By John Lyon and Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A bill that would make “social hosts” who serve alcohol to underage guests subject to criminal liability narrowly passed in the House on Thursday and now heads to the Senate.
Also Thursday, the Senate approved a companion bill that would increase the penalties for someone knowingly giving alcohol to a minor.
In a 56-35 vote, the House approved House Bill 1586 by Rep. Fred Allen, D-Little Rock. Under the bill, an adult who knowingly serves alcohol to minors — other than the adult’s children — and knowingly allows minors to consume alcohol on his or her property could face a misdemeanor criminal charge.
A violation would be a felony on third offense.
Rep. Dan Greenberg, R-Little Rock, pointed out that “tiny sips of wine” are a part of some religious services.
“I’m pretty nervous, because this bill looks to me to outlaw traditional religious practices,” he said.
Rep. Pam Adcock, D-Little Rock, asked, “If you have a nephew or a niece that’s 19, 20 years old and they came back from Iraq and wanted to sit on the back patio and have a beer with you and you were caught, would you be charged?”
“I don’t think the intent at all is to come on someone’s patio and arrest someone because they’re having a beer,” said Rep. John Lowery, D-El Dorado, a supporter of the bill. “I don’t think also they’d bust in on communion or a religious service. The problem is parties, beer kegs, those types of things.”
The debate in the Senate over HB 1585 by Allen, which would increase the penalty for providing alcohol to a minor, was much shorter.
Under the bill, the penalty would go from a Class C felony, three to 10 years in jail and up to a $10,000 fine, to a Class A felony, six to 30 years in jail and a $15,000 fine. The bill passed 34-0 and now goes to the governor.
Sen. Bill Pritchard, R-Elkins, said the bill, and HB 1586, were both drafted from recommendations made last fall by the Task Force on Substance Abuse Prevention.
The House also approved HB 1666 by Rep. John Paul Wells, D-Paris, which would change the amount of training volunteer firefighters are required to receive from 40 hours in their first year of service to 28 hours in their first 18 months.
“These … folks work 8 to 5, then go home and have a farm or chicken houses or whatever, or any other type of occupation they do on the side, or they have kids and basketball, baseball. They don’t have time to do all of this,” said Wells, a volunteer firefighter.
Some House members said they feared for firefighters’ safety if training requirements were loosened.
“I’d much rather worry about the problem of requiring over-training than to deal with the ramifications of under-training,” said Rep. Barry Hyde, D-North Little Rock.
Rep. Mark Martin, R-Prairie Grove, said rural fire departments are having difficulty recruiting and keeping firefighters.
“If you’re ever out on Highway 59 and there is no longer a volunteer fire department there because we failed to pass this legislation, I just hope that it’s not you or your child that needs that volunteer firefighter that is no longer there,” he said.
The bill passed 67-27. It goes to the Senate.
The House voted 79-8 to approve HB 1552 by Rep. Lindsley Smith, D-Fayetteville, which would require an employer to provide a sanitary, private location for working mothers to express breast milk, unless doing so would be an undue hardship for the employer.
In an 82-4 vote, the House approved HB 1474, also by Smith, which would prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against victims of domestic abuse.
The Senate also approved SB 431 by Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, which would make it a Class A misdemeanor for a person to receive an insurance settlement of $1,000 or more and not use the money to repair the vehicle if there is still a lean on the car.
The bill passed 34-0 and goes to the House.
The House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor on Thursday endorsed SB 315 by Sen. Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, which would establish the framework for a statewide trauma system. The bill passed 32-0 in the Senate last month and now advances to the full House.
Gov. Mike Beebe recently signed into law a measure raising the state’s cigarette tax by 56 cents a pack to fund a trauma network. The tax increase passed in the House in a 75-24 vote, but Rep. Gene Shelby, D-Hot Springs, who is running SB 315 in the House, said Thursday he expects fewer “no” votes on the House floor for Steele’s bill.
The House members who opposed raising the cigarette tax “weren’t against the trauma system, they were just against the funding mechanism,” Shelby said.
