An Act For The Department Of Labor And Licensing - Workers' Compensation Commission Appropriation For The 2025-2026 Fiscal Year.
SB31 is the annual appropriation act for the Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing’s Workers’ Compensation Commission for fiscal year 2025-2026. It authorizes funding for the commission’s regular operations, including salaries for commissioners, administrative law judges, attorneys, investigators, program staff, and other personnel, as well as extra help, overtime, operating expenses, professional fees, computer software and hardware, and refund/reimbursement costs. The bill also sets the maximum number of regular employees at 105 and allows up to two temporary or part-time extra-help employees.
In addition to administration funding, the bill appropriates money for workers’ compensation-related trust funds and programs. It provides funding for death and permanent total disability claims and reimbursements from the Death and Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund, second injury claims from the Second Injury Trust Fund, scholarships and educational conference expenses through a cash fund, and building repairs and maintenance for the commission’s building. The act includes standard fiscal controls, a refund-to-expenditure provision for travel reimbursements, and an emergency clause making it effective July 1, 2025.
SB31 does not change substantive workers’ compensation law; instead, it authorizes the spending authority needed for the Workers’ Compensation Commission to operate during the 2025-2026 fiscal year. It affects the Department of Labor and Licensing, the Workers’ Compensation Fund, the Death and Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund, the Second Injury Trust Fund, and a cash fund for seminars and scholarships, while also setting staffing limits and specific line-item appropriations for agency functions and building maintenance. The bill is a fiscal measure that enables administration of workers’ compensation claims, hearings, investigations, and related support services under existing law.
The bill appears to have been noncontroversial and broadly supported. There were no committee transcript snippets indicating debate or opposition, and the recorded floor votes were unanimous in both chambers, with 34-0 in the Senate and 97-0 in the House on third reading. That voting history suggests strong bipartisan agreement on funding the commission’s operations and claims obligations for the upcoming fiscal year.
No notable points of contention are reflected in the available materials. Because SB31 is a routine appropriation bill, any discussion would likely have centered on budget levels, staffing, and fund allocations rather than policy disputes, but no such disagreements are shown in the transcript record provided. The only potentially sensitive items are the appropriations for claims payments and the use of trust funds, but the bill passed without recorded opposition.