End Private Option In 2015 Bill Fails In House Committee

A House bill that would have set a Dec. 31, 2015 deadline to end the Private Option failed Thursday morning in committee after questions about the bill emerged.

The House Public Health, Welfare and Labor committee voted 10-8 against House Bill 1181, sponsored by Rep. Donnie Copeland, R-Little Rock.

Copeland told the committee that his bill would have had two key elements.

One would involve capping enrollment for the program as of July 1, 2015, while the other would give a 90-day notice for people on the program that it would be ending.

However, the lack of a task force mentioned in the bill as well as a belief that capping enrollment would trip a federal waiver the state currently has with the program caused committee members some consternation.

Copeland said he was excited about the task force option listed in Senate Bill 96, sponsored by Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs. Hendren’s bill passed the state Senate Thursday morning.

“I believe there will be great reforms that come from it,” Copeland said of the task force idea.

However, Copeland was questioned by committee chairman Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Flippin, about the lack of the task force provision.

“We have 100 legislators who would make up a pretty, good task force. Plus there are 2.7 million people in this state who would be as well,” Copeland said.

On the waiver issue, the committee heard from Arkansas Department of Human Services director John Selig.

Selig told committee members that the waiver would be stopped by the federal government while the state agency could not cap enrollment like an “on-off switch.”

Copeland, a pastor who works with a non-profit group in Little Rock, said he has about 300 members at his church with roughly half of them on the Private Option.

“In this country, we do not turn people away,” Copeland said.

In other action, the committee approved a so-called “web-cam abortion bill.”

The committee voted by voice vote to send House Bill 1076 to the House floor.

Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, told the committee that the bill would address safety issues involving the procedure, which involves a woman receiving an abortion with a doctor using telemedicine.

However, two witnesses who spoke against the bill – Arkansas Civil Liberties Union executive director Rita Sklar and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland official Ashley Wright – said the bill would violate a woman’s right to choose.

The bill has 42 sponsors in the state House and 20 sponsors in the state Senate.