Gov. Sander signs higher education reform bill ahead of Legislature’s Spring Break recess
Legislation to ease utility regulations on large economic projects also approved by House and Senate
By the Arkansas Black Vitality Staff
March 21, 2025—Gov. Sarah Sanders’ legislation to reform Arkansas’s higher education system – including altering scholarship funding and restricting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives – was overwhelmingly endorsed by the Arkansas House and Senate.
Senate Bill 24, whose principles are encapsulated in the acronym ACCESS – Acceleration, Common Sense, Cost, Eligibility, Scholarships, and Standardization – was signed into law on Tuesday by Sanders. It was approved by a vote of 26-7 in the Senate on March 17. It was earlier endorsed by the House on March 13 by a vote 81-17.
Sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, and former House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, the vote in both chambers for the 123-page bill was mostly along party lines. Altogether, Gov. Sanders signed more than 40 new bills into law on Tuesday during the 10th week of the 95th Arkansas General Assembly. During the ongoing legislative session, 341 bills have been signed into law.
In other House and Senate activity on the 11th week of the 2025 legislative session, SB 307 was signed by Gov. Sanders on Thursday, following the House’s approval earlier in the week by a vote of 77-13. Known as the “Generating Arkansas Jobs Act of 2025,” SB307 will allow utilities and electric cooperatives to file annual riders with the state Public Service Commission (PSC) to increase rates annually before a new plant is fully capitalized or constructed. Currently, the PSC considers a rate increase near the end of the construction process rather than at the beginning.
On March 3, the 62-page bill failed on the Senate floor by one vote and was referred to the committee for amendment. On March 13, a newer version of the bill was approved in the Senate by a vote of 27-1. Sen. Jamie Scott, R-Little Rock, was the lone “nay” vote.
During the earlier debate, Dismang termed his bill, backed by Gov. Sander, as a “job creator” for Arkansas. Dismang, Gov. Sanders, and a host of business backers, including Entergy Arkansas, have stated that SB307 will enable Arkansas to compete for massive multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence superprojects, such as Elon Musk’s xAI, which Facebook and Instagram parent Meta are also building, just across the state line in Tennessee and Louisiana.
Other key bills reaching Gov. Sander’s desk and signed into law include Act 302, which allows executives in Arkansas using nitrogen gas. The new legislation will make Arkansas the fifth state to adopt this new method of executions.
The new state drug protocol could put the spotlight back on Arkansas’ efforts to retool and restart executions in the summer of 2017, when Arkansas received national attention after Gov. Asa Hutchinson set executive dates two at a time for eight inmates over an 11-day period before the state’s supply of the lethal injection drug midazolam expired. Eventually, four Arkansas inmates died by lethal injection, three executions were stayed, and one death row prisoner was granted clemency by the governor.
In late 2017, the state Supreme Court ruled that Arkansas Department of Corrections officials must reveal the pharmaceutical package inserts and labels for its supply of midazolam. That came after the state high court halted a ruling by Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Mackie Pierce that the legislature could not shield information about the drugs used to carry out executions.
State Correction officials later acquired a new supply of midazolam, the controversial sedative that is part of the state’s three-drug execution protocol. Vecuronium bromide, a muscle relaxer that causes paralysis, is the second drug used in ADC’s execution protocol, while potassium chloride stops the heart and causes death.
Although the state doesn’t have a new slate of scheduled executions, there are 25 inmates on death row. Nitrogen hypoxia is a method of suffocating an inmate by forcing them to breathe pure nitrogen, starving them from oxygen until they die.
On Tuesday, Gov. Sanders also signed the following legislation into law:
- SCR4 – To recognize former state representative and Sen. Joyce Elliott during Black History Month for her service to the state of Arkansas.
- HB1607, now Act 318, establishes the Office of Outdoor Recreation within the Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism.
- HB1634, now Act 305, allows higher education institutions in the state to conduct sports raffles as fundraisers. An emergency clause attached to the bill allows the new law to go into effect immediately.
- HB1307, now Act 308, prevents state institutions from participating in investment funds that target global warming, have DEI initiatives, facilitate abortion or gender reassignment, or limit firearms access.
- HB1581, now Act 316, adds sex trafficking or grooming a minor for future sex trafficking to the list of sex offenders in Arkansas law.
- HB1634, now Act 395, permits colleges and universities to conduct raffles to raise funds for paying players on their athletic teams, including accepting payment for the use of their name, image, or likeness (NIL).
- SB334, now Act 331, appropriates funding to the Department of Education’s Division of Elementary and Secondary Education for capital improvement projects such as building and grounds maintenance, major renovations, insurance and janitorial services.
- SB335, now Act 332, appropriates Department of Education funding to the Arkansas School for the Deaf for capital improvement projects.
- SB300, now Act 321, creates a felony criminal offense for organized retail theft, including so-called “smash-and-grab” robberies that the FBI says are backed by organized crime rings.
Other key House bills filed ahead of next week’s spring break recess include Senate Bill 354, which would appropriate up to $750 million to the Arkansas Department of Corrections’ Division of Corrections for costs associated with prison construction in Frankly County. The Legislature had previously set aside $330 million for the proposed 3,000-bed penitentiary, plus an additional $75 million.
Sponsored by Sen. Dismang, the bill was earlier referred to the Joint Budget Committee, where it failed to get enough votes to move forward. It also includes an emergency clause that would allow it to take effect on July 1, the start of the state’s fiscal year. The Legislature had previously set aside $330 million for the proposed 3,000-bed penitentiary, plus an additional $75 million.
As an appropriations bill, approval by the bicameral Joint Budget Committee would enable the Department of Corrections to access $330 million from the state’s restricted reserve fund, which is set aside “for the efficient and effective operation of state government.” Established during the 2023 legislative session, the fund allocated $1,152,227,257 for a wide range of special projects, including $330 million for the construction of a new state prison.
House Bill 1681 is also seeking to transfer up to $50 million in unobligated funding from the state’s Securities Reserve Fund to finance a new Water and Sewer Facilities Grant Program. The bill, filed by Rep. DeAnn Vaught, R-Horatio, has broad bipartisan support with over 50 co-sponsors from both chambers. If passed, the funding with be set aside for “shovel-ready” water and wastewater system projects in rural Arkansas towns serving populations with fewer than 1,200 people.
The Arkansas General Assembly will recess for spring break from March 24 to 28. The Arkansas Senate voted to extend the regular session and provide for a recess of the General Assembly at the close of business on April 7 or at an earlier time agreed upon by the House and Senate.