The House on Monday concurred with Senate amendments to a bill that would put a different agency in charge of overseeing grants to the groups that provide services for abused children.
House Bill 1499, sponsored by Rep. Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren, would have the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration distribute the grants.
Currently, grants for the Children's Advocacy Centers of Arkansas, a nonprofit that provides support and advocacy for victims of child abuse, come through the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
The state Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence is responsible for coordinating groups made up of law enforcement authorities, child advocates and health care professionals -- groups known as multidisciplinary teams -- that respond to reports of child abuse and can help provide support to victims.
The Children's Advocacy Centers is one of the groups that are part of the multidisciplinary teams.
Elizabeth Pulley, executive director of the Children's Advocacy Centers of Arkansas, told lawmakers last week at a committee meeting that the move from UAMS to the Department of Finance and Administration would give lawmakers more oversight of the commission.
"So basically we're taking a program that was started about 20 years ago and are just bringing it up to speed and enhancing it," Pulley said.
Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, the bill's Senate sponsor, told lawmakers Wednesday that the bill was meant to help provide greater oversight and coordination between the teams that respond to reports of child abuse.
A previous version of the bill would have had the Children's Advocacy Centers overseeing the commission, and some lawmakers and prosecutors pushed back against that proposal.
With Gov. Asa Hutchinson supporting the original bill, some also saw a conflict of interest because first lady Susan Hutchinson sits on the board of directors for the Children's Advocacy Centers.
The bill's sponsors, Fite and Dismang, sit on the advisory council of the Children's Advocacy Centers of Arkansas.
The bill now goes to the governor.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Wickline and John Moritz of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.