Arkansas Online

Letter: Allow mask mandates

12 legislators from Pulaski County call for session to lift ban

MICHAEL R. WICKLINE

A dozen Democratic state lawmakers from Pulaski County in a letter Thursday urged Gov. Asa Hutchinson, House and Senate leaders, and other lawmakers to support an immediate call for a legislative session “to lift the ban on mask mandates in a manner that respects the will of the Legislature, the health of our people, and the importance of locally informed responses.”

Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, among those who signed the letter, said they favor changing Act 1002 of 2021 to provide flexibility to allow local officials to decide whether to require masks for safety purposes.

Act 1002, which takes effect Wednesday, will bar state and local governments, including schools, or a state or local official from mandating that an individual use a mask, face shield or other face covering.

“We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be held hostage by a legislator, a few legislators and a few personalities,” she said in an interview.

Elliott said she knows there are enough Republican lawmakers who voted against the bill that became Act 1002 sponsored by Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, or voted for the measure earlier this year, who know they need to provide local flexibility at a time of surging covid-19 cases across the state with students returning to school next month.

The Senate includes 27 Republicans, seven Democrats and an independent. The House includes 78 Republicans and 22 Democrats.

Asked about the letter from the dozen Democrats, Hutchinson said, “My thoughts on it are that our singular focus right now needs to be vaccinations, and so that’s our continued push.

“That’s the best thing we can do to get ready for school because even though the 12 and under are not eligible to be vaccinated, the more we get vaccinated, the better protection that they have and the less likely that it’s going to be a problem in those lower grades and so the letter specifically asks for the Legislature to reconsider the flexibility on masks,” the Republican governor said in an interview in Washington, D.C., where he spoke at the fourth annual Ronald Reagan Institute Summit on Education.

“While I am sympathetic to the local control and the local decision-making on those health provisions, I don’t see a consensus in the Legislature that that would change and so [it’s] an opportunity to listen to them and work with them,” Hutchinson said.

“But right now our focus needs to be vaccinations and there’s not going to be, I don’t expect any change in terms of the law that was enacted,” he said.

Hutchinson said he believes lawmakers will listen to local school superintendents and “they’re the ones that are sort of on, are on, the front line. So if they need more flexibility, they need to express that to their legislators.”

House and Senate leaders said there is not a consensus at this point in the House and the Senate to repeal Act 1002.

GARNER’S REACTION

Garner accused Democrats of trying to “expand their power in government.”

“This is about the people having the choice to make medical decisions, not about big government mandates coming down from Little Rock,” he said in an interview.

Asked about parents with concerns about their students returning to school, Garner said, “If you are concerned, that is your right as a parent, put a mask on, get them vaccinated if they are over the age of 12 or do remote learning if possible.”

The state should have a policy for universal remote learning because there are going to be covid-19 outbreaks with or without a mask mandate, there are going to be school shutdowns due to the nature of the delta variant and “right now I think we are caught flat-footed in actually giving the people that choice,” he said.

A total of 152 of Arkansas’ 262 traditional school districts and open-enrollment charter school systems have asked for approval of their remote-learning plans and accompanying waivers for the 2021-22 school year and for one or two years beyond that.

The state Board of Education has approved, one by one over the course of several meetings, most of the plans submitted.

Act 1002 also will bar state and local governments or a state or local official from banning use of a mask, face shield or other face covering as a condition for entry, education or services.

The law will not apply to a face-covering requirement imposed by a private business, state-owned or state-controlled health care facility, a facility operated by the Department of Corrections or a facility operated by the Division of Youth Services of the Department of Human Services.

If state or local government or official recommends an individual use a mask, face shield or other face covering, the governmental entity or official must provide notice that the recommendation is not mandatory under the law.

Act 1002 also states that the “General Assembly reserves the right to enact legislation regarding the mandatory use of face masks, face shields or other face coverings.”

PROHIBITION ENACTED

On March 30, Hutchinson announced he was lifting the state’s mask mandate.

On April 22, the Senate voted 19-9 to send Garner’s bill to the Republican governor with five senators not voting.

The action came after the House voted 69-20 — with 11 representatives not voting — to approve Garner’s bill on April 20.

The letter calling for changes to Act 1002 signed by a dozen Democratic lawmakers in Pulaski County said, “Not one of us voted for this legislation.

“In fact, it would be fair to say we vehemently opposed it, but we are clear it was passed following processes formulated and agreed to by both parties,” according to the letter.

Besides Elliott, the letter was signed by Sens. Linda Chesterfield of Little Rock and Clarke Tucker of Little Rock and Reps. Andrew Collins of Little Rock, Joy Springer of Little Rock, Fred Allen of Little Rock, Tippi McCullough of Little Rock, Fred Love of Little Rock, Jamie Scott of North Little Rock, Denise Emmett of Little Rock, Ashley Hudson of Little Perry and Mark Perry of Jacksonville.

“The problem we face now is Act 1002 was passed in what seems another epoch,” they wrote. “There was reason to assume it was safe to return to a sense of normality, so we did so — even passing legislation surely informed by that optimism. As with most things in this pandemic, however, nothing is certain, and since the Legislature recessed in April, circumstances in our state have altered dramatically.”

The letter called for Hutchinson to either call a special session or for reconvening the House and the Senate to change Act 1002. Senate President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, said he believes that the governor would have to call a special session to change the law because he doesn’t believe that he and House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, could reconvene the House and Senate to consider changing Act 1002 under the resolution approved by the General Assembly that would allow the Legislature to reconvene to redraw congressional district boundaries.

Attorney Tom Mars of Rogers has said on Twitter that he plans to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Act 1002.

Asked about the likelihood of a special session to repeal Act 1002, Hickey said, “As far as the Senate side, I am not willing to say that we have a consensus to do that yet.

“The Senate passed that, but from a ratio it wasn’t significant as the House, so that is something that we are just going to have work with the whole body on seeing what they want to do,” he said.

Shepherd said Thursday, “I have had only a handful of members talk to me about” changing the ban on government mask mandates.

“It was passed by a pretty wide margin, so I will continue to listen to folks,” he said in an interview. “I don’t see sense at this point that there has been any great change in position at least on the House end among the membership.”

House Revenue and Taxation Committee Chairman Joe Jett, R-Success, said Thursday in an interview that he voted for Garner’s bill “with the vaccinations were coming and the cases were running low.”

“Now, when I look back we didn’t have a crystal ball going forward and I had no idea only 35% of Arkansans would get vaccinated,” he said. “Now, I think we need to go back and revisit, at least let the people, the school districts be able to mandate [masks], decide what they want to do and give back local control.

“If schools want to start mandating masks, I am fine with that,” he said.

“One death is way too many.”

“This is about the people having the choice to make medical decisions, not about big government mandates coming down from Little Rock.”

— Sen. Trent Garner, accusing Democrats of trying to “expand their power in government”

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2021-07-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

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