House at odds over new statues

One-hundred members of the state House of Representatives on Thursday could not reach an agreement on their two favorite Arkansans.

And they just barely chose a state fish.

The debate among the members stemmed from Senate Bill 75, which would authorize two new statues honoring the civil-rights leader Daisy Gatson Bates and musician Johnny Cash to be placed at the U.S. Capitol.

Each state gets to pick two people to honor in likeness at the nation’s Capitol. Arkansas’ current honorees — attorney Uriah Rose and former Gov. James Paul Clarke — have fallen out of favor among current legislators, in part due to Clarke’s segregationist attitudes and the pair’s general lack of recognition.

Picking two new favorite sons or daughters, however, has proved a laborious process.

SB75 failed twice in a Senate committee before finally passing the upper chamber in February. The bill was then approved by a narrow voice vote in House committee on Wednesday. After nearly 15 minutes of debate at the end of the week’s business Thursday, the bill appeared to pass by a vote of 54-21.

Opponents, however, struck back.

Several members of the House who had voted against the bill shouted for a “sounding the ballot,” in which those who voted yes would have their names struck if they didn’t answer from their seats when their names were called. Four of the members who had voted “yes” for SB75 were struck from the record. The bill failed by a vote of 50-21, one short.

Afterward, the House voted to send the bill back to committee so that efforts could be made to either amend it or put it back up for consideration.

House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R- El Dorado, who usually abstains , voted for SB75. He later told reporters that he would like to see the House move on from the issue.

“It’s an important issue but we’ve also got some more substantive issues to deal with,” Shepherd said. “I’m always interested in the House having a say, but as I said, it looks like there’s significant support for

the bill as is.”

Among the holdouts in the House were those who said they would rather see Walmart Inc. founder Sam Walton honored in the U.S. Capitol, and those who were perturbed that the Senate had been allowed to pick both honorees.

Each of the representatives who spoke Thursday said they agreed with honoring Bates with a statue, though several found fault with Cash.

“The drugs, the alcohol, the women,” said Rep. Douglas House, R-North Little Rock. “I can’t hold him up as a model for my children to look after.”

Of the various issues House lawmakers took up on Thursday before departing for the weekend, the two that took up the most time for debate were SB75, the statues bill, and House Bill 1640, to designate the alligator gar as the official state game fish.

Rep. Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren, introduced the bill, saying it was the result of a “years”-long project by an 11-year-old boy in Northwest Arkansas who is a fan of the fish.

The bill faced opposition, however, from some lawmakers who said that “minnow, bass and catfish” interests had expressed displeasure with the bill after it came out of committee earlier in the week.

One lawmaker, Rep. John Payton, R-Wilburn, stood up to say he opposed the bill because of his own difficulties in successfully reeling in an alligator gar.

The bill passed by a vote of 54-15.

Shepherd, the speaker, was asked later by reporters if the length of debate on the bills had frustrated him. He said it had not.

“It took time, but these are all things the Legislature does,” Shepherd said. “Designating a state fish, determining what statues are in the Capitol. … While these are not substantive laws, these are important.”