Joint Public Retirement & Social Security Committee (JRC)

The Joint Public Retirement Committee (JRC) has concluded all of its business for this legislative session.  There are no scheduled meetings at this time.

The 2019 Legislative Session is almost complete.  All of the bills in the ATRS sponsored package are now law.

A special thank you is due to all members of the Joint Retirement Committee for the time and patience spent working with ATRS staff and the ATRS Board of Trustees to keep our system strong while protecting the benefits of Arkansas educators.   Here is the list of the committee members and alternates by chamber:

2019 Senate Members of Retirement Committee

 *Senator Bill Sample, Chair         Hot Springs
Senator Keith Ingram, Vice Chair   West Memphis
Senator Cecile Bledsoe   Rogers
*Senator Eddie Cheatham   Crossett
*Senator Joyce Elliott   Little Rock
Senator Kim Hammer   Benton
*Senator Blake Johnson   Corning
Senator Greg Leding   Fayetteville
*Senator Jason Rapert              Conway
*Senator Larry Teague   Nashville

 *Returning members

2019 House Members of Retirement Committee

*Representative Les Warren, Chair                      Hot Springs
*Representative Gary Deffenbaugh, Vice Chair   Van Buren
*Representative Bruce Coleman   Mountainburg
Representative Michelle Gray   Melbourne
Representative Grant Hodges   Rogers
Representative Monte Hodges             Blytheville
*Representative Douglas House           North Little Rock
Representative John Maddox   Mena
Representative Mark Perry       Jacksonville
Representative Stu Smith         Batesville

 *Returning members

House Alternates

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker            Smackover 
Representative Harlan Breaux   Holiday Island
Representative Andrew Collins   Little Rock 
Representative Bruce Cozart   Hot Springs 
Representative Brian S. Evans   Cabot
Representative Lanny Fite   Benton
Representative Julie Mayberry   Hensley
Representative Tippi McCullough   Little Rock
Representative Jamie Scott   North Little Rock

 

The ATRS Board is grateful for all the assistance and advocacy by member organizations.  Your voices and concerns about issues affecting ATRS have been heard by the JRC.  The cooperation from Governor Hutchinson's office and others is also recognized and appreciated.

This executive director update concludes the weekly updates from the regular session.

Stay in Touch with ATRS and View YOUR Account Information

The ATRS website allows members to have direct access to specific member account information.  Now, approximately 17,000 members have direct account access to individualized account information.  Here is the link to the instructions to sign up: www.artrs.gov/registration.

You can also sign up to obtain these executive director updates through your private email address.  Updates are made throughout the year such as at retirement season and other times when information needs to be shared.  Now, over 20,000 people have signed up to receive this executive director update by direct email delivery.  It is always a great pleasure for ATRS staff to learn of more ways to provide information to ATRS members, employers, beneficiaries, government officials, and the public.  The ATRS Board is committed to providing a system that is member friendly and transparent.

You can also get helpful ATRS information on the ATRS Facebook page under the name of Arkansas Teacher Retirement System.  Over 5,100 Facebook users get updates via the ATRS Facebook page.  Go to the Facebook page and "like" ATRS to get daily updates.  I try to go to the Facebook page every day to post information and answer member questions about ATRS.  In addition, if you use Twitter, you can join over 970 others by following events at ATRS and issues of interest on the ATRS Twitter page

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call ATRS locally at (501) 588-4374 or toll free (800) 666-2877.

Best regards,

Clint Rhoden
Executive Director ATRS

(501) 291-1623 Mobile
(501) 588-4367 Office
clintr@artrs.gov