Commerce funding

A bill that would grant the state Department of Commerce spending authority for the next fiscal year next won sufficient votes to clear the Senate on Wednesday in the chamber’s fourth vote on the measure.

The Senate voted 28-2 to approve Senate Bill 132, sending the bill to the House

for further action. That was one more vote than the 27 required in the 35-member Senate for approval. The Senate initially voted on the bill Wednesday. The bill also failed Monday and Tuesday.

Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, urged senators on Monday to vote against the appropriation, saying he has lost confidence in Commerce Secretary Mike Preston.

Garner’s bill that would have barred the commission from having an office in China previously failed to clear the House Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee. In last year’s fiscal session, the Joint Budget Committee rejected Garner’s proposal to close the office after Preston said the department already planned to trim the office’s budget from $285,000 to $125,000 a year, starting in July, and employ an American citizen as a liaison in China.

— Michael R. Wickline