Issue Campaign Toolkit · Rhonna-Rose
How a Bill Moves in Arkansas
A field guide for new advocates who care about the issue and need to understand the process. Read it, research as you go, and hand it back as a completed brief.
The Structure: What You Are Working With
Arkansas has a bicameral legislature called the General Assembly. It has two chambers that both have to pass a bill before it goes to the Governor. The session calendar is the most unusual thing about Arkansas compared to most states, and it shapes everything about when and how you do this work.
35 senators. Four-year staggered terms, limited to two terms. Republicans hold a 29-6 supermajority as of 2025. Find the full member list at arkleg.state.ar.us
100 representatives. Two-year terms, limited to three terms. Republicans hold an 81-19 supermajority as of 2025. Find the full member list at arkansashouse.org
Most states meet every year. Arkansas meets in full regular session only in odd-numbered years, starting the second Monday in January and running 60 days unless extended. In even-numbered years, the General Assembly meets only for a fiscal session limited strictly to appropriations bills. New policy legislation cannot be introduced in a fiscal session.
This means your legislative timeline is constrained by a two-year cycle. If you are starting advocacy work in an even year, your job is to build relationships, develop your bill, secure a sponsor, and be fully prepared to move when the next regular session opens. Do not wait. The 60-day clock starts the moment the session opens and moves fast.
What year is it and which type of session applies? Is your legislative window open or are you preparing for the next regular session?
Is there already a bill introduced related to your issue? If so, what is the bill number and which chamber introduced it?
The Path: How a Bill Actually Becomes Law
Before anything gets voted on by the full chamber, it has to survive a committee. The committee is where most bills live or die, usually quietly, with no vote ever taken. Understanding this is the most important thing in this guide.
Arkansas requires each bill to be read three times on the floor before a final vote. The first reading is the formal introduction. The second reading is where amendments can be offered. The third reading is the final vote. This is standard procedure but it means the timeline from committee passage to a final floor vote has multiple steps. Budget accordingly when you are tracking where your bill stands.
When a bill is introduced, it is assigned to a committee by chamber leadership. The committee chair decides whether to schedule a hearing. If the chair never schedules a hearing, the bill dies there with no vote ever taken. Most bills do not lose in a floor vote. They die in a committee room where a hearing was never called. Your first target is almost always the committee chair, not the full chamber.
In a 60-day session with a two-year wait until the next one, time is your most constrained resource. If your bill does not have a committee hearing scheduled within the first few weeks of session, start asking why.
What committee has your bill been assigned to, or what committee would logically handle your issue?
Who is the current chair of that committee and have they been friendly or hostile to similar issues in the past?
Finding the Right Committee
Arkansas has 14 standing Senate committees, 10 standing House committees, and 17 joint committees as of the 95th General Assembly. Your bill will land in one of them. Here is how to find out which one, who runs it, and what the vote count looks like.
Go to the official committee list
The full committee list for both chambers lives at arkleg.state.ar.us/Committees/List. You can filter by Senate, House, or Joint committees. Each committee page lists its current chair, members, and any subcommittees. The House also posts its standing committee membership as a downloadable document at arkansashouse.org.
Name of committee most relevant to your issue:
Chamber (House or Senate) and any subcommittee:
Find the chair and all committee members
Click into the committee page on arkleg.state.ar.us. You will see the chair, vice chair, and full membership with party affiliation. Write down every name. In a Republican supermajority legislature, pay close attention to which Republicans on the committee might be movable, since Democratic votes alone will rarely be enough to carry a committee vote.
Committee chair name and party:
Vice chair name and party:
All other committee members (name and party):
Count the votes and understand the supermajority context
You need a majority of committee members to move the bill to the floor. In a chamber where Republicans hold more than two-thirds of seats, you almost certainly need Republican votes to win in committee and on the floor. This is not a reason to give up. It is information you need before you decide who to target and how to frame the campaign. Knowing you need Republican votes shapes everything: your messengers, your framing, your coalition.
Total committee members:
Votes needed to pass out of committee:
Party breakdown and what that means for your strategy:
Finding Each Member: What You Need to Know
Once you have the committee list, you need a research profile on each member. Not a biography. Specific information that tells you how to approach them, who influences them, and what might move them on your issue.
Find their official profile page
Every Arkansas legislator has a profile on the official legislature website. Search by name from the member directories. Senate members: arkleg.state.ar.us. House members: arkansashouse.org/members. Profiles show district, committee assignments, contact information, and professional background.
Look up their voting history on similar issues
The Arkansas Legislature's bill tracking and vote records are at arkleg.state.ar.us/Bills/Search. Search for bills related to your issue area from previous sessions and look at how your target members voted. Their vote record tells you more than any statement they have made publicly. Pay attention to how they voted on bills that crossed party lines.
Find their district
Use the district finder at arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/DistrictMap or the transparency portal at transparency.arkansas.gov to look up who represents a given address. Constituent voices from inside the district carry more weight than anyone outside it. Knowing the district also tells you what local organizations, industries, and community groups have standing with that member.
Check their campaign finance records
Arkansas campaign finance is regulated by both the Arkansas Ethics Commission and the Secretary of State. Contribution and expenditure reports are searchable at the Secretary of State's financial disclosure portal at ethics-disclosures.sos.arkansas.gov. Look at who funds them consistently. Industries and PACs that give repeatedly often have influence. This is political intelligence, not scandal.
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Who to Contact First: The Elected Official or the Staff?
This is the question almost nobody tells you the answer to. In Arkansas, legislative staff structures are leaner than in larger states. Many legislators, especially House members, share staff or operate with very small offices. That changes your approach slightly but the core principle is the same: build the staff relationship before you try to reach the member directly.
In a 60-day session, legislative staff are managing more than you can imagine. The advocate who comes prepared, asks for something specific, and makes the staff member's job easier gets the meeting. The one who shows up with a general concern does not.
| Who | What they do | When to contact them first | How to find them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legislative Aide or Staff Director | In Arkansas, many members have one primary staffer who handles policy, scheduling, and constituent communications. This person is your most important contact. They brief the member, screen meetings, and shape what the member knows about your issue. | Almost always your first call. Before you try to reach the member directly. Before you send anything to a general inbox. Ask for this person by name when you call. | Call the member's office and ask directly. The Bureau of Legislative Research at blr.arkansas.gov can also help you find staff contacts. Some are listed on the member's profile page. |
| Bureau of Legislative Research (BLR) | Arkansas's nonpartisan research arm that supports all legislators. They draft bills, conduct research, and provide legal analysis. If your issue needs bill language drafted or technical research, the BLR does this work. Your sponsor legislator works with the BLR to develop bill language. | When you have a sponsor and need to understand how your bill language is being developed. The BLR works for the legislature, not for advocates, but understanding their role helps you communicate with your sponsor about the bill drafting process. | blr.arkansas.gov or through your sponsor legislator's office. |
| Committee Clerk | Manages committee scheduling, agendas, and records. Knows when hearings are being planned before they are publicly posted. | When you want to know whether a hearing is being considered for your bill. A polite call to the committee clerk asking about the schedule is entirely appropriate and often more useful than calling the chair's office directly. | Contact information is listed on the committee's page at arkleg.state.ar.us. |
| The Elected Official | The decision-maker. The vote. The person whose name is on the door. | After staff has been engaged. At public events, committee hearings where testimony is open, and town halls where direct engagement is expected. Or when a trusted community member or coalition partner makes the introduction. | Committee hearings are open to the public and live-streamed at arkansashouse.org and through the Senate. District offices and public events are your best direct access points. |
| District Office or Local Contact | Handles constituent relationships at the local level. Often closer to the member's community base than Little Rock staff. | When you are organizing constituent pressure from inside the district. Local calls and visits from constituents carry significant weight, particularly for House members who represent approximately 30,000 people and are very close to their districts. | Listed on the member's official profile page. Ask directly when you call the main office. |
For each priority legislator, find and record the name and contact for their primary staff person:
How to Actually Make Contact
Arkansas's 60-day session is compressed. Staff are managing a high volume of bills and advocates simultaneously. The people who get meetings and move things are the ones who come with a clear, specific ask and make it easy for staff to understand what they need and why. Vague concerns get noted. Clear asks get scheduled.
Write a one-page brief before any contact
Before you call anyone, have a one-page document ready that states: what the issue is in plain language, what specific action you are asking the member to take, why it matters to their district, and who in the district is affected. This is what you send after your first call. If you cannot state your ask in one page, it is not ready.
We are asking [member name] to [specific action: co-sponsor, vote yes on, schedule a hearing for] [bill name or number] because [one sentence on why it matters to their district or constituency].
Call the office, ask for the staff person by name, be brief
When you call: your name, your organization or role, the issue you are working on, and a request for five minutes to brief the member's staff. Do not lead with your full argument. Lead with the issue and its connection to their district. Get the conversation first. Everything else follows.
Follow up with your one-pager within 24 hours
After any conversation, send a brief follow-up email with your one-pager attached, your contact information, and a specific next step. Do not leave the conversation open-ended. Suggest something concrete: a follow-up call, a meeting, a request to testify at an upcoming hearing.
Track every contact in writing
Log every call, email, and meeting with who you spoke to, what was discussed, what was promised, and what the next step is. Your campaign director needs this to build strategy. In a fast-moving 60-day session, undocumented contacts become gaps in your intelligence.
Hearings, Testimony, and the Public Record
If the committee chair schedules a hearing, that is your moment. In Arkansas, committee hearings are open to the public and both sign-in sheets for testimony and oral testimony are part of the public record. Testimony shapes what the legislature hears, gives persuadable members political cover, and is often the most powerful thing an affected community member can do.
Committee hearings are posted on the legislature's website at arkleg.state.ar.us and on the House site at arkansashouse.org. Hearings are also live-streamed so you can monitor them remotely. Hearing notices can be posted with very short notice during session. Watch the calendar daily once session opens and cultivate the committee clerk as a source of advance information.
Constituents from inside the district of a persuadable committee member carry more weight than outside experts. Lead with people who are directly affected by the issue and who can speak to what it has meant in their lives. You can sign in to speak during committee meetings. Written testimony is also accepted and becomes part of the permanent committee record even if you do not speak. Both matter. Do not skip written testimony just because you cannot attend in person.
Has a hearing been scheduled for your bill or issue? If so, when and where?
Who in your coalition or community should testify? Do they live in the district of a persuadable committee member?
Your Completed Research Brief
This is what you hand back. Fill in everything you have found. Your campaign director uses this to build strategy. If there are blanks, note what you still need to find and how you plan to find it.
| Item | What you found | Source or URL | Still need? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current session type (regular or fiscal) | |||
| Bill number and sponsor | |||
| Chamber it started in | |||
| Committee assigned to | |||
| Committee chair name and party | |||
| Chair's staff name and contact | |||
| Votes needed to pass committee | |||
| Confirmed yes votes on committee | |||
| Republican persuadables on committee | |||
| Hearing date if scheduled | |||
| Companion bill in other chamber | |||
| Governor's known position | |||
| Days left in session |
Based on your research, what do you think the first move should be? Who should be contacted first and by whom? What is the biggest obstacle you found? Given the session timeline, what has to happen in the next two weeks?
Every state legislature has the same basic structure: two chambers, committees, a bill path from introduction to the Governor. What changes is the size, session calendar, committee names, and advocacy culture. Arkansas is particularly distinctive because of its biennial regular session and the strong Republican supermajority, both of which require specific strategic adjustments.
To adapt this guide for another state: replace Arkansas-specific URLs with that state's official legislative website, find the equivalent committee directory and bill tracking system, and note whether the state meets annually or biennially. The National Conference of State Legislatures at ncsl.org has a directory of every state legislature with links to official sites. The questions and research fields in this guide work everywhere.
A Note on Doing This Work in Arkansas
Arkansas is a state with a strong Republican supermajority and a compressed session calendar. Neither of those facts should stop you. What they should do is make you more strategic, not less. You need the right messengers, the right framing, and enough time to build relationships before you walk into a hearing. The advocates who win in Arkansas are the ones who do not wait for session to start doing the work.
The information you find doing this research compounds. Every relationship you build with a legislative staffer, every committee you map, every hearing you show up to makes the next fight faster and more effective. Start now.
Nothing skipped. Nothing assumed. Nothing wasted.
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