Natural State News

Arkansas Speaker of the House Matthew Shepherd (R-El Dorado) said on day 67 of the Arkansas General Assembly Legislative session, only about half the bills in the house have been heard, and discussions about redistricting the state may need to be extended. 

The extension of discussing state redistricting comes as Arkansas is still waiting on the census numbers from the federal government, Shepherd said on March 18 in a TB&P Daily interview.

"The most likely scenario and the path that you'll likely see moving forward is that we would recess for an extended period of time and then we would come back in for the primary purpose of redistricting," Shepherd said. "As we move beyond spring break, you're going to see a lot more activity on the floor."

Shepherd said what is most likely to happen after a long recess would be the Arkansas General Assembly coming back into session for the primary reason of going over redistricting the state. 

He went on to say that if this is done, there may be other language put into the session to back over a few things as a "clean up process."

Shepherd said he does not think the governor will call for a special session to finish discussing the redistricting, and the "clean up language" put into session would help the General Assembly ties up some loose ends. 

Shepherd did not divulge what bills, topics or loose ends he was referring to in the interview.