An Act For The Department Of Labor And Licensing - Division Of Labor Appropriation For The 2025-2026 Fiscal Year.
HB1104 is the annual appropriation act for the Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing, Division of Labor, for fiscal year 2025-2026. It authorizes funding for personal services, operating expenses, and related costs across the division’s shared services, state operations, boiler inspection, Board of Electrical Examiners, federal programs, wage-and-hour cash account, and seminar/conference cash account. The bill also sets maximum employee counts and salary classifications for each unit, including inspectors, investigators, managers, legal staff, and administrative personnel.
The measure is primarily a budget and administrative bill rather than a policy change. It establishes the spending authority for the division from multiple funding sources, including the Department of Labor and Licensing Fund Account, special funds, federal funds, and cash funds, and it includes special language allowing the Chief Fiscal Officer to create and manage shared services paying accounts and transfer authority within the department’s appropriations. It also contains standard compliance, legislative intent, and emergency clauses to ensure the appropriation takes effect on July 1, 2025.
HB1104 affects state law by providing the legal authority for the Department of Labor and Licensing’s Division of Labor to spend appropriated funds during the 2025-2026 fiscal year. It does not create new regulatory requirements for employers or workers, but it does fund the personnel and operations needed to administer labor standards enforcement, wage and hour functions, boiler inspection, electrical board support, and related administrative services. The bill also reinforces existing fiscal-control statutes by requiring compliance with procurement, budgeting, revenue stabilization, and salary procedures laws.
The available voting history indicates broad bipartisan support for the bill. It passed the Arkansas House 92-2 and the Senate 29-0 on third reading, suggesting little controversy and general agreement that the agency’s operating budget should be renewed. No committee transcript is available, but the strong vote margins and absence of recorded opposition in the Senate point to a routine appropriations measure with favorable reception.
There is no recorded committee debate or substantive opposition in the materials provided, so no major points of contention are evident. As with most appropriation bills, any discussion would likely have centered on staffing levels, salary classifications, and the size of the operating budgets for specific divisions such as boiler inspection, wage and hour, and shared services. The near-unanimous votes suggest that any concerns were minor or resolved before floor consideration.