“Someone that was previously elected Speaker described it as ‘running for high school student body president and Governor of the state of Arkansas at the same time,’ and that’s a pretty apt description,” Rep. Matthew Shepherd (R) joked yesterday as he spoke to members of his church, First Baptist of El Dorado.
Shepherd spoke during a lunch meeting at the church, talking about his experiences serving as a Representative in and Speaker of the Arkansas House.
First elected to the House in 2010, Shepherd is the first Republican from El Dorado to be elected to the House since Reconstruction. In 2012, he became the chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development, significant for a south Arkansas representative, as the chairperson of that committee is typically a farmer, he said.
“I was kind of outside the mold,” he said. “That committee oversees, obviously, economic development, but also forest and timber, which is very important in south Arkansas. Most importantly, it oversees oil and gas, which is very important to south Arkansas.”
In his next term, he became the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. There, he was able to return to his roots as an attorney to work on criminal justice and parole and probation reform.
“We worked on a criminal justice reform bill where we actually established some crisis stabilization units around the state,” he said. “One of the things that we found was that part of our skyrocketing prison population, in part, is due to the mental health challenges that we have today.”
Shepherd ran for Speaker of the House in 2016, but was unsuccessful. He elaborated on the advice he received from a former Speaker, comparing it to a high school election in the sense that one must be well-liked within the House, and the governor’s race as one must be familiar with issues facing the entire state.
Shepherd was elected to serve as the Speaker in March last year; he was scheduled to take up the post in January, but at the resignation of former Speaker Jeremy Gillam (R-Judsonia) in June, he was named Speaker Designate.
As Speaker, Shepherd has faced unique challenges that he will ultimately be the only person in his role to have faced.
A 2017 House rules change turned over all committee and chairmanship appointments to the Speaker where they were previously determined by seniority. Another rule change has since reversed the first, but it was Shepherd’s duty to assign all 100 members of the House to committee.
“It’s a great opportunity – on the first day you’re there, while your family is there and you’ve got all your friends there and the press is there – it’s a great opportunity for you to make 100 people mad at you,” he joked. “Fortunately, I don’t think too many were mad at me.”
Bills must pass through the relevant committee before they are put up for a vote in the full House. Shepherd decides which committee is appropriate for each bill. He said in the most recent session, the 92nd, 1092 laws were enacted out of 1670 bills filed in the Arkansas legislature.
“What I believe, I think most members – and particularly at a time when term limits have been extended – I think most members, if they have something they really want to get passed, they work on it before they get there and they work with their colleagues to really try to develop legislation that can garner bipartisan support and get the necessary votes for passage.”
One initiative that was important to Shepherd, he said, was making committee meetings available for the public to watch through online streaming. It was already possible to watch the House meet in their general sessions, but now Arkansas residents are able to view the committee meetings, where most of the debate on bills occurs, on the Arkansas House website.
“Unlike in Washington, where the public may not have an opportunity to speak, in Little Rock, generally, if you show up at a committee meeting and a bill is being considered, there’s a sign-in sheet you can sign up and … you’re going to have an opportunity to speak for or against that bill,” he said. “So we have a very transparent and open government and that’s something that I’ve encouraged my chairs [to do].”
Shepherd touted some of the legislature’s other achievements as well, including balancing the state’s $5.7 billion budget; increasing funding for public education, the Arkansas State Police and the state’s highways; cutting income taxes; and reducing the number of agencies reporting daily to Gov. Asa Hutchinson from 42 to 15.
“No one’s losing their job,” he said. “We consolidated some departments so now there will be 15, and it’s going to generate some savings for the state. I think initially its $15 million savings, but actually, I believe over the next several years, there’s a great opportunity for it to be hundreds of millions of dollars in savings.”
He also noted that a resolution was passed last year that will replace two statues representing Arkansas at the United States Capitol with statues of figures representing more recent history in the state. Statues of Uriah Milton Rose, a Civil War-era attorney who sided with the Confederacy when Arkansas left the Union, and James Paul Clarke, a Reconstruction-era politician, will be replaced in several years by statues of Daisy Bates, a Union County-native and civil rights leader, and singer-songwriter Johnny Cash.
“Two south Arkansans will eventually be our statues in the U.S. Capitol,” he said. “Kind of an interesting combination, but I think it gives a really good representation of the state of Arkansas, so that’s something to look forward to in the next couple of years. The money is raised privately.”
Shepherd said he is particularly proud of the record-breaking number of women currently serving in the state House, 26. Additionally, the National Conference of State Legislatures has recognized the Arkansas Legislature for its absence of partisanship, he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’re going to have some partisan issues that come up, some bills that are going to break down along party lines, but I would say 97 percent of what we deal with really is not partisan in nature. A lot of it may be a rural versus urban issue; the issues break down along a lot of different lines instead of just party,” he said. “But I also think it’s a credit to the membership we have in the House. It’s a very collegial group.”
One attendee, Richard McClendon, asked about the ouster of Rep. Mickey Gates (R-Hot Springs) from the House earlier this year. Shepherd filed a resolution to expel Gates after the former pleaded no contest for failing to file or pay taxes. Gates was expelled from the House on Oct. 11, the first representative to be expelled since Speaker John Wilson was removed for stabbing another representative on the House floor in 1837.
“Ultimately, I felt that I had a duty to the House and the people of Arkansas to uphold a high standard,” he said. “That’s been one of the things that I’ve tried to emphasize to the membership is that we’re going to uphold a high standard.”
Shepherd is currently running for reelection to the Arkansas House of Representatives. He does not have an opponent. He spends a few days in Little Rock each week when the Legislature is not in session; otherwise, he practices law in El Dorado.
“It’s an honor to be there,” Shepherd said. “The support from back home is what has allowed me, not only to serve as a state rep, but also what has propelled me to become the state Speaker, so I want to thank you for that.”
Caitlan Butler can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].