joining us today is DisabilityRights Arkansas Voting Rights
and Public Policy Specialist,kristen Adcock.
Today, he is here to talk aboutincluding you in the Arkansas
Legislative Session for 2025.
Welcome, christian.
Hi, so we just have a fewquestions for you and basically
(01:29):
we're going to start with.
What is the legislative session?
Christian (01:32):
Well, every two years in Arkansas they have what's
called a general legislativesession where all the
legislators will meet for atleast three months sometimes
more, depending on if theyextend the session and what
happens is they all get togetherand propose and pass new laws.
That can affect that can beanything.
It's any idea they've gottenfrom their constituent anything
(01:53):
they've heard.
The subject matter is wide open.
During a general session, ineven numbered years, we have
what's called a fiscal session,which is generally limited to
budget issues.
But yeah, the one we're in rightnow just started this week and
it is a free-for-all.
They can go over and they canpass any kind of legislation
they want.
We've seen some pretty majorpieces of legislation in the
(02:14):
last couple of years, thingslike the LEARNS Act, the Protect
Arkansas Act and other kind ofbig reforms, as well as lots of
smaller stuff that happensduring the legislative session.
That doesn't really get a lotof coverage.
So things like more localissues or tax issues or things
like that that kind of don't getthe same press as something
(02:35):
massive like the Learns Act,which restructured the entire
educational system in Arkansas.
Amber (02:41):
All right, so it's just open season technically right
now for all of this, so that'sgoing to be exciting to see what
comes out.
Christian (02:47):
It certainly is.
It's yeah, like I said, it's afree-for-all.
They can kind of.
You'll see a lot of things thissession, ranging from things
like higher education reformsall the way to Medicaid, that
kind of thing.
But the legislative session in,in short, is when new laws get
made and they come together.
(03:08):
They vote on the laws.
The laws go before the governor.
The governor either passes orvetoes them and then, depending
on whether or not they're vetoed, they can go back and the
legislature can try again with ahigher majority of votes.
So that's kind of how thesausage is made in Arkansas as
far as laws go.
If you've ever seen SchoolhouseRock, it's kind of like that.
(03:29):
So that's sort of my go-toexample when I want to show
somebody how the process works,because it's a good show it's a
good show, I agree.
Yeah, so that's kind of thebasics of what a legislative
session is, and people canparticipate as much or as little
as they like.
For anybody that's listening, Iwould encourage you to
participate a whole bunch,because this is where sort of
(03:50):
much more than a fiscal sessionin a general session, these are
the laws that are going to havesort of a direct, visible impact
in a fiscal session.
The impact the laws have withbudget and tax stuff.
It's things that theydefinitely have an effect.
Don't get me wrong, but this iswhere you're going to see a lot
of the more sort of dramatic,flashy news grabbing stuff come
(04:11):
out.
So it's definitely worth atleast paying attention so that
you know if something is goingto impact you directly,
especially if you're a personwith a disability, because you
know changes to the way thingsare funded or the way programs
are structured will have a lotmore effect on the disability
population than they will onkind of the population at large.
Amber (04:31):
Well, now you have my interest just totally peaked.
So how can I keep up with thesession then?
Christian (04:35):
Well, there's a really good tool is actually the
legislature's own website.
They have their updatedcalendar on there.
That'll tell you whatcommittees are meeting on a
given day, what time thosecommittees are meeting, when the
, the full house and the fullsenate are meeting.
Um, because, just to kind offor anybody, I should back up
(04:56):
and explain this um, you haveseparate committees that deal
with separate pieces oflegislation.
So if it's, let's say, a pieceof legislation about doctors,
how doctors visits are regulated, things like that, that will go
to the specific subcommitteefor that, which is the public
(05:17):
health subcommittee or thepublic health committee.
It's not a subcommittee, and soyou will see, those different
committees will all havedifferent agendas with different
bills on them, based on thekind of legislation that they
handle.
So, for example, voting goes tothe city, county and local
affairs committee.
Public health is where you'regoing to see a lot of stuff
(05:38):
about Medicaid, certification,that sort of thing, and there's
I'm gonna get this wrong, but Ithink there's eight standing
committees at all times thatsort of thing, and there's I'm
gonna get this wrong, but Ithink there's eight standing
committees at all times thatsort of handle everything and
everything flows through thecommittees.
So just to kind of go goschoolhouse rock again.
The way the process works is apiece of legislation gets
introduced and it's introducedto the full senate or the full
(06:00):
house and then it's referred toa committee from there and the
committee votes.
That's where they'll have sortof the debate and they'll
discuss the legislation.
It's where the opportunity forpublic input comes into effect
and we'll kind of we'll go intoall that later, but those
committee meetings then thecommittee as a whole will vote
to either send it out to thehouse or the senate as a whole
(06:24):
or they'll vote to not pass itthrough committee, in which case
it's what we call a dies-incommittee.
So that's just the end of thebill, right there.
But yeah, so if life cycle of abill basically it's introduced
in the House or Senate, getssent to a committee, gets voted
out of the committee, back tothe House or the Senate to vote
on whether or not they want topass it, and then, because this
(06:51):
wasn't complicated or Byzantineenough, they repeat the whole
process on the opposite side.
If it went through on the Houseside first, then it goes
through the Senate and viceversa.
So that's kind of, and thenafter it goes through both the
House and the Senate.
It gets passed to the governorfor either her signature or
Rubito, and there's more to that, of course, because of course
there is.
You have things, there's theamendment process and things
(07:14):
like that if they want to changethe bill.
But that's just kind of thegeneral way that works.
So that's why knowing you knowwhere to go to find the
committee meetings is soimportant.
On the calendar you can look atthe agendas to see what bills
are going to be in committee andthat's not necessarily a
guarantee that they'll getbrought up in that committee,
(07:34):
because there's nothing thatsays that if it's on the agenda
that a committee has to dealwith it that day, it's just sort
of on their agenda until theydeal with it one way or another
or the session ends and it nevergets brought before a committee
.
Amber (07:47):
But that's kind of the best way to have a general idea
of sort of what's where in theprocess so, if I'm understanding
this right, a bill could beeither reviewed today or, say,
three or four months from now,or not at all.
Christian (08:03):
Yes, and last session there was last general session
there was sort of not a lot ofstuff got passed until towards
the end of the session when theywere starting to run out of
time.
So it really is, and part ofthat might be due to the fact
that for the first time they hadthese sort of large omnibus
style bills.
And an omnibus bill is when youhave a bunch of a bunch of
(08:25):
smaller changes all wrapped upinto one larger bill, so
something like the learns act orthe protect arkansas act.
But yeah, so it's.
It's hard to tell and that'swhy I'm later on.
There are places you can go,including dra, that will kind of
try to give folks heads up whenan important piece of
legislation is going to gothrough committee.
(08:47):
If we know, sometimes thingsjust get it's a surprise and you
don't know, or they willsuspend the rules so that
something can be heard earlierthan it would have normally, but
that's pretty rare, especiallyduring a general session.
That's stuff you see more insort of the shorter sessions.
But yeah, and all of thosemeetings, there's the calendar
(09:07):
on their website, thelegislature's website, and then
through that same website youcan watch all the meetings live,
so you don't necessarily haveto go down to the legislature if
you're trying to see what'sgoing on.
Um, you can watch them just onthe internet.
You can stream them live, andso that's something I do a lot,
(09:28):
because sometimes you just don'twant to be in a meeting for 12
hours.
You don't want to spend thewhole day down at the Capitol.
The other thing that that'sgood for is, if you have two
committees that are scheduled tomeet at the same time and you
can only be in one, you can goback and watch the meetings that
have streamed later.
Amber (09:48):
Oh, that's such a nice, especially for accessibility
reasons, like not only time-wise, but being able to get actually
down to the building itself.
Christian (09:56):
People have jobs and people have other
responsibilities.
People have whole lives thatdon't involve the people at the
capital exactly yeah, that's agood way to kind of keep up with
it on your own time.
Like I mentioned before,there's several organizations
that kind of keep tabs on what'shappening, and so if you know
there's a piece of legislationhaving to do with something, a
(10:18):
topic you care about, that'scoming down the pipeline but it
hasn't been filed yet.
For example, disabilitylegislation that's something
where, if an important piece oflegislation comes up, dra, you
know, we'll put it up on oursocial media or we'll have it on
our website and that sort ofthing.
Additionally, for our people isanother organization that
(10:38):
usually does live Twitterupdates, and I know there's some
others.
We are a nonpartisanorganization so I can't speak to
everyone else, but theinformation you get from us is
going to be as nonpartisan as wecan make it.
We're going to try to focus onthe impact that the legislation
will have on the disabilitycommunity and things of that
(10:59):
nature, but we're not going totell you, you know, oh, this is
bad.
We're not going to put a bunchof political spin on it, and
we're not the only organizationlike that.
There's several, and so it's agood idea to keep an eye on that
.
If you don't have access to theinternet.
You can follow it in thenewspaper or traditional media
like that.
There should be coverage of thesession, and so there's
(11:21):
different ways to kind of keeptabs on things.
If you go to our website we dolegislative tracking we did it
during the last session to wherewe kind of we have a list of
legislation that we flagged thatwe think is going to have an
impact on the disabilitycommunity, and you can go there
and kind of get some informationabout it and find out where
(11:42):
it's at in the process, whichlegislator sponsored it, and the
legislative sponsor is just thename of whatever legislator
introduced the bill.
Sometimes there's one, usuallythere's two, sometimes there's
40, it depends.
But that's good to know so thatyou know who to contact if it's
a bill that you care about, andso there's lots of ways to
(12:03):
follow it and to follow thesession as it goes, and you just
kind of have to determine yourown level of involvement so
there seem to be a lot of placesthat you can keep up with the
sessions that are happening, butwhat issues can we expect to
see coming up in this nextsession?
Well, every session there'salways the stuff you kind of
(12:24):
don't see coming, but if you'repaying attention and following
the news and listening tostatements that the governor's
made or that legislators havemade, you can get a pretty good
idea of some of the biggerissues that are going to be
coming out during the session.
So we know, for example, thatthey're looking to make some
changes to higher ed policy.
(12:44):
We know that they are going totake a look at things, sort of
some cleanup stuff with thelearns Act and the Protect
Arkansas Act, sort of somerulemaking and some supplemental
stuff to make that work more inline with sort of what they
envisioned.
We know that they're going tolook at how mental health care
services are delivered and howthat works with Medicaid and
(13:07):
some things like that.
We know that maternal healthcare has also been a big issue
over the last year, with sort ofpostpartum care and possibly
extending that out to 12 months.
It's something that thegovernor has said she doesn't
think is necessary, but thereare some legislative legislators
who are in favor of that.
So we know that that's going tohappen.
(13:28):
I think some bills have alreadybeen filed on that, and then we
know that they want to take alook at some more public safety
issues and just some moregeneral kind of education issues
.
So it's sort of and this is allstuff that you can follow along
with it, those places Imentioned before.
But if you're curious as to sortof what's coming for future
(13:48):
sessions, you can look.
They usually start talkingabout this stuff a few months
ahead of time.
So if you're paying attentionor if you can, just you know,
you can Google or if you payattention to the news, you'll
see comments about it and thingsyou know where the governor
will say, oh, we need to take acloser look at this.
Or sometimes they will justflat out say this is something
we're going to be looking at inthe next session.
(14:09):
And if there's somethingspeaking of actually, while I'm
on the topic, before the sessionhappens and it's too late now
for this current session but thetime to contact your legislator
is not after the session starts.
You want to contact yourrepresentative or your senator
(14:30):
leading up to the session.
So you know, a couple of monthsahead of time, if there's
something you know that you knowis a problem in your community
that you you know needs to befixed because they're your
representatives, so that's thetime to contact them.
Amber (14:43):
It's not a week or a month into the session so it
sounds like that I have to getinvolved before the session
starts to really like make animpact on what I want our
legislators to talk about.
So, at this point point, how doI get involved?
Christian (14:59):
Well, not necessarily before the session.
If you have an issue that youwant to bring to your
legislators' attention, it'sbest to do it beforehand.
But if there's other thingsthat come up during the session
that you want to get involvedwith, the best place to start is
always to contact yourlegislator.
You have a representative and asenator that represent you and
(15:20):
so know who they are.
Um, you can find that on thelegislative website as well, if
you don't already know.
But you know and you can findtheir contact information as
well, to get a hold of them andsay let's say, for example, a
bill, let's get real silly withit.
A bill is proposed that outlawscookies and you love cookies.
(15:41):
So what you would then do iscall your legislator, your
senator, and say we, the cookieloving people of your district,
would prefer that you voteagainst this bill, you monster.
Because who votes againstcookies?
But it's just sort of that kindof thing.
That's the best way to do it.
It's just sort of that kind ofthing.
That's the best way to do it.
It's that original directcontact.
And legislators have saidthemselves and this goes back to
(16:06):
what I was saying earlier abouttalking to them earlier is that
they've said themselves thatthey prefer to hear from the
people in their district aheadof time.
So they don't necessarily wantto hear from you one time about
an issue that you're real firedup about.
It's best if you can sort ofbuild a relationship with them
over time and if they know whoyou are.
Obviously you know if you'vetalked to them before about
(16:29):
other issues, then you knowthat's going to help.
But that said, contact themanyway, even if it's your first
time contacting them, becauseyou can't let them outlaw
cookies.
That would be wrong.
So you know, if you feelstrongly enough about a piece of
legislation, you're alwaysgoing to have the first time
reaching out to them.
But you know, if you can alsoreach out to them and let them
(16:51):
know, like you did this thingthat I supported, good job, you
know.
I'm sure they appreciate that,because nobody likes to hear
about all the things they'redoing horribly wrong, you know.
So that's kind of a good way tosort of start from the bottom
and build that relationship withyour legislator so they know
who you are.
Another thing that you can do isif you know a piece of
(17:13):
legislation that you care aboutis going up in the committee
meeting that day.
And this is.
There's a lot of caveats thatgo with this one, because not
everybody can take a day offwork, not everybody can get to
Little Rock, not everybody isokay or comfortable with public
speaking, and that's fine.
But if it's an option for youand it's something you care
about a lot, a really good thingto do is go and sign up to
(17:44):
testify at a committee meetingabout a piece of legislation,
and the way that works is youknow, you go onto the
legislative website.
You find that the calendar saysyou know public health
committee meets at 10 o'clockthis morning.
So you want to show up a littlebit earlier because they'll
have a sign up sheet outside thedoor of the committee meeting.
You also want to show up alittle bit early if you've never
been to the Capitol before, sothat you can find where you're
going.
So, yeah, you want to get there, you want to find your parking,
you want to give yourselfplenty of time so you're not
(18:04):
rushed, and you want to go inand there will be a sign-up
sheet out front.
You can sign up and that willput your name.
They'll ask you know what'syour name you're here to speak
about and are you for or againstit?
And then when they'rediscussing that bill in
committee, they'll check and seeif anybody's signed up to
testify about it and thenthey'll bring them up and go
(18:25):
right down the list and you cancome up and you can say your
piece.
A couple things about testifying.
If it's something you want todo, I would recommend sort of
working out in advance whatyou're going to say.
Some people who are betterspeakers than me can go in and
just do it off the cuff, youknow, and they're brilliant.
But for most of us, meremortals, you want to figure out
(18:46):
what you're going to say aheadof time.
Try to time it so you're notgoing on too long.
You know you want to go acouple of minutes.
I would say probably no morethan five.
And I say that not because somethings don't deserve to have
that level of discussion, butbecause sometimes if it's a
(19:08):
particularly controversial billor something like that and
there's a lot of people thatwant to speak, they will limit
speaking time.
So they will say you know,we're going to hear from the
people who signed up to speak.
They will limit speaking time.
So they will say you know,we're gonna hear from the people
who signed up to speak.
But you only get two minutes oryou only get a minute depending
on how many people signed up tospeak and you know what else
they have on the agenda for thatday.
(19:29):
So, yeah, do a little bit ofprep work in advance and, yeah,
try to keep timing in mind,because you don't want to show
up with your magnum opus 20minute speech.
You know, getting ready to getup and do your, mr smith goes to
washington jimmy stewartimpression and then you find out
you have 30 seconds to get yourpoint across.
You kind of you want to startwith the most important
(19:51):
information first, um and yeah,and that's kind of how you go
and testify and it's.
It can be intimidating,especially at first, but you
know they're there to hear fromyou, they're there to represent
you and you have every right togo in and let them know how you
feel about what they're doing ina polite way.
(20:11):
You don't want to go in andstart yelling and telling
everyone they're terrible, butyou know you want to go in and
you want to make your point andit's their job to listen to you
and take that into account whenthey're casting their votes.
And that doesn't necessarilymean you're going to vote the
way you want them to, but youknow you have every right to go
in there.
And the other thing is, whenyou're there I would recommend
(20:33):
you know you don't have to, youdon't have to dress up nice,
anybody can can go in.
It's the people's house overthere so you can go in, you can
talk.
But I would recommend kind of,you know, wear clean clothes,
that kind of thing, you know,like kind of do at least the
bare minimum, just so that youknow right or wrong.
They'll be a little bit morelikely to take what you have
(20:53):
seriously.
If you don't look like you just, you know, came out of the
woods, so yeah, seriously.
If you don't look like you justcame out of the woods, so yeah.
But other than that it can be alittle bit scary.
But you do it a couple timesand eventually it stops.
It's like anything else.
It stops being scary.
Amber (21:10):
Would I have They'll testify on the bill more than
once, or is it usually just once?
Christian (21:15):
Well, because it goes through the House and the
Senate, it goes throughcommittees on both sides, so you
will have two opportunities totestify and that's really kind
of a judgment call.
If it passes through the firstcommittee and let's say you
didn't want it to pass throughthat committee, then maybe you
go to the second committee totry to stop it there.
Want it to pass through thatcommittee, then maybe you know,
(21:36):
you go to the second committeeto try to stop it there, and so
if it doesn't pass in the firstcommittee, then it probably
won't get sent over to thesecond committee.
So but yeah, so potentially youcould and I have before I know
plenty of people that have whereyou go and you testify at every
stage.
And if there's an amendment andit has to go back through
committee to get the amendmentapproved, then that provides
another opportunity fortestimony At a certain point.
(21:58):
If they keep seeing the sameperson show up to say the same
stuff, it will kind of bediminishing returns.
But it's going to be differentcommittees in the House and the
Senate.
So you know if you can go inand if you made an argument that
you thought was reallypersuasive and it just didn't
stick on one side.
You can always go in and try iton the other side.
Persuasive and it just didn'tstick on one side.
You can always go in and try iton the other side, because you
know if it stops.
It doesn't matter where a billstops if you're against it as
(22:25):
long as it stops.
Amber (22:25):
So you know that is something to keep in mind, you
do get at least two shots out ofit.
And so, like with yourlegislators, like continually
calling and contacting them isthe testimony, kind of the same,
or should you be very selectiveand pick and choose?
Christian (22:38):
The contact is important and kind of more
importantly, the contact iseasier.
So it's a lot less of a heavylift than, let's say, you live
in Bentonville, than getting upin the morning and driving down
to Little Rock for a 9 o'clockcommittee meeting, than getting
up in the morning and drivingdown to Little Rock for a 9
(22:58):
o'clock committee meeting.
So that's sort of you can.
Like I said earlier, you cankind of determine how involved
you want to be.
And if you're the kind ofpsychopath that wants to wake up
at 4 in the morning to drivedown and testify in front of a
legislative committee, Godspeed.
But you know it's not necessaryand you can.
It's up to you to determinewhether or not you want to make
(23:18):
that sacrifice.
So you know you can call andsay you know I would like for
you to vote against this bill.
And there's also nothing thatsays you can only call your own
legislator.
If you want to call everylegislator on a committee about
a bill, you know you canabsolutely do that.
You can leave them a message.
(23:39):
They will get little pink slipswith messages delivered to
their desk.
So and that's why a lot of thetime you'll see organizations
who are either for or against apiece of legislation, kind of
organizing exactly that likephone campaigns and calling
campaigns, because they know noteverybody can be off at 10
o'clock in the morning onwednesday to come down to the
(23:59):
capitol especially.
You saw a lot of that duringthe sessions that we had during
covid, where you know, gettingany large group of people
together wasn't the best idea.
So yeah, there was a lot ofthat sort of thing happening.
But yeah, as far as whetherit's better to come and testify
in person or whether it's betterto call, I always sort of lean
(24:19):
on the side of testifying inperson.
Amber (24:21):
But if we're being realistic, that's not always an
option and then this may becompletely off topic or a topic
adjacent, but what about signingpetitions?
Um, you're saying that likesometimes just having all the
phone calls come in and somebodypresents those, but what about
petitions?
Christian (24:40):
petitions can be useful.
I mean, anything, every littlebit helps, anything that's going
to show that there's a largeamount of people that feel a
certain type, that feel acertain way about a piece of
legislation that's going to helpand that's going to.
You know I can't saylegislation that's going to help
and that's going to, you know Ican't say how much it's going
to sway things one way oranother, because obviously
(25:02):
that's up to the legislators.
But you know it definitelydoesn't hurt.
Again, though I would put itprobably testimony, then a phone
call or an email or even aphysical letter, if you want to
do that, that's also good.
I don't know how many lettersthey get over there and then,
(25:27):
yeah, probably something likejust signing a petition.
The best way to get involved isgoing to be to find whether it's
DRA and our social media andour website or the newspaper or
whatever outlet you're using tofollow along with the session,
their own website, it's kind offind out where to get that
information.
And if you have questions aboutwhere to get that information,
contact us at DRA.
(25:47):
We can help you with that.
And, yeah, just follow alongand keep an eye out for the
issues you care about and thengo from there and remember, like
I said before, these people arethere to do the work that the
people who elected them wantthem to do, so never feel shy or
bashful or like it's not yourplace to make your opinion known
(26:10):
about something that's going toaffect your life.
Amber (26:13):
It's like well said Well.
Thank you, christian, for beingon our show today.
He is the Voting Rights andPublic Policy Specialist for
Disability Rights, Arkansas, andhe just wanted to give us a
little talk about including youin the Arkansas legislative
session for 2025.
Thank you for joining us onIncluding you.
We hope today's conversationhas sparked ideas, offered
(26:34):
guidance or inspired you to takeaction in your own life and
community.
At Disability Rights, we believeadvocacy isn't always about
sweeping reforms.
It's about the small, everydayactions like asking the right
questions, standing up whensomething feels wrong or helping
to create a space whereeveryone feels included.
(26:55):
If today's episode resonatedwith you, visit us at
disabilityrightsarorg to learnmore about your rights, access
resources and find ways to getinvolved, but don't forget to
follow us on social media forupdates, tips and stories from
the disability community.
If you enjoyed this episode,share it with a friend, leave us
(27:18):
a review or start aconversation, because that's
where change begins.
Remember, everyone deserves toknow their rights Everyone,
including you.
Until next time, I'm AmberQuaid and we'll talk with you
again soon.
Welcome to Including you a podcast by Disability Rights
Arkansas.
On this podcast, we shine alight on the real everyday
experiences of people withdisabilities the challenges,
triumphs and all the moments inbetween.
At Disability Rights Arkansas,we're committed to providing
guidance to people withdisabilities on navigating their
(00:22):
rights, tackling everydayissues and accessing the support
they need in a complex world.
In this podcast, including you,we bring that information
directly to you, the listener.
We'll cover topics likeaccessibility questions,
building your career, securingthe care you deserve and even
(00:44):
navigating the nuances of loveand relationships as a person
with a disability, becauseeveryone has the right to know
their rights Everyone, includingyou.
So, whether you're a seasonedadvocate or someone just
starting to think differentlyabout disability, you're in the
right place.
I'm your host, amber Quaid, andtogether we'll explore how
(01:06):
small, meaningful changes canmake a big difference.
Let's dive in.
Joining us today is DisabilityRights Arkansas Voting Rights
and Public Policy Specialist,kristen Adcock.
Today, he is here to talk aboutincluding you in the Arkansas
Legislative Session for 2025.
Welcome, christian.
Hi, so we just have a fewquestions for you and basically
(01:29):
we're going to start with.
What is the legislative session?
Christian (01:32):
Well, every two years in Arkansas they have what's
called a general legislativesession where all the
legislators will meet for atleast three months sometimes
more, depending on if theyextend the session and what
happens is they all get togetherand propose and pass new laws.
That can affect that can beanything.
It's any idea they've gottenfrom their constituent anything
(01:53):
they've heard.
The subject matter is wide open.
During a general session, ineven numbered years, we have
what's called a fiscal session,which is generally limited to
budget issues.
But yeah, the one we're in rightnow just started this week and
it is a free-for-all.
They can go over and they canpass any kind of legislation
they want.
We've seen some pretty majorpieces of legislation in the
(02:14):
last couple of years, thingslike the LEARNS Act, the Protect
Arkansas Act and other kind ofbig reforms, as well as lots of
smaller stuff that happensduring the legislative session.
That doesn't really get a lotof coverage.
So things like more localissues or tax issues or things
like that that kind of don't getthe same press as something
(02:35):
massive like the Learns Act,which restructured the entire
educational system in Arkansas.
Amber (02:41):
All right, so it's just open season technically right
now for all of this, so that'sgoing to be exciting to see what
comes out.
Christian (02:47):
It certainly is.
It's yeah, like I said, it's afree-for-all.
They can kind of.
You'll see a lot of things thissession, ranging from things
like higher education reformsall the way to Medicaid, that
kind of thing.
But the legislative session in,in short, is when new laws get
made and they come together.
(03:08):
They vote on the laws.
The laws go before the governor.
The governor either passes orvetoes them and then, depending
on whether or not they're vetoed, they can go back and the
legislature can try again with ahigher majority of votes.
So that's kind of how thesausage is made in Arkansas as
far as laws go.
If you've ever seen SchoolhouseRock, it's kind of like that.
(03:29):
So that's sort of my go-toexample when I want to show
somebody how the process works,because it's a good show it's a
good show, I agree.
Yeah, so that's kind of thebasics of what a legislative
session is, and people canparticipate as much or as little
as they like.
For anybody that's listening, Iwould encourage you to
participate a whole bunch,because this is where sort of
(03:50):
much more than a fiscal sessionin a general session, these are
the laws that are going to havesort of a direct, visible impact
in a fiscal session.
The impact the laws have withbudget and tax stuff.
It's things that theydefinitely have an effect.
Don't get me wrong, but this iswhere you're going to see a lot
of the more sort of dramatic,flashy news grabbing stuff come
(04:11):
out.
So it's definitely worth atleast paying attention so that
you know if something is goingto impact you directly,
especially if you're a personwith a disability, because you
know changes to the way thingsare funded or the way programs
are structured will have a lotmore effect on the disability
population than they will onkind of the population at large.
Amber (04:31):
Well, now you have my interest just totally peaked.
So how can I keep up with thesession then?
Christian (04:35):
Well, there's a really good tool is actually the
legislature's own website.
They have their updatedcalendar on there.
That'll tell you whatcommittees are meeting on a
given day, what time thosecommittees are meeting, when the
, the full house and the fullsenate are meeting.
Um, because, just to kind offor anybody, I should back up
(04:56):
and explain this um, you haveseparate committees that deal
with separate pieces oflegislation.
So if it's, let's say, a pieceof legislation about doctors,
how doctors visits are regulated, things like that, that will go
to the specific subcommitteefor that, which is the public
(05:17):
health subcommittee or thepublic health committee.
It's not a subcommittee, and soyou will see, those different
committees will all havedifferent agendas with different
bills on them, based on thekind of legislation that they
handle.
So, for example, voting goes tothe city, county and local
affairs committee.
Public health is where you'regoing to see a lot of stuff
(05:38):
about Medicaid, certification,that sort of thing, and there's
I'm gonna get this wrong, but Ithink there's eight standing
committees at all times thatsort of thing, and there's I'm
gonna get this wrong, but Ithink there's eight standing
committees at all times thatsort of handle everything and
everything flows through thecommittees.
So just to kind of go goschoolhouse rock again.
The way the process works is apiece of legislation gets
introduced and it's introducedto the full senate or the full
(06:00):
house and then it's referred toa committee from there and the
committee votes.
That's where they'll have sortof the debate and they'll
discuss the legislation.
It's where the opportunity forpublic input comes into effect
and we'll kind of we'll go intoall that later, but those
committee meetings then thecommittee as a whole will vote
to either send it out to thehouse or the senate as a whole
(06:24):
or they'll vote to not pass itthrough committee, in which case
it's what we call a dies-incommittee.
So that's just the end of thebill, right there.
But yeah, so if life cycle of abill basically it's introduced
in the House or Senate, getssent to a committee, gets voted
out of the committee, back tothe House or the Senate to vote
on whether or not they want topass it, and then, because this
(06:51):
wasn't complicated or Byzantineenough, they repeat the whole
process on the opposite side.
If it went through on the Houseside first, then it goes
through the Senate and viceversa.
So that's kind of, and thenafter it goes through both the
House and the Senate.
It gets passed to the governorfor either her signature or
Rubito, and there's more to that, of course, because of course
there is.
You have things, there's theamendment process and things
(07:14):
like that if they want to changethe bill.
But that's just kind of thegeneral way that works.
So that's why knowing you knowwhere to go to find the
committee meetings is soimportant.
On the calendar you can look atthe agendas to see what bills
are going to be in committee andthat's not necessarily a
guarantee that they'll getbrought up in that committee,
(07:34):
because there's nothing thatsays that if it's on the agenda
that a committee has to dealwith it that day, it's just sort
of on their agenda until theydeal with it one way or another
or the session ends and it nevergets brought before a committee
.
Amber (07:47):
But that's kind of the best way to have a general idea
of sort of what's where in theprocess so, if I'm understanding
this right, a bill could beeither reviewed today or, say,
three or four months from now,or not at all.
Christian (08:03):
Yes, and last session there was last general session
there was sort of not a lot ofstuff got passed until towards
the end of the session when theywere starting to run out of
time.
So it really is, and part ofthat might be due to the fact
that for the first time they hadthese sort of large omnibus
style bills.
And an omnibus bill is when youhave a bunch of a bunch of
(08:25):
smaller changes all wrapped upinto one larger bill, so
something like the learns act orthe protect arkansas act.
But yeah, so it's.
It's hard to tell and that'swhy I'm later on.
There are places you can go,including dra, that will kind of
try to give folks heads up whenan important piece of
legislation is going to gothrough committee.
(08:47):
If we know, sometimes thingsjust get it's a surprise and you
don't know, or they willsuspend the rules so that
something can be heard earlierthan it would have normally, but
that's pretty rare, especiallyduring a general session.
That's stuff you see more insort of the shorter sessions.
But yeah, and all of thosemeetings, there's the calendar
(09:07):
on their website, thelegislature's website, and then
through that same website youcan watch all the meetings live,
so you don't necessarily haveto go down to the legislature if
you're trying to see what'sgoing on.
Um, you can watch them just onthe internet.
You can stream them live, andso that's something I do a lot,
(09:28):
because sometimes you just don'twant to be in a meeting for 12
hours.
You don't want to spend thewhole day down at the Capitol.
The other thing that that'sgood for is, if you have two
committees that are scheduled tomeet at the same time and you
can only be in one, you can goback and watch the meetings that
have streamed later.
Amber (09:48):
Oh, that's such a nice, especially for accessibility
reasons, like not only time-wise, but being able to get actually
down to the building itself.
Christian (09:56):
People have jobs and people have other
responsibilities.
People have whole lives thatdon't involve the people at the
capital exactly yeah, that's agood way to kind of keep up with
it on your own time.
Like I mentioned before,there's several organizations
that kind of keep tabs on what'shappening, and so if you know
there's a piece of legislationhaving to do with something, a
(10:18):
topic you care about, that'scoming down the pipeline but it
hasn't been filed yet.
For example, disabilitylegislation that's something
where, if an important piece oflegislation comes up, dra, you
know, we'll put it up on oursocial media or we'll have it on
our website and that sort ofthing.
Additionally, for our people isanother organization that
(10:38):
usually does live Twitterupdates, and I know there's some
others.
We are a nonpartisanorganization so I can't speak to
everyone else, but theinformation you get from us is
going to be as nonpartisan as wecan make it.
We're going to try to focus onthe impact that the legislation
will have on the disabilitycommunity and things of that
(10:59):
nature, but we're not going totell you, you know, oh, this is
bad.
We're not going to put a bunchof political spin on it, and
we're not the only organizationlike that.
There's several, and so it's agood idea to keep an eye on that
.
If you don't have access to theinternet.
You can follow it in thenewspaper or traditional media
like that.
There should be coverage of thesession, and so there's
(11:21):
different ways to kind of keeptabs on things.
If you go to our website we dolegislative tracking we did it
during the last session to wherewe kind of we have a list of
legislation that we flagged thatwe think is going to have an
impact on the disabilitycommunity, and you can go there
and kind of get some informationabout it and find out where
(11:42):
it's at in the process, whichlegislator sponsored it, and the
legislative sponsor is just thename of whatever legislator
introduced the bill.
Sometimes there's one, usuallythere's two, sometimes there's
40, it depends.
But that's good to know so thatyou know who to contact if it's
a bill that you care about, andso there's lots of ways to
(12:03):
follow it and to follow thesession as it goes, and you just
kind of have to determine yourown level of involvement so
there seem to be a lot of placesthat you can keep up with the
sessions that are happening, butwhat issues can we expect to
see coming up in this nextsession?
Well, every session there'salways the stuff you kind of
(12:24):
don't see coming, but if you'repaying attention and following
the news and listening tostatements that the governor's
made or that legislators havemade, you can get a pretty good
idea of some of the biggerissues that are going to be
coming out during the session.
So we know, for example, thatthey're looking to make some
changes to higher ed policy.
(12:44):
We know that they are going totake a look at things, sort of
some cleanup stuff with thelearns Act and the Protect
Arkansas Act, sort of somerulemaking and some supplemental
stuff to make that work more inline with sort of what they
envisioned.
We know that they're going tolook at how mental health care
services are delivered and howthat works with Medicaid and
(13:07):
some things like that.
We know that maternal healthcare has also been a big issue
over the last year, with sort ofpostpartum care and possibly
extending that out to 12 months.
It's something that thegovernor has said she doesn't
think is necessary, but thereare some legislative legislators
who are in favor of that.
So we know that that's going tohappen.
(13:28):
I think some bills have alreadybeen filed on that, and then we
know that they want to take alook at some more public safety
issues and just some moregeneral kind of education issues
.
So it's sort of and this is allstuff that you can follow along
with it, those places Imentioned before.
But if you're curious as to sortof what's coming for future
(13:48):
sessions, you can look.
They usually start talkingabout this stuff a few months
ahead of time.
So if you're paying attentionor if you can, just you know,
you can Google or if you payattention to the news, you'll
see comments about it and thingsyou know where the governor
will say, oh, we need to take acloser look at this.
Or sometimes they will justflat out say this is something
we're going to be looking at inthe next session.
(14:09):
And if there's somethingspeaking of actually, while I'm
on the topic, before the sessionhappens and it's too late now
for this current session but thetime to contact your legislator
is not after the session starts.
You want to contact yourrepresentative or your senator
(14:30):
leading up to the session.
So you know, a couple of monthsahead of time, if there's
something you know that you knowis a problem in your community
that you you know needs to befixed because they're your
representatives, so that's thetime to contact them.
Amber (14:43):
It's not a week or a month into the session so it
sounds like that I have to getinvolved before the session
starts to really like make animpact on what I want our
legislators to talk about.
So, at this point point, how doI get involved?
Christian (14:59):
Well, not necessarily before the session.
If you have an issue that youwant to bring to your
legislators' attention, it'sbest to do it beforehand.
But if there's other thingsthat come up during the session
that you want to get involvedwith, the best place to start is
always to contact yourlegislator.
You have a representative and asenator that represent you and
(15:20):
so know who they are.
Um, you can find that on thelegislative website as well, if
you don't already know.
But you know and you can findtheir contact information as
well, to get a hold of them andsay let's say, for example, a
bill, let's get real silly withit.
A bill is proposed that outlawscookies and you love cookies.
(15:41):
So what you would then do iscall your legislator, your
senator, and say we, the cookieloving people of your district,
would prefer that you voteagainst this bill, you monster.
Because who votes againstcookies?
But it's just sort of that kindof thing.
That's the best way to do it.
It's just sort of that kind ofthing.
That's the best way to do it.
It's that original directcontact.
And legislators have saidthemselves and this goes back to
(16:06):
what I was saying earlier abouttalking to them earlier is that
they've said themselves thatthey prefer to hear from the
people in their district aheadof time.
So they don't necessarily wantto hear from you one time about
an issue that you're real firedup about.
It's best if you can sort ofbuild a relationship with them
over time and if they know whoyou are.
Obviously you know if you'vetalked to them before about
(16:29):
other issues, then you knowthat's going to help.
But that said, contact themanyway, even if it's your first
time contacting them, becauseyou can't let them outlaw
cookies.
That would be wrong.
So you know, if you feelstrongly enough about a piece of
legislation, you're alwaysgoing to have the first time
reaching out to them.
But you know, if you can alsoreach out to them and let them
(16:51):
know, like you did this thingthat I supported, good job, you
know.
I'm sure they appreciate that,because nobody likes to hear
about all the things they'redoing horribly wrong, you know.
So that's kind of a good way tosort of start from the bottom
and build that relationship withyour legislator so they know
who you are.
Another thing that you can do isif you know a piece of
(17:13):
legislation that you care aboutis going up in the committee
meeting that day.
And this is.
There's a lot of caveats thatgo with this one, because not
everybody can take a day offwork, not everybody can get to
Little Rock, not everybody isokay or comfortable with public
speaking, and that's fine.
But if it's an option for youand it's something you care
about a lot, a really good thingto do is go and sign up to
(17:44):
testify at a committee meetingabout a piece of legislation,
and the way that works is youknow, you go onto the
legislative website.
You find that the calendar saysyou know public health
committee meets at 10 o'clockthis morning.
So you want to show up a littlebit earlier because they'll
have a sign up sheet outside thedoor of the committee meeting.
You also want to show up alittle bit early if you've never
been to the Capitol before, sothat you can find where you're
going.
So, yeah, you want to get there, you want to find your parking,
you want to give yourselfplenty of time so you're not
(18:04):
rushed, and you want to go inand there will be a sign-up
sheet out front.
You can sign up and that willput your name.
They'll ask you know what'syour name you're here to speak
about and are you for or againstit?
And then when they'rediscussing that bill in
committee, they'll check and seeif anybody's signed up to
testify about it and thenthey'll bring them up and go
(18:25):
right down the list and you cancome up and you can say your
piece.
A couple things about testifying.
If it's something you want todo, I would recommend sort of
working out in advance whatyou're going to say.
Some people who are betterspeakers than me can go in and
just do it off the cuff, youknow, and they're brilliant.
But for most of us, meremortals, you want to figure out
(18:46):
what you're going to say aheadof time.
Try to time it so you're notgoing on too long.
You know you want to go acouple of minutes.
I would say probably no morethan five.
And I say that not because somethings don't deserve to have
that level of discussion, butbecause sometimes if it's a
(19:08):
particularly controversial billor something like that and
there's a lot of people thatwant to speak, they will limit
speaking time.
So they will say you know,we're going to hear from the
people who signed up to speak.
They will limit speaking time.
So they will say you know,we're gonna hear from the people
who signed up to speak.
But you only get two minutes oryou only get a minute depending
on how many people signed up tospeak and you know what else
they have on the agenda for thatday.
(19:29):
So, yeah, do a little bit ofprep work in advance and, yeah,
try to keep timing in mind,because you don't want to show
up with your magnum opus 20minute speech.
You know, getting ready to getup and do your, mr smith goes to
washington jimmy stewartimpression and then you find out
you have 30 seconds to get yourpoint across.
You kind of you want to startwith the most important
(19:51):
information first, um and yeah,and that's kind of how you go
and testify and it's.
It can be intimidating,especially at first, but you
know they're there to hear fromyou, they're there to represent
you and you have every right togo in and let them know how you
feel about what they're doing ina polite way.
(20:11):
You don't want to go in andstart yelling and telling
everyone they're terrible, butyou know you want to go in and
you want to make your point andit's their job to listen to you
and take that into account whenthey're casting their votes.
And that doesn't necessarilymean you're going to vote the
way you want them to, but youknow you have every right to go
in there.
And the other thing is, whenyou're there I would recommend
(20:33):
you know you don't have to, youdon't have to dress up nice,
anybody can can go in.
It's the people's house overthere so you can go in, you can
talk.
But I would recommend kind of,you know, wear clean clothes,
that kind of thing, you know,like kind of do at least the
bare minimum, just so that youknow right or wrong.
They'll be a little bit morelikely to take what you have
(20:53):
seriously.
If you don't look like you just, you know, came out of the
woods, so yeah, seriously.
If you don't look like you justcame out of the woods, so yeah.
But other than that it can be alittle bit scary.
But you do it a couple timesand eventually it stops.
It's like anything else.
It stops being scary.
Amber (21:10):
Would I have They'll testify on the bill more than
once, or is it usually just once?
Christian (21:15):
Well, because it goes through the House and the
Senate, it goes throughcommittees on both sides, so you
will have two opportunities totestify and that's really kind
of a judgment call.
If it passes through the firstcommittee and let's say you
didn't want it to pass throughthat committee, then maybe you
go to the second committee totry to stop it there.
Want it to pass through thatcommittee, then maybe you know,
(21:36):
you go to the second committeeto try to stop it there, and so
if it doesn't pass in the firstcommittee, then it probably
won't get sent over to thesecond committee.
So but yeah, so potentially youcould and I have before I know
plenty of people that have whereyou go and you testify at every
stage.
And if there's an amendment andit has to go back through
committee to get the amendmentapproved, then that provides
another opportunity fortestimony At a certain point.
(21:58):
If they keep seeing the sameperson show up to say the same
stuff, it will kind of bediminishing returns.
But it's going to be differentcommittees in the House and the
Senate.
So you know if you can go inand if you made an argument that
you thought was reallypersuasive and it just didn't
stick on one side.
You can always go in and try iton the other side.
Persuasive and it just didn'tstick on one side.
You can always go in and try iton the other side, because you
know if it stops.
It doesn't matter where a billstops if you're against it as
(22:25):
long as it stops.
Amber (22:25):
So you know that is something to keep in mind, you
do get at least two shots out ofit.
And so, like with yourlegislators, like continually
calling and contacting them isthe testimony, kind of the same,
or should you be very selectiveand pick and choose?
Christian (22:38):
The contact is important and kind of more
importantly, the contact iseasier.
So it's a lot less of a heavylift than, let's say, you live
in Bentonville, than getting upin the morning and driving down
to Little Rock for a 9 o'clockcommittee meeting, than getting
up in the morning and drivingdown to Little Rock for a 9
(22:58):
o'clock committee meeting.
So that's sort of you can.
Like I said earlier, you cankind of determine how involved
you want to be.
And if you're the kind ofpsychopath that wants to wake up
at 4 in the morning to drivedown and testify in front of a
legislative committee, Godspeed.
But you know it's not necessaryand you can.
It's up to you to determinewhether or not you want to make
(23:18):
that sacrifice.
So you know you can call andsay you know I would like for
you to vote against this bill.
And there's also nothing thatsays you can only call your own
legislator.
If you want to call everylegislator on a committee about
a bill, you know you canabsolutely do that.
You can leave them a message.
(23:39):
They will get little pink slipswith messages delivered to
their desk.
So and that's why a lot of thetime you'll see organizations
who are either for or against apiece of legislation, kind of
organizing exactly that likephone campaigns and calling
campaigns, because they know noteverybody can be off at 10
o'clock in the morning onwednesday to come down to the
(23:59):
capitol especially.
You saw a lot of that duringthe sessions that we had during
covid, where you know, gettingany large group of people
together wasn't the best idea.
So yeah, there was a lot ofthat sort of thing happening.
But yeah, as far as whetherit's better to come and testify
in person or whether it's betterto call, I always sort of lean
(24:19):
on the side of testifying inperson.
Amber (24:21):
But if we're being realistic, that's not always an
option and then this may becompletely off topic or a topic
adjacent, but what about signingpetitions?
Um, you're saying that likesometimes just having all the
phone calls come in and somebodypresents those, but what about
petitions?
Christian (24:40):
petitions can be useful.
I mean, anything, every littlebit helps, anything that's going
to show that there's a largeamount of people that feel a
certain type, that feel acertain way about a piece of
legislation that's going to helpand that's going to.
You know I can't saylegislation that's going to help
and that's going to, you know Ican't say how much it's going
to sway things one way oranother, because obviously
(25:02):
that's up to the legislators.
But you know it definitelydoesn't hurt.
Again, though I would put itprobably testimony, then a phone
call or an email or even aphysical letter, if you want to
do that, that's also good.
I don't know how many lettersthey get over there and then,
(25:27):
yeah, probably something likejust signing a petition.
The best way to get involved isgoing to be to find whether it's
DRA and our social media andour website or the newspaper or
whatever outlet you're using tofollow along with the session,
their own website, it's kind offind out where to get that
information.
And if you have questions aboutwhere to get that information,
contact us at DRA.
(25:47):
We can help you with that.
And, yeah, just follow alongand keep an eye out for the
issues you care about and thengo from there and remember, like
I said before, these people arethere to do the work that the
people who elected them wantthem to do, so never feel shy or
bashful or like it's not yourplace to make your opinion known
(26:10):
about something that's going toaffect your life.
Amber (26:13):
It's like well said Well.
Thank you, christian, for beingon our show today.
He is the Voting Rights andPublic Policy Specialist for
Disability Rights, Arkansas, andhe just wanted to give us a
little talk about including youin the Arkansas legislative
session for 2025.
Thank you for joining us onIncluding you.
We hope today's conversationhas sparked ideas, offered
(26:34):
guidance or inspired you to takeaction in your own life and
community.
At Disability Rights, we believeadvocacy isn't always about
sweeping reforms.
It's about the small, everydayactions like asking the right
questions, standing up whensomething feels wrong or helping
to create a space whereeveryone feels included.
(26:55):
If today's episode resonatedwith you, visit us at
disabilityrightsarorg to learnmore about your rights, access
resources and find ways to getinvolved, but don't forget to
follow us on social media forupdates, tips and stories from
the disability community.
If you enjoyed this episode,share it with a friend, leave us
(27:18):
a review or start aconversation, because that's
where change begins.
Remember, everyone deserves toknow their rights Everyone,
including you.
Until next time, I'm AmberQuaid and we'll talk with you
again soon.
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