This Week's Update and Next Weeks Plan of Action

ACTION ALERT

51 Representative Votes Needed by Next Week

 THANKS for all your hard work in advocating for improved access to care through the utilization of all health care providers to the full extent of their education, certification, and licensure.

 WE HAVE MORE WORK TO DO… and this weekend is critical

There have been several delays of our bills during this legislative session. We have not known exactly when these bills would be heard in Committee, as you have probably noticed. Now, we MUST remain committed in our efforts to communicate with as many legislators in the House as we can, in addition to those serving on the House and Senate Public Health, Welfare, and Labor Committees. The bills will proceed through the House PHWL Committee, the House floor, the Senate PHWL Committee, then the Senate floor. The final action is the Governor’s signature.

Now, we anticipate that our bills will be heard on Tuesday, March 14th, 2017, in the House PHWL Committee meeting.  Once they are passed out of this Committee, the bills will proceed to the House floor for voting on Wednesday the 15th. 

HB 1186 (full practice authority) is being amended to include a transition to prescribing (TTP) of 3600 hours.  While this was not what we planned, we have learned that we do not have the support to pass it through the PHWL Committee without the TTP hours.  The Nursing Policy Roundtable hopes that we can move this through the Committee and onto the House floor. This compromise was negotiated and accepted by our sponsor and supporters and has the best chance of passage. This bill will be posted as soon as it becomes available for your review.

 WHAT IS NEXT? WHAT TO DO?

1. We must ensure that the bills have 11 votes to pass out of Committee.

What can you do?...

• Ask all House PHWL Committee members to support HB 1182, HB 1186, and HB 1228, and oppose HB 1254 and HB 1525 (See YES/NO chart that is attached and use the attached House PHWL Committee list)
• Communicate appreciation for their support in the past if they have previously voted YES on our bills (see attached Voting Chart)

1. We must ensure that the bills we support will be passed on the House floor and we need 51 votes for this to happen.

What can you do?...

• Communicate with your own State Representative about each of these bills, even if he or she does not serve on the House PHWL Committee
• Use the Find my Representative locator at the top of the Arkansas House of Representatives website http://www.arkansashouse.org/

1. Next, we must ensure that the bills will be passed through the Senate PHWL Committee and then from the floor of the Senate.

What can you do?...

• See the attached Senate Public Health, Welfare, and Labor Committee list to find out which Senators are serving on the committee
• Use the Search for my Senator locator at the Arkansas Senate website http://www.arkansas.gov/senate/senatorSearch.html

1. Utilize the attached talking points to help you formulate your message OR go to www.nursesforarkansas.com/takeaction to send a prewritten editable message to your legislators

• For the bills we support, educate the legislators about how these bills will impact access to care by removing barriers to practice for APRNs and ask them to vote YES
• For those bills that we oppose, educate them about why these bills are not necessary and harmful for our state and ask them to vote NO

AND BE AT THE CAPITOL ON TUESDAY, MARCH 14th...

• We need to have large showing of nurses at the Capitol for the PHWL Committee meeting on Tuesday. Please attend and bring your colleagues with you. You will be glad you did!
• If you can be there, come early around 9 am in order to get a seat. The room fills up quickly and the meeting is expected to start at 10 am in the Capitol Building, Room 130. Wear a lab coat or something that identifies you as a nurse!

If you receive a response for your legislators, please let us know about it. You can use the quick survey at the following link. It only takes a minute… https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BMLQC2B

 

Watch for further updates and action alerts via email, at www.nursesforarkansas.com, or on Facebook on Nurses4Arkansas, ANPA https://www.facebook.com/Arkansas-Nurse-Practitioner-Association-177076869145677/, ARNA, and other nursing pages!

 STAND STRONG…WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER!

Your Friends,

The Arkansas Nurse Practitioner Association

in collaboration with the Arkansas Nursing Policy Roundtable, Arkansas for Nurse, and ARNA.