§ 1-2-303 - Powers and duties. - Arkansas Statutes

1-2-303. Powers and duties.

(a) (1) The Arkansas Code Revision Commission from time to time shall arrange for the publication of compilations, recompilations, revisions, codifications, or recodifications of or cumulative or noncumulative supplements to the statutes of Arkansas.

(2) The commission shall arrange for the solicitation and receipt of competitive bids for all these publications on such terms as it deems reasonable.

(3) Specifications for the publications shall be drawn under the supervision of and subject to approval by the commission.

(4) (A) Contracts shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, taking into consideration, among other things, estimated time of performance, quality of work, probability of timely and adequate performance, and experience of the company regarding the services sought by the commission.

(B) If the best interests of the state would be served, any and all bids submitted to the commission regarding any publication project may be rejected, and the commission may negotiate any necessary contract with the party most qualified to perform the services sought by the commission.

(5) (A) The price at which publications under this section shall be sold shall be fixed from time to time by the commission.

(B) If the commission enters into a contract with a publisher for any publication, the price at which the publication under the contract shall be sold shall be fixed from time to time by agreement between the commission and the publisher.

(6) Supplements and replacement volumes published under the supervision of the commission shall be prima facie evidence of the law contained in the supplements and replacement volumes.

(b) In the commission's discretion and subject to the provisions and requirements of 19-4-1109, the commission may enter into contracts for professional services to the commission, which contracts may include, but are not limited to, the purposes of:

(1) (A) Creating and maintaining up-to-date continuing computerized database banks of the statutes of Arkansas by use of magnetic tape or other means of photographic or electronic preservation and reproduction systems with facilities for electronic access and retrieval.

(B) However, before the commission shall enter into any contract for computerized database banks of the statutes of Arkansas, the commission shall confer with and seek the advice of the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Legislative Council, and the Director of the Bureau of Legislative Research with respect to the needs and requirements for use of computerized database banks of the statutes of Arkansas:

(i) For electronic access and statutory retrieval in connection with a computerized bill drafting and bill processing system;

(ii) To meet the needs of the General Assembly and the committees of the General Assembly; and

(iii) To assist in the preparation of acts signed by the Governor for printing of the official Acts of Arkansas.

(C) The commission shall confer periodically with the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Legislative Council, and the director and shall seek their advice with respect to means of upgrading and improving the computerized database banks to meet the needs and requirements for their respective uses;

(2) Providing continuing assistance to the commission in the maintenance of the databases and the appropriate codification of legislation enacted by the General Assembly;

(3) Performing those other services which are determined by the commission from time to time to be reasonably required and necessary in order to maintain availability to the State of Arkansas of up-to-date computerized database indices of the statutes of Arkansas and in furtherance of its duties and authority as otherwise provided by this subchapter and by other provisions of law; and

(4) Preparing a codification of all the statutes in a proposed code of laws to be presented to the General Assembly for approval and enactment, or, in lieu of a single codification of all of the state's statutes, preparation of recommended codes of a similar subject or nature in proposed titles or chapters of a code for consideration by the General Assembly for enactment from time to time with the overall objective of eventually incorporating all of the state's statutes in a unified codification of those laws.

(c) The Code Revisor and other designated personnel of the Bureau of Legislative Research shall assist the commission:

(1) To make continual studies and conduct reviews of the common law, statutes, and current judicial decisions of the state in order to identify:

(A) Obsolete statutes;

(B) Overlapping and duplicating laws;

(C) Inequitable or inconsistent laws;

(D) Deficiencies in existing laws which contribute to indefiniteness of interpretation of the purpose of those laws or the legislative intent of those laws;

(E) Deficiencies in administrative procedures;

(F) Defects in practice and procedure; and

(G) Deficiencies of due process provisions in the enforcement of the criminal laws of this state;

(2) To prepare initial drafts of corrective legislation to be filed with the Legislative Council no later than April 1 of the next calendar year following the adjournment of each session; and

(3) (A) To make studies of the methods, means, and systems used in the various states for the compilation, codification, revision, and publication of the compilations, codifications, or statutes of those states.

(B) These studies are to be used by the commission in determining means of improving the codification of the statutes of Arkansas and to prepare recommendations to the General Assembly in regard to the codification of statutes.

(d) (1) In exercising the powers and duties imposed upon it by this subchapter, the commission shall not authorize any change in the substance or meaning of any provision of the Arkansas Code or any act of the General Assembly. The bureau shall not change the substance or meaning of any provision of the Arkansas Code or any act of the General Assembly. However, the bureau working under the direction of the commission may:

(A) Correct the spelling of words;

(B) Change capitalization for the purpose of uniformity;

(C) Correct manifest typographical and grammatical errors;

(D) Correct manifest errors in references to laws and other documents;

(E) Correct manifest errors in internal reference numbers;

(F) Substitute the proper Arkansas Code section number, subchapter number, chapter number, subtitle number, title number, or other number or designation for the terms "this act", "the preceding Code section", or any similar words or phrases;

(G) Number, renumber, redesignate, and rearrange chapters, subchapters, sections, subsections, and subdivisions, or any combination or portion of chapters, subchapters, sections, subsections, and subdivisions;

(H) Change internal reference numbers to agree with renumbered chapters, subchapters, sections, subsections, subdivisions, or portions of chapters, subchapters, sections, subsections, and subdivisions;

(I) Substitute the correct calendar date for "the effective date of this act" and other phrases of similar import;

(J) Correct inaccurate references to:

(i) Funds;

(ii) Fund accounts;

(iii) The titles of officers;

(iv) The names of departments or other agencies of the federal government, the state government, or local governments, and the names of other entities; and

(v) The short titles of other laws;

(K) Make any other name changes necessary to be consistent with the laws currently in effect;

(L) Alphabetize definitions and make any necessary changes to conform the definitions sections to Arkansas Code style and format;

(M) Insert or delete hyphens in words to follow correct grammatical usage;

(N) Change numerals or symbols to words or vice versa and add figures or words if they are merely repetitions of written words or vice versa for purposes of uniformity and style;

(O) Change the form of nouns, pronouns, and verbs for purposes of style and grammar;

(P) Correct punctuation;

(Q) Correct word usage;

(R) Change gender-specific language to gender-neutral language; and

(S) Remove obsolete language.

(2) Except as provided in subdivision (d)(1) of this section, the wording, punctuation, and format of sections of acts shall appear in the Arkansas Code exactly as enacted by the General Assembly.

(3) No law may be removed from the Arkansas Code unless specifically repealed by the General Assembly.

(4) Every section of each act which is required to be codified shall be codified as a complete section of the Arkansas Code unless otherwise consented to by the director.

(5) Sections of acts shall not be combined into the same Arkansas Code section unless they are identical or they specifically amend the same Arkansas Code section.

(6) (A) No section of an act shall be codified in more than one (1) place in the Arkansas Code without the prior approval of the director.

(B) If a section is applicable to more than one (1) title, chapter, subchapter, or section of the Arkansas Code, it shall only be codified in one (1) section unless otherwise consented to by the director, with notes indicating its applicability to other portions of the Arkansas Code.

(7) The commission shall notify the Legislative Council no later than the first Friday of each month of the discovery of problems with the acts or the Arkansas Code and recommend corrections.

(8) The commission shall insert a codifier's note under appropriate Arkansas Code sections to alert the reader to conflicting Arkansas Code provisions and other problems identified by the commission.

(9) (A) (i) The commission shall provide a copy of its conformed acts to the director within one hundred twenty (120) days after the adjournment of each session of the General Assembly.

(ii) The conformed acts may be provided in an electronic format.

(B) As used in subdivision (d)(9)(A) of this section, "conformed acts" means those documents prepared by the commission indicating the differences between the codification of the acts and the original forms of the acts.

(10) If the acts of the General Assembly are in markup format, language overstricken shall not be codified and underlined language shall not be underlined in the Arkansas Code.

(e) (1) Except as provided in subdivision (e)(2) of this section, the commission shall codify every initiated measure enacted by the people of Arkansas and every act of each regular and extraordinary session of the General Assembly.

(2) The commission shall not be required to codify the following language or sections found in initiated measures or acts of the General Assembly:

(A) Appropriation language;

(B) Boilerplate language;

(C) Codification clauses;

(D) Effective date language;

(E) Emergency clauses;

(F) Expiration date language;

(G) General repealers;

(H) Intent, purpose, construction, and applicability language;

(I) Language that specifically refers to an appropriation;

(J) Sections stating that they are not to be codified;

(K) Sections that the Legislative Council requests that the commission not codify;

(L) Local, special, or temporary language; and

(M) Severability clauses.

(f) (1) The Code Revisor is expected to notify the director on an act-by-act basis within one (1) business day after discovering that a change should be made which requires the prior approval of the director.

(2) The director is expected to respond to the Code Revisor within one (1) business day after receiving notice from the commission.

(g) (1) All uncodified local acts, special acts, and temporary acts, excluding appropriation acts, shall be cumulatively indexed by the commission using descriptive wording and shall include references to the act numbers and years of enactment.

(2) No later than one hundred twenty (120) days after the adjournment of each legislative session, the Code Revisor shall provide a report to the director and the Legislative Council identifying which acts and parts of acts of the session are to be cumulatively indexed pursuant to subdivision (g)(1) of this section.

(h) The director may delegate his or her authority under this section to another employee of the bureau.