Douglas House (politician)

Roy Douglas House, known as Doug House (born 1953), is an attorney and retired United States Army officer from North Little Rock, Arkansas, who is a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from District 40, which includes parts of Pulaski and Faulkner counties.^[1]

Background

A native of the capital city of Little Rock, House in 1976 received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In 1980, he received a Juris Doctor degree from the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law. He was engaged in the private practice of law from 1980 to 1986, after which for four years he was the equal opportunity officer for the Arkansas National Guard. From 1990 to 2009, House was an Army colonel and staff judge advocate. From 2011 to 2012, just prior to the beginning of his service in the Arkansas House of Representatives, House was the military affairs officer on the staff of Republican U.S. Representative Tim Griffin from Arkansas' 2nd congressional district^[1] who will leave that position in 2015. Though still admitted to the practice of law, he has no private practice.^[1]

House and his wife, the former Anita Hilger (born 1955), have two children, Nathanael Douglas "Nathan" House (born 1977) and Kelli House Mayfield.^[1]

Political life

House was unopposed in 2012 for the Republican nomination in House District 40. He then handily defeated the Democratic candidate Steven McNeely, 7,067 to 3,797 votes. The incumbent Democratic representative, Barry Hyde, was term-limited and ran unsuccessfully for a revised district in the Arkansas State Senate.^[2]

House serves on these House committees: (1) City, County and Local Affairs, (2) Performance Review, and (3) Revenue and Taxation.^[3] He is affiliated with the National Rifle Association and the American Legion.^[1]

Representative House has a strongly conservative legislative voting record. He voted to establish a spending cap on the state budget, but the bill failed by a two-vote margin in the House. He co-sponsored legislation to amend state income tax rates. He joined the needed majority to override the vetoes of Democratic Governor Mike Beebe to enact legislation requiring photo identification for casting a ballot in Arkansas and to ban abortion after twenty weeks of gestation, the second of which he was a co-sponsor. Representative House voted to ban abortion whenever fetal heartbeat is detected, to forbid the inclusion of abortion in the state insurance exchange, and to make the death of an unborn child a felony in certain cases. He voted to empower university officials to carry weapons in the name of campus safety. He voted against legislation to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan. He co-sponsored the bill, signed by Governor Beebe, to permit the sale of up to five hundred gallons per month of unpasteurized whole milk directly from the farm to consumers.^[4]

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