Harris backs off legislative roles bearing on DHS

The legislator who has drawn national scrutiny for the “re-homing” of his two adopted children to a sexual predator has stepped down from his roles in committees that oversee the state’s adoption agency.

Rep. Justin Harris, R-West Fork, submitted a letter to Speaker of the House Jeremy Gillam on Monday formally requesting that the House leader find a replacement for him as vice chairman in the House Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs Committee; Harris will still serve on the committee.

He also asked to step down from the Legislature’s Joint Performance Review Committee.

The move came a day before at least one of the bills designed to end the practice of re-homing in Arkansas is scheduled to be heard by the House Judiciary Committee. It would make re-homing a felony.

Harris did not explain his decision in the letter. He didn’t return a phone call for comment. His spokesman, Little Rock attorney Jennifer Wells, said neither she nor Harris would discuss his decision to step down as the committee’s vice chairman.

Harris re-homed two adopted girls — ages 3 and 5 — in late 2013, saying they were too difficult to raise. He has said the state Department of Human Services threatened him with a child abandonment lawsuit if he tried returning them to the state, so he gave them to a minister and former employee at Harris’ day care named Eric Cameron Francis.

Francis sexually assaulted the oldest of the two girls before Harris transferred them to another home.

Francis was sentenced to 40 years in prison last year.

On Monday, Gillam said Harris did not offer a reason for stepping down from his committee leadership post. Gillam said Harris hadn’t been encouraged or pressured by fellow members to scale back his role on the aging, children and youth committee or to withdraw completely from the Joint Performance Review Committee, which specializes in evaluating the performance of state agencies.

“Rep. Harris has always, always, I think, had a great deal of respect for the process and for the legislative process as a whole, but also the committee process,” Gillam said. “I think he cares very deeply about that committee. And I think he has thoroughly enjoyed being a member … for his three terms. And he wants to make sure that it continues to operate at a great and high level of functionality. And I think that was the reason that he made his request.”

Gillam said he will meet with the aging, children and youth committee chairman, Rep. George McGill, D-Fort Smith, to discuss a replacement. The Joint Performance Review Committee does not meet during the session, so Gillam said there is time to figure out that replacement.

J.R. Davis, a spokesman for Gov. Asa Hutchison, said the governor had no comment on Harris’ decision.

The House majority leader, Rep. Ken Bragg, R-Sheridan, said that Harris’ leaving the Joint Performance Review Committee and reducing his role in the House committee, which also handles DHS legislation, would reduce any potential for a “conflict of interest.”

“I think it was mutual,” Bragg said of Harris’ request and Gillam’s acceptance. “I think he realized that his continued vice chairmanship would be a distraction to the committee.”

Neither Bragg nor Gillam has heard calls for Harris to resign from the Legislature.

The minority leader, Rep. Eddie Armstrong, D-North Little Rock, said he was encouraged by Harris’ decision to reduce his roles as a legislator.

Last week, Armstrong suggested that Harris consider resignation to end the “distraction” that his re-homing and the subsequent media reports have caused.

On Monday, Armstrong said he hoped that Harris would still consider resigning.

Asked if he’s gotten calls from constituents wanting the Northwest Arkansas legislator to step down, Armstrong said yes.

“Everyday, someone in Northwest Arkansas, central Arkansas, people from around the state are calling,” Armstrong said. “Rep. Harris has obviously recognized that maybe his position on those committees was an undue burden on [them] and the legislative body. Him stepping down should go in as the first step of his resignation, if [the resignation] is going to be imminent.”

McGill said he was not clued in to the resignation from the committee vice chairmanship by Harris and that he hadn’t had any “long” conversations with Harris about the controversy in recent weeks.

McGill said he was not aware of anyone pressuring the legislator to step aside.

“My understanding was he thought it best for his family that he step down,” McGill said. “I just don’t know [if he was pressured].”

Today, the House Judiciary Committee will consider legislation filed after the re-homing and rape were revealed in an Arkansas Times story.

Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway, said he plans on guiding House Bill 1676 this morning, which make the practice of re-homing children a felony offense.

Meeks, along with Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, filed bills on the same day and have been working in concert to cover a variety of changes to state law related to re-homing adoptive children.

Meeks said both his and Leding’s bill, House Bill 1648, have the support of DHS and the governor.

Meeks’ bill will also seek to flesh out legal protections for adoptive parents so they will know that DHS will work with them in handling problematic children instead of threatening them with child abandonment suits, something that Meeks said he has heard happens even outside of Harris’ case.

“We wanted people to feel comfortable. We didn’t want them to have a fear that if they were having issues with a child that that would happen with this agency,” he said. “We want to make sure that [parents and DHS] have the resources they need in order to make [adoptions] successful.”

Leding said it was possible that he would present his companion piece today. It focuses on barring people from collecting state adoption subsidies once they’ve given the kids to another family without DHS awareness.

Harris continued to receive monthly checks from the state after he gave away the girls, but he said he forwarded that money to the girls’ new guardians.

Harris’ attorney has released images of five checks, made out to the Francises and a second family that took the girls in, totaling more than $4,000.

“[Subsidies were] a big concern, the possibility of someone accepting money for having a child but no longer having the child. To be clear, I don’t think that’s what happened with my colleague, but it’s certainly, unless we address it, possible,” Leding said. “[Re-homing] was a much more complicated issue than I think a lot of people think. … Instead of uniting the bill as one … we break it into two pieces to make it easier.”

Leding said he doubted the legislation would face much opposition.