LITTLE ROCK - A resolution reaffirming support of secular government and bills championing an early presidential primary and immigration law training for state troopers were endorsed Wednesday by a sometimes disagreeable House committee.
Those three pieces were among a bevy of bills that received do-pass recommendations by the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.
But it was House Resolution 1005 by Rep. Buddy Blair, D-Fort Smith, that drew both levity and partisan barbs from lawmakers on the committee.
Blair, quoting a famous 1802 Thomas Jefferson letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, said it was the intent of the founding fathers to "build a wall of separation between church and state."
Last week, Blair said he filed the measure after religion, specifically Christianity, was referred to several times during House debate over whether to place the definition of marriage between one man and one woman in public school textbooks.
Ironically, the textbook bill, which passed in the House, failed in a Senate committee on Wednesday.
After cutting short a Blair witness who said that he wanted to give lawmakers a "history lesson" on the separation of church and state, the committee sent the resolution to the full House by a vote of 11-5.
Immediately after the vote, Blair told the committee, "Thank you for believing in the Constitution."
Rep. Bill Pritchard, R-Elkins, who voted against the resolution, quickly shot back to Rep. Denny Sumpter, D-West Memphis, who chairs the committee.
"Mr. Chair, I resent that comment," Pritchard said. He said Blair's remark seemed to imply that anyone voting no didn't believe in the Constitution.
