We start this Tuesday edition of Ozarks at Large like we did last Tuesday, with our friend Andrew DeMillo. He is the editor-in-chief of the Arkansas Advocate. Andrew, thanks for being on with us again today.
DeMillo: Thank you for having me again.
Moore: We are in the depths of the fiscal session, the legislative session here. And we're going to start with a little bit of an explainer. This is a series you guys have been doing throughout this calendar year, and this is the next iteration of it. You've called it "Legislative Lingo."
DeMillo: You know, this is our current installment of Arkansas Explained, which basically we're trying to do is kind of boil down in simple terms things that we cover regularly — either parts of state government, parts of politics, or basics of major stories that we've been following. And this seemed like the next natural iteration with the legislature. Legislators, lobbyists, journalists all love legislative lingo, and a lot of times it feels like they're speaking in their own language. If you're going to the Capitol for the first time or following along on the live stream, you may wonder what RSA means, what "sound the ballot" means. We really want to provide essentially a user's guide for the public so that when they hear these terms — especially the terms that come up a lot during the fiscal session — they can break it down as much as possible.
Moore: I think it's especially relevant right now because the fiscal session works a little bit differently from the general session. So there is some terminology we're hearing this time around that even if you followed the legislative session for the first time in 2025, you're tuning in these couple of weeks and saying, well, I thought I understood what was going on, and I don't really understand. There are some specific terms we're hearing more frequently this session.
DeMillo: Yeah. Like appropriations bills, which give agencies authority to spend money — that's the bulk of what's going to be happening during the fiscal session. One thing we try to be clear about, and I think some people may not understand when they're first watching the legislature, is that passing an appropriation doesn't guarantee funding. It only gives the agency the authority to spend money. And other terms like the Joint Budget Committee, which is basically the primary committee that's meeting right now during the fiscal session. Also terms like a hold, which is essentially just like it sounds — kind of preventing a bill from moving forward. When you hear that happening with an appropriations bill, that's usually a sign that there are going to be some questions or issues that the agency or some official is going to have to address that a lawmaker, or in some cases several lawmakers, have raised.
Moore: All right. We're going to put some of this glossary to work right now, talking about prison funding prohibition. The Budget Committee granted permission for staff to draft an appropriations bill to prohibit nearly $74 million from being used for construction of a Franklin County prison. This is something we've talked a lot about over the last year, and it's something that we did not hear the governor talk about in her State of the State address. Get us up to speed on how we got to this point and what this draft potentially means.
DeMillo: Getting into the background for people who haven’t been following this — the Franklin County prison has been a major political issue, and it's been pretty much the only time that the governor has really faced serious resistance in the legislature to one of her proposals. Legislative leaders have said the votes are not there in either chamber for the appropriation. Last week, the governor had drafted what's called special language — more legislative lingo — which is essentially special instructions that are tacked on to appropriations bills. Basically saying that the $74 million that was supposed to be going toward the Franklin County project is going to go for costs associated with prison expansion, but making it clear that it's not going to be used for the Franklin County prison project. This is the clearest terms possible that the governor has said this project is basically on hold right now. She still says she thinks Franklin County is the best site for it and has said she's open to hearing other options. But this is really the first official word that she's not going to be seeking it this session, based on this language. And I think that clears off one of the big issues, one of the big debates that we were watching for this fiscal session.
Moore: One of the other things we have been following closely with this session is around the school vouchers, the Education Freedom Accounts. Are we seeing any specific movement around that? I know last week we talked about some resolutions to try and curtail some of that spending. Where do we stand?
DeMillo: There had been several proposals aimed at restricting and curtailing the voucher program, also known as the Educational Freedom Account program. Since it's a fiscal session, these proposals need two-thirds support in both chambers to even be considered, since they're not appropriations bills. A House committee last week took up several of the non-budget proposals that people are trying to get on the agenda, and most of them were rejected. That included the restrictions on the EFA program. There are still identical proposals pending in the Senate right now, and they're going to be coming up this week as well — or at least the resolution to introduce them. The fact that these resolutions could not even get out of committee in the House, I think, is a sign that no matter what happens in the Senate, unless something extraordinary happens, this issue is pretty much dead this session, at least in terms of looking at restrictions on the program.
Moore: Finally, you have a new column out that came out on Sunday talking about presidential libraries. You were here when the Clinton Library was being built — I remember hearing you talk about how it was one of the first things you covered when you came here to Arkansas. Tell me a little bit about the impetus to write this column and what really sticks out to you.
DeMillo: This kind of strays a little bit from what I normally write about with state government and the state legislature, but it very much has an impact in Arkansas. President Trump had recently unveiled his renderings of what he says will be his presidential library in Miami. It looks basically like a high-rise in Miami, has a replica of the golden escalator he traveled down when he announced his presidency, and has what appears to be an Air Force One in it — images that look more like something out of a casino, not really something you'd have at a historical site. At the same time, his Justice Department has unilaterally declared that the Presidential Records Act — the law that protects the public's access to presidents' records once they leave office — is unconstitutional. And this is an issue that doesn't just affect Trump's presidency or Trump's records. This can have an impact on presidential records throughout the National Archives system, and that includes Clinton's records here in Little Rock. The Clinton Library — I covered its construction and its opening back in '04 — is popular as a tourist site, and there are a lot of great outreach events they do in terms of education. But one of the most valuable things they do is provide these records, and they are open not just to historians, not just to journalists, but to the general public. There is a process for requesting them. It's really concerning, and it's not just about Trump's records. It's a wide swath of records that, if this goes forward, creates a lot of uncertainty and a lot of questions for how the public is going to be able to access these records and how we're going to be able to learn more about not just these presidencies, but a key part of our civic institutions.
Moore: You have a Substack where you talk about things that you are reading, that are on your to-be-read list, things you have just finished. You posted recently about a book, This Land Is Your Land by Beverly Gage. Tell me a little bit about why that book and what really stuck out to you.
DeMillo: I'm a history nerd, as you can tell from our conversation so far. And this was a book I was really interested in, and it's great timing for it in terms of the 250th anniversary. Beverly Gage is a historian, and essentially it's a road trip book where she goes to different parts of American history, different sites — everything from Independence Hall to Stone Mountain in Georgia — and kind of uses those as launching-off points to look at key parts of American history and also the conflict and nuances of history. This is not an overall glowing history of the United States, but it's also not a super sharp, critical history of the United States. She's really making the point that there's room for discussion and debate, and going to these sites really illustrates it. I read it and listened to it while driving out to Georgia, so it's a really good book to listen to while you're in the car. And you really have to resist the urge to stop at every single historical marker after you listen to it.
Moore: It feels very meta to be listening to a book about taking a historical road trip while you're on one yourself.
DeMillo: Yeah, exactly.
You can always keep up with Andrew DeMillo's team's work at arkansasadvocate.com. Andrew, thank you so much for your time. We'll talk next week.
DeMillo: Great. Looking forward to it.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
