The General Assembly failed secure enough votes to approve a bill aimed at making Covid-19 vaccination status a matter of personal privacy at a place of employment. The measure, if enacted, would have created a new mandate on businesses to prohibit employers from requiring the disclosure of an employee's or contracted individual's vaccination status related to Covid-19. The bill also sought to establish a restitution fund from Covid-19 relief funds under the American Rescue Plan to provide financial relief to individuals whose employers violated this newly established right.
While the bill did pass the Senate, it failed to receive the required 24 Senate votes to carry an emergency clause to expedite enactment. In the House, the bill failed on a 41-46 vote.
The measure was strongly opposed by a wide range of entities, including the State Chamber of Commerce, Arkansas Hositals Association, and the State Department of Commerce and the Department of Finance and Administration. If enacted, the new law would have directly conflicted with a related law passed earlier in the week that dealt with processes for employer and employee dealings with employee vaccinations. It's not clear how both laws would have work if they'd both been enacted. In addition, this propsosed law would have conflicted with federal laws and regulations in a manner that could jeapordize eligibility for a variety of federal funds Arkansas is currently in line to receive.
More below:
https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Bills/Detail?id=sb731&ddBienniumSession=2021%2F2021R&Search=
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/oct/09/shot-mandate-constraint-defeated/?news-politics