King/Lee unlikely to make special-session cut

Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Flippin
Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Flippin

Lawmakers say it is unlikely that the state holiday celebrating the birthdays of a civil rights hero and a Confederate general on the same day will be addressed in the special legislative session later this month.


RELATED ARTICLE

http://www.arkansas…">Some see future in civil-rights past

The session, set to start May 19, is intended to be short and focus on highway funding, although Gov. Asa Hutchinson can include other issues in his session call proclamation, and lawmakers are jockeying to get their favorites in the mix.

Hutchinson supports ending the decadeslong tradition of honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert E. Lee on the same day in January. But, last week he said he doubted that there is consensus among lawmakers to take up the issue during the coming session.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill declaring King's birthday a national holiday to be celebrated on the third Monday in January. Arkansas is one of three states that also celebrates Lee's birthday on that day. King was born Jan. 15, 1929. Lee was born Jan. 19, 1807.

On Friday, lawmakers cited a range of reasons for why the holiday is not quite ripe for state legislative action.

State House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said lawmakers have more immediate work at hand just now.

"Most everybody that I've talked to, for them, it's a timing issue. There's a feeling that [the holiday] is something that we could take up in the general session," Gillam said.

"With a growing call list [of legislation] ... the need to be able to come in and get out ... trying to keep this from becoming a general session. [Lawmakers don't want] something with 30 or 40 bills on it. Everyone has something they want to move on the call. ... You hear that a lot."

Rep. Reginald Murdock, D-Marianna, said part of the problem is a lack of "consensus" on how to change the law.

For Murdock, who wants the holiday to celebrate only King's birthday, said there isn't a concrete plan on how to split the holiday or what to do -- if anything -- for Lee.

"Both sides feel there should be honor given to those individuals, and how that's done is debatable," Murdock said. "If it were two other individuals, there would be no controversy, but since it is these two, there may have been some controversy in history that makes [this] what it is."

Previous attempts to separate the holiday have created controversy, as seen in multiple hearings during the 2015 regular session. The hearings were filled with hours of testimony from the public and arguments among lawmakers.

In a bipartisan effort during that session, Rep. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, and Rep. Nate Bell of Mena pushed bills that would have ended the dual celebrations. Bell was a Republican during that session but has since declared himself an independent.

The state's dual celebrations have received negative media attention from national news organizations like the cable news network MSNBC.

Yet, lawmakers' efforts to align Arkansas with the holiday as celebrated in 47 other states has met with stiff opposition. A mix of citizens, including vocal members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, packed the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee room in 2015 whenever the holiday-severing bills were scheduled for discussion.

Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Flippin, sat through much of that debate, which focused on race, Southern heritage and the state's appearance to the rest of the nation.

He said Friday that he didn't want to see the issue come up in the special session.

Linck voted against the legislation then and said he would again unless there is a way to accommodate his many Civil War re-enactor constituents who want to continue using their "day off of work" to honor Lee.

He said he hasn't heard much talk about tackling the matter in the coming session. If it did make the call, Linck said, it could result in more of a fight than lawmakers want right now.

"I could see it as a risk for [derailing the session]," he said. "With this, I don't hear a great consensus among members. ... We've [had] Arkansas Works, highways, managed care. It's not been something that there's been a lot of discussion of around the table."

Gillam said concerns that the holiday could turn an otherwise orderly session into a fracas "could be a large part of" why there's no one pushing Hutchinson to add it for the special session. But really, Gillam said, lawmakers already have a lot on their plate.

"There are other things taking up the attention and focus of members, and this wasn't one of the things that people are focusing on," Gillam said.

SundayMonday on 05/08/2016

Upcoming Events