Arkansas lawmakers can start pre-filing bills Monday, November 16, for the 96th General Assembly. It’s the public’s first real look at what legislators plan to bring to Little Rock in January. Some of it will be good policy. Some of it will mean higher taxes, more spending, and new regulations that Arkansas families and businesses end up paying for.
The 2027 Regular Session opens at noon on Monday, January 11. A few filing deadlines come early. Retirement bills, certain health care bills, and bills dealing with state and public school employee insurance are due January 25. Proposed constitutional amendments are due February 10, and appropriation bills are due March 1. General bills don’t have a set deadline, so new legislation can keep coming in until the final weeks of session.
Last time around, legislators pre-filed 85 bills and 6 joint resolutions before the end of 2024. By the end of the 2025 session, they had filed 1,652 bills and 276 resolutions, and 1,026 of those bills became law. A pre-filed bill gets a number and goes public right away. It’s also assigned to a committee before the session starts, which gives it a head start once committees begin meeting.
Anyone can follow filings on the Legislature’s website, arkleg.state.ar.us. You can search bills by number, sponsor, or subject and read the full text. The site also has committee agendas, meeting calendars, video of floor and committee proceedings, and a lookup tool to find your legislators.
This session won’t look like the last few. Governor Sanders won a second term and Republicans still hold both chambers, but for the first time in a decade the GOP doesn’t have a supermajority in the House. The split will be 70-30. Many spending bills need three-fourths of each chamber to pass, so Republicans will need Democratic votes on parts of the budget, and Democrats know it. The Governor’s proposed budget already includes $150 million more for Medicaid and $70 million more for Education Freedom Accounts. The bills filed over the next 2 months will tell us a lot about whether this General Assembly holds the line on spending or grows government.
Once the session starts, follow along with Conduit. We’ll publish daily legislative reports from the Capitol and keep a running bill tracker on the legislation that matters most to Arkansas taxpayers, so you can see what’s moving, who’s behind it, and where it stands.
