3.10.25 – KOSU
With key committee deadlines behind Oklahoma’s legislature, state lawmakers are gearing up for the first round of extensive floor debates and votes. Nearly nine hundred measures are moving forward between the two chambers.
Two GOP state lawmakers filed legislation to amend Oklahoma’s Energy Discrimination Elimination Act. Their bill. Carmen Forman. /. Oklahoma …
Oklahoma Lawmakers started with more than 3,000 bills to consider when the legislative session began last month. That number is down to 899.
Thursday was the deadline for bills to be approved through their committees and slated for floor discussion in their chamber of origin.
During his weekly press conference that day, Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, said this week marks the start of some “very long days” ahead.
“We’ve noticed a lot of senators have a lot of questions to be asked and a lot of robust debate, and some of these bills are taking a while to do,” Paxton told reporters. “And that’s just fine. That’s what we’re here for. And so we’ll have those discussions on the floor.”
The week before, House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said he felt bills moved through committees in his chamber at a good pace, considering the new tiered structure he put in place to focus bill discussions more narrowly than before.
With a handful of broad oversight committees branching off into dozens of subcommittees, Hilbert has said the idea was to encourage greater scrutiny on measures touching multiple facets of government. And it’s working, he said.
”We’re having deliberative conversations in committees, which I think is productive,” Hilbert said. “People are catching things like,‘Hey, maybe you make this tweak here or this tweak there,’ and those are changes that we perhaps wouldn’t have caught had it not went to a second stage of committee.”
From immigration and taxation to education and healthcare, only 30 of the measures headed to the Senate floor starting this week were drafted by Democrats.
Still, Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-OKC, said that while her caucus will likely grieve some measures that didn’t beat the committee deadline, she’s still proud of the more than 30 opportunities Democrats are providing for Oklahomans — inevitably with support from across the aisle.
“Lots of them were things we’re really proud or moving forward around issues like a great education for kids, access to health, and, of course, things about transparency and accountability and then good paying jobs,” she said.
The House minority caucus also managed to squeeze around 30 measures into the roster of those that could be discussed on the floor.
Oklahoma’s 121-27 Republican supermajority in the legislature means that anytime a Democrat has success with a measure, they’re getting help from Republicans.
Here are some key measures to keep an eye on:
Taxes: House Bill 1539 by Claremore Republican Rep. Mark Lepak and Adair Republican Sen. Michael Bergstrom proposes a quarter of a percent income personal income tax cut every year, so long as state revenues exceed $300 million compared to the previous fiscal year.
Meanwhile, House Bill 2740 by Altus Republicans Rep. Gerrid Kendrix and Sen. Brent Howard aims to set a flat tax rate of 4.75% for everyone, up and down the revenue brackets.
There are at least 65 other measures related to taxation up for floor discussion, according to the legislative tracking service LegisOK.
Immigration: Immigration measures considered in Oklahoma this year focus on increasing punishments for criminals in the country without legal status and adjusting various forms of access to Oklahoma’s public services for different kinds of immigrants.
House Bill 1362 by Stilwell Republican Rep. David Hardin and Westville Republican Sen. Tom Woods would tack on an automatic additional state felony charge to anyone arrested for a crime they committed while in the country without permission.
In the same vein of law enforcement, Senate Bill 868 by Muskogee Republican Sen. Avery Frix and Mustang Republican Brian Hill prohibits state entities from halting any immigration enforcement activities involving the “implementing of any official sanctuary policies.”
On another topic related to immigration, which came up a lot in the years since the Afghan refugee resettlement in 2021, House Bill 2050 by Edmond Republican Rep. Preston Stinson and Oklahoma Republican Sen. Paul Rosino creates avenues for internationally licensed medical professionals to transfer their certifications to be applicable in the state.
Foreign land ownership and renewable energy: Lawmakers have been discussing the regulation of what they call “foreign adversary” investments into Oklahoma’s key energy infrastructure for years. Mostly related to renewable energy like Hydro-electric power storage facilities or wind and solar farms.
This year, dozens of bills aim to address the issue. And cutting straight to the chase is House Bill 1546 by Balko Republican Rep. Kenton Patzkowsky and Sen. Avery Frix, which declares China, North Korea, Iran and Russia as foreign adversaries and limits land ownership by businesses and individuals from those nations in the state.
In tandem, House Bill 1561 by fellow Republicans from Sen. Kelly Hines of Edmond and Rep. Collin Duel of Guthrie creates the Foreign Adversary Divestment Act. The bill hopes to ensure none of those foreign adversaries are getting Oklahoma tax dollars via public pension and university endowment investments.
To help track all of that, Rep. Trey Caldwell from Lawton and Sen. Woods drafted the International Corporation and Political Activity Oversight Act, or House Bill 2762, which regulates filing standards for lobbyists of foreign corporations.
While the House and Senate each have more than 400 measures available to consider on the floor in the coming weeks, not all of them will be heard. There just isn’t enough time.
So, when it’s all said and done come May, the total number of bills becoming law will likely be about half of what it is now.