Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, speaks in opposition to House Bill 1365 from the Senate floor on April 15, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)
The Arkansas Senate on Tuesday approved legislation that would remove race and gender quotas and qualifications for a variety of state boards and commissions. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.
Rep. Karilyn Brown, a Sherwood Republican and lead sponsor of House Bill 1365, told a House committee last month that requiring a minimum number of women and members from underrepresented groups to serve on the panels is unfair.
Brown said “diversity occurs naturally” and the state should not codify language that “makes things more awkward or more difficult to fill positions.”
HB 1365 advanced all the way to the Senate before being recalled to the House for an amendment that removed an entire section of the bill referencing the Arkansas Ethics Commission. Brown told the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committees on April 2 that the revision was needed because the commission was created through an initiated act and therefore that section of code needed 67 votes in the House to be amended.
HB 1365 originally passed the House with 61 votes on March 5. The vote was later expunged and the House approved the amended bill with 60 votes on April 3.
Upon its return to the Senate on Tuesday, no one spoke in favor of HB 1365, and Sen. Clarke Tucker was the sole lawmaker to speak against it. Of all the bills related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) during the last two sessions, Tucker called HB 1365 “the most harmful.”
DEI-related bills approved by lawmakers during the 2025 legislative session include Act 112, which will “prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment” by public entities and retention plans and reports from public school districts and higher education institutions, and Senate Bill 520, which would prohibit DEI policies and practices in local government.
There’s no advantage to serving in unpaid positions on boards and committees, Tucker said, but removing quotas eliminates the opportunity for some people to have a voice in policymaking. Among the panels affected by the proposed law, Tucker singled out the State Board of Education, whose membership would no longer be required to “reflect the diversity in general education” under HB 1365.
“We are so afraid of diversity that we are eliminating that line from code; it doesn’t even say what kind of diversity,” he said.
Diversity is important, Clarke said, noting that the Senate’s membership represents geographic diversity.
“We have lost all common sense when it comes to that word because of the politics of the time, and this bill goes too far,” he said. “What it does again is eliminate the ability of populations who have been historically underrepresented or oppressed to even have a voice in their state government, and that is wrong and I hope we don’t pass it this afternoon.”
HB 1365 passed the Senate Tuesday with 24 yes votes; the body’s six Democrats voted no. Republican Ronald Caldwell of Wynne, Jonathan Dismang of Searcy, Jim Dotson of Bentonville and John Payton of Wilburn did not vote, while Jim Petty of Fort Smith voted present.
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