Over 400 bills clear Oklahoma House, head to Senate

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma House has officially sent 438 bills to the Senate.

The bills that advanced make up just over 20% of the roughly 1,960 House measures filed at the start of session. And while a supermajority of those were authored by Republicans, a record number of Democrat bills advanced, the House minority leader said.

Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, attributed the chamber’s success to a two-tiered committee system with new oversight committees that he implemented this session.

“We went into the evenings a few nights, but you never saw any super late nights,” he said during a media availability. “I think this might be the first session I’ve experienced, at least that I can remember, where we weren’t in here past 10 p.m. hearing legislation. And I think that’s kudos to our new two tier committee system, where bills, when they made it to the floor, they were ready for primetime because members put in work on their bills on the front end.”

Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City, said 29 Democratic bills were sent over to the Senate this year.

“I think that’s a record for us. In the last several years we’ve been working well with the Republican caucus to get our bills done,” she said. “But you know, our members have worked really hard on our priorities and working across the aisle and looking for things that solve problems for Oklahomans.”

Of the hundreds of bills that passed through the House, some have garnered more attention. House lawmakers advanced:

• House Bill 1003 that seeks to raise the age sexual of consent in Oklahoma from 16 to 18 years old;

• a bill creating the first residential setbacks for wind turbines, requiring they be half a nautical mile from dwellings and 1.5 times the turbine’s height from neighboring property lines. A similar measure passed the Senate, but with smaller setback requirements;

• legislation creating a new felony for being in the U.S. illegally that would repeal a controversial law that was signed last year;

• a ban on cellphone use in schools. The House sent legislation requiring a bell-to-bell ban to the Senate;

• two bills that would legalize sport betting in Oklahoma, with exclusivity granted to tribes despite the threat of veto from Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt;

• a bill allowing health care providers to refuse to offer specific procedures or care based on moral, religious or conscientious beliefs is on its way to the Senate. It advanced despite earlier opposition from Oklahoma physicians;

• a handful of bills from Rep. Suzanne Schrieber, D-Tulsa, addressing child care issues in the state. These measures include granting a tax credit to employers that provides childcare subsidies to employees and exempting the income of child care providers when applying for the Child Care Subsidy Program;

• a bill, which increases the amount a person who is wrongfully convicted can claim, advanced. It would allow wrongfully incarcerated inmates to claim $50,000 per year of incarceration. State law caps the compensation amount at $175,000;

• a bill increasing payments to foster care families intended to help families cover the cost of caring for a foster child by $5 per day;

• a bill requiring school districts to show a video on human growth and development while in the womb to high school students passed through the House;

• an effort to give the Oklahoma Attorney General the ability to investigate and enforce reported violations of the Open Records Act by public bodies; and

• a bill creating a license for “professional storm chasers” that allows them to subvert road closures, run red lights, add flashing lights and act as “emergency vehicles.”

Two bills seeking to alter Oklahoma’s cockfighting statutes did not advance and did not receive a hearing in a committee.

A bill to bar undocumented immigrants in Oklahoma from driving vehicles using licenses issued in other states also did not get heard on the floor.

The bills that advanced are eligible to be heard in Senate committees over the coming weeks. The Senate sent 321 bills to the House for consideration.

Oklahoma Voice (oklahomavoice.com) is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Oklahoma Voice provides nonpartisan reporting, and retains full editorial independence.