Rogers-Lowell Area News

CALL TO ACTION HB 1586 | Legislative Update from Government Affairs Division: February 22, 2017

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS UPDATE | Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Your immediate action is needed on HB 1586 working its way through the General Assembly in Little Rock.

Please call your Legislators today to ask them to vote FOR HB 1586

You can view the bill by clicking: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2017/2017R/Bills/HB1586.pdf

HB 1586
The following information on HB 1586 is provided by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce:
HB 1586, which is our workers’ comp bill sponsored by Rep. John Payton, R-Wilburn and Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, received a DO PASS recommendation from the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee this morning. It will be considered by the full House in a day or two and will need a 2/3rds majority vote (67) to pass.

Because of the majority vote requirement, it is important for everyone to ask your Representative and Senator to vote for HB 1586. Legislators that are already yes votes will appreciate the support, those that are undecided may choose to support the bill and maybe some no votes will be convinced to support.

HB 1586 will establish a cap on employers’ costs at 450 weeks for death and permanent total disability injuries occurring on or after July 1, 2017. This type of cap is like what’s done in over a third of the states. The bill also clarifies that employees exposed to rabies will have workers’ comp pay for their treatment without requiring symptoms to be present. There are rumblings going around the Capitol about young workers’ who become permanently disabled. We believe there are very few of these cases and due to a previous court case, it would be unconstitutional to provide benefits based upon age. Also, this is the way these matters were handled before the creation of the Death and Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund.

We removed ODG from our bill at the request of the Governor’s Workers’ Comp liaison, Vu Ritchie, who said the Governor would be supportive of our bill if we removed ODG.