KUAR | By Mary Hennigan / Arkansas Advocate

Legislation to require a disability advocacy group to supply reports to the Legislature earned initial approval from Arkansas lawmakers Tuesday.

Separately, the House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor also sent the governor’s Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act on to the full House for consideration.

Under Rep. Jack Ladyman’s House Bill 1382, Disability Rights Arkansas (DRA) would be mandated to provide reports to subcommittees of the Arkansas Legislative Council for review, even though the independent nonprofit doesn’t receive state funding.

Committee halts public comment, approves bill to require reports from Arkansas disability nonprofit

*Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate*
Rep. Jack Ladyman, R-Jonesboro, presents a bill to the House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor on Feb. 11, 2025. The bill would require Disability Rights Arkansas, a federally funded nonprofit, to provide reports to the Legislature.

KUAR | By Josie Lenora

The Arkansas house elected Republican Rep. Brian Evans to be their next speaker Thursday. Evans won the speakership with 91 members of the 100 person house voting for him. Evans won the position over Republican State Rep. Johnny Rye from Trumann. Republican Rep. Jack Ladyman also planned to run for the position but told his colleagues he would step down after a “family emergency” with his wife. Evans opened his speech with a prayer for Ladymans family. In the rest of the speech, he decried the importance of leadership, judicial cooperation, and “building on the new.”

“During my time and your time in this house I have sought to work with you and my fellow colleagues to provide leadership that the people of Arkansas expect and deserve,” he said.

In Rye’s speech he talked about his many years of experience and quoted the Bob Dylan song: The Times They Are a Changing. He said that he is the person that “can deliver.”

Arkansas Elects New House Speaker: Rep Brian Evans