Around 4pm, at the conclusion of the legislative day and after the House GOP caucused, State Rep. Anthony Moore made the following motion:
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 23rd) – Sen. George Burns, R-Pollard, is the author of Senate Bill 675, which was approved Wednesday and would transfer Hugo Lake Park back to the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department.
In February I began hosting town hall meetings, inviting those who call Oklahoma’s Third Congressional District home out to discuss the issues most pressing in Washington and at home in Oklahoma. While there is a lot happening across the nation, there was one topic that came up time and time again that greatly troubles me: President Biden’s 30 by 30 Initiative.
The Biden Administration’s 30 by 30 land grab stems from a May 2021 report entitled, “America the Beautiful” Initiative. This Initiative establishes a vague directive to put restrictions on at least 30% of the United States’ lands and waters by 2030.
In the competition between states, there is no sitting still. Oklahoma could become a national leader in school choice this year.
The Oklahoma House of Representatives has approved House Bill 1935, which would provide all Oklahoma families a tax credit of $5,000 per student for private school or $2,500 for homeschooling.
That proposal would make Oklahoma one of the nation’s most attractive places to raise a child. But other states are not sitting still as Oklahoma policymakers conduct this debate.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 25th) – Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, today named the members of his previously announced senate economic development select committee and announced the first meeting date.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 21st) – Rep. Terry O'Donnell, R-Catoosa, today passed a bill in the House that would prohibit any classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in grades preK-5. Any classroom instruction on these topics in grades 6-12 must be age appropriate for students.
"Conversations about a young child's sexual orientation or gender are best addressed between the child and their parents," O'Donnell said. "This measure is intended to protect a parent's fundamental right of being in charge of the narrative and dialogue on these topics and frankly over everything their child is learning in school."
O'Donnell said a parent could still choose to involve an educator in these discussions, but the measure would preclude broader classroom instruction on these matters.
House Bill 2546 specifies that classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity shall not occur in pre-kindergarten through grade five or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.
O'Donnell said the bill is similar to Florida's Parental Rights Act passed last year. He said other states also are pursuing similar legislation and it has the support of parents. His bill does not prohibit sex education courses in older grades, but parents do have the option of opting out their child from such instruction.
HB 2546 now moves to the state Senate where it is authored by Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville.
Terry O'Donnell serves District 23 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes parts of Rogers, Tulsa and Wagoner counties.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 23, 2023)— Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs President Jonathan Small today praised members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives for voting to prevent school officials from discussing sexual issues with young children.
Earlier this week, House lawmakers approved House Bill 2546, by state Rep. Terry O’Donnell, R-Catoosa.
The bill simply states, “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity shall not occur in kindergarten through grade five or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”
“Passage of this bill is a win for parents’ rights,” Small said. “Parents should have the right to determine the time, place and manner that issues like sexual orientation and gender identity will be discussed with their children. And most Oklahomans agree such discussions are inappropriate for the youngest children, such as those in kindergarten.”
The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs is a free-market think tank that works to advance principles and policies that support free enterprise, limited government, individual initiative and personal responsibility.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 22nd) – The Senate approved Senate Bill 681 Tuesday, which requires any backseat passenger that is 16 years old or younger to wear a properly fastened seat belt. Sen. Roland Pederson, R-Burlington, authored the measure that aims to reduce the number of injuries and deaths of youth involved in car accidents.
This past week was a busy one in the Legislature as it relates to approving legislation addressing marijuana reforms. Since the recreational marijuana state question went down in flames, legislators have made it clear that they interpret the results as voters indicating that medical program is in need of reining in.
I've bundled several press releases on related legislation into this post. Read on down to get the following:
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 23rd) – The Senate overwhelmingly passed a pro-family measure Wednesday that protects women’s freedom to access birth control. Senate Bill 368, by Sen. Jessica Garvin, R-Duncan, and Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin, includes protections for contraceptive drugs, surgeries such as tubal ligation, and other treatments provided by authorized healthcare providers. It passed in the Senate with a 40-7 vote and now goes to the Oklahoma House of Representatives for consideration. All five Republican women in the Senate voted in favor of the bill.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 23rd) – The Oklahoma House of Representatives has approved the Women's Bill of Rights, preserving biological sex as a distinct legal category.
Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin, authored House Bill 1449, which clarifies how people of both biological sexes are treated under state law by defining 'sex' as a person's biological sex, whether male or female, at birth. It also forbids unfair sex discrimination but allows for recognition of the differences between sex on issues related to biology, privacy, safety or fairness.
Washington, D.C. (March 23rd) – Congressman Josh Brecheen announced that he will host his first telephone town hall on Tuesday, March 28th at 7:00pm CT.
The telephone town hall comes after Congressman Brecheen has held 18 in-person town halls throughout Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District and recently announced 10 more in April.
Huh. This anti-trafficking measure passed the House by a vote of 76-15. Of the 19 Democrats in the House, 15 voted against it, 4 voted for it, 1 missed the vote.
Bizarre. Sex trafficking disproportionately victimizes minority, immigrant, and at-risk women. The criminals that exploit them need to have the book thrown at them, not be coddled by leftist politicians.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 22nd) – Rep. Eric Roberts, R-Oklahoma City, on Wednesday passed legislation in the Oklahoma House of Representatives that increases penalties for those who purchase prostitution services.
House Bill 2054 increases the penalty for someone who purchases prostitution services from a misdemeanor to a felony.
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Senate approved legislation Tuesday to keep marijuana grow operations away from Oklahoma’s religious institutions. Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, authored the legislation to extend the same protections to churches as schools currently have regarding where grows can be established. Senate Bill 116 would create a 1,000 feet setback requirement from any place of worship for medical marijuana commercial grower facilities.
As I've said before (sarcastically, of course)... if there's just one thing Oklahoma needs more of, it's gambling. 🙄
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 21st) – The Oklahoma House of Representatives gave the stamp of approval Tuesday to legislation to legalize sports betting and potentially bring in over $9 million a year to the state budget.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 20th) – Rep. Terry O'Donnell, R-Catoosa, today passed a bill in the House designed to continue protections of state pension funds from strategies that would be harmful to the state's energy industry.
House Bill 2547 would prevent any state-run pension fund from delegating its votes by proxy to entities that do not subscribe to Oklahoma's investment strategy as outlined in the measure. The bill is a follow-up to legislation co-authored by O'Donnell last year that restricts the investment of Oklahoma pension funds by firms that adopt strategies akin to Environmental Social Governance (ESG).
This text has been adapted from Congressman Josh Brecheen’s first House floor speech. You can watch the full speech here, or below.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 17, 2023) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced today that former state senator Anthony Sykes has joined the Office of the Attorney General to serve as public access counselor. As an assistant attorney general, Sykes will work with state, county and municipal government agencies and commissions to ensure they strictly comply with the Open Meetings and Open Records Acts.
Senate Bill 834 is the pro-abortion bill that Oklahomans For Life Chairman Tony Lauinger is pushing hard for, but is probably dead for this session. There are numerous fallacies associated with this bill. Here are just a few.
OCPA really is doubling down on giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants (by definition, repeat lawbreakers). So much for believing in the rule of law, eh?
There’s a link between illegal immigration and uninsured driving in Oklahoma. Those who enter our nation illegally cannot easily obtain auto insurance, yet they still drive on our roads every day. When those illegal immigrants are in a car accident, the other driver is then left footing the bill either out of pocket or through higher insurance premiums.
The best solution to this problem is for the federal government to control our nation’s borders. But, knowing that is not likely in the immediate future, state policymakers must take action to mitigate the harm caused by the federal government’s failure.
One way to reduce a share of the problems created by illegal immigration is for Oklahoma state lawmakers to authorize driver’s licenses for some illegal immigrants—even though that may sound counterintuitive.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 14th) – The Oklahoma House of Representatives today gave approval to legislation that would make Oklahoma the first state to implement all five recommended open enrollment best practices for public K-12 schools.
House Bill 1936, authored by House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, requires school districts to approve all intra-district transfers unless the grade level of the receiving school is at capacity.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 14th) – The Senate overwhelmingly gave its bipartisan support Tuesday to the first round of major education reforms that will be moving through the process this session. Senate Education Committee and Appropriations Subcommittee chairman Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, authored the bills after months of meetings with educators, parents and other stakeholders about how to best improve Oklahoma’s education system.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 14th) – The full Senate approved Sen. Warren Hamilton’s bill to increase compensation for poll workers in Oklahoma. Senate Bill 290 would increase pay for election inspectors from $110 to $225 and pay for judges and clerks would double from $100 to $200.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 15th) – Rep. Neil Hays, R-Checotah, secured passage of a bill addressing the state's current "Slow Down, Move Over" law.
House Bill 2684 would mandate drivers approaching a stationary authorized emergency vehicle to reduce their speed to at least 10 miles per hour below the posted speed limit and increases fines for non-compliance.
This should make Gary Richardson happy.
Or, as I saw someone else say, the first step to Making Turnpikes Free Again?
Drummond requests investigative audit of Oklahoma Turnpike Authority
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 15, 2023) – Amid swirling allegations involving the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA), Attorney General Gentner Drummond today requested that state Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd conduct an investigative audit of the agency.
I admit to being somewhat baffled about the state of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs in recent years.
I was troubled by the antagonism and outright hostility they displayed toward valid concerns by the homeschool community last year when OCPA was pushing a "school choice" bill by Sen. Greg Treat. This was followed by the stunning announcement that OCPA supports expanding the sales tax to include services in Oklahoma, a multi-billion dollar tax hike primarily on the backs of small businesses.
Now? OCPA is seemingly abandoning all good sense and advocating in favor of giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants because... "these people are already driving on our roads" and pay taxes?
There's been some serious compromise on their espoused conservative principles, and my bet is that it's likely driven by the folks with the purse strings that keep their lights on (for example, they've received millions over the years from groups like the Walton Family Foundation, which advocates liberal views of immigration).
Tremendously disappointing.
Read on for to see the serious disconnect in OCPA's logic for yourself:
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 13th) – The Senate has vote unanimously for legislation to help improve the effectiveness of school security drills in Oklahoma. Senate Bill 169, by Sen. Todd Gollihare, would require first responders to be on scene and directly involved in at least one security drill a year.
Current state law requires all public schools to conduct at least four security drills each school year. Additional drills may be conducted at the discretion of the district. Gollihare, R-Kellyville, said involving the first responders, who would be part of an actual emergency, will help enhance the effectiveness of these drills.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 10th) – Senate Bill 637 was approved by the Senate on Wednesday. Burns’ bill eliminates state park entry fees with the exception of motor homes and travel trailers. The fees are not to exceed $8.
President Biden released a 6.9 trillion dollar budget on Thursday, a $1.1T increase from his budget proposal for the past fiscal year. You can read some more about it here from The Federalist. There are nearly $5 trillion in tax hikes over the next decade as part of the plan, and massively increased spending across the sprawling, bloated federal government monstrosity.
Oklahoma Congressmen Kevin Hern (R, OK-01) and Josh Brecheen (R, OK-02) have some thoughts on the proposal. Read below:
The state House of Representatives recently advanced a tax credit of $5,000 per child for private-school tuition. That has generated healthy debate on increasing educational opportunity in Oklahoma, although not all arguments put forth are valid.
One particularly egregious argument aired by opponents is that the education tax credit is somehow a wasteful giveaway. Ironically, some entities that tout the importance of “investing in education” now object to a tax credit that would … well, invest in education.
Something unprecedented is happening in the Pro-Life movement.
What do I mean? Am I speaking of the overturning of Roe v. Wade last summer? That was wonderful news, but no, that's not what I am referring to.
I am actually speaking about some very bad news.
First, let me give the background here. Last year, the Oklahoma Legislature passed two outstanding bills to protect innocent, unborn life. HB 4327 addressed civil law. It was much like the Texas law on abortion that allowed civil lawsuits. Our law was even better, because it went all the way back to conception, the beginning of life.
The other bill we passed addressed criminal law. SB 612 made abortion a felony, with punishments up to 10 years in prison, and a fine up to $100,000.
These two bills combined make us the strongest state in the union to defend innocent, unborn life. This is where we always wanted to be. It is a dream come true!
So, what is the bad news then? The bad news is that there is an organization that wants to weaken, water down, and partially dismantle our strongly pro-life laws. Senate Bill 834 is a pro-choice bill that would add several exceptions to our laws against abortion, repeal our law against self-induced abortion, and protect contraceptives that act as abortifacients. This is a significant loosening of our current law.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 9th) – The House on Wednesday passed two bills to give high school seniors an additional opportunity to retake the ACT and to modernize state graduation requirements.
House Bills 2673 and 2675 are authored by Rep. Rhonda Baker, chair of the House Common Education Committee.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 7th) – The full Senate has approved a bill to require school and public libraries to place books into sections labeled elementary, junior high, Under 16 or juniors and seniors. Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, is the author of Senate Bill 397, which was approved by the Senate on Tuesday.
“There is a time and place for conversations about certain subjects, but some of those topics are not suitable for students to be reading about in school,” Hamilton said. “This bill will further efforts to protect children in Oklahoma by only allowing them to access books from libraries that are appropriate for their age.”
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 8th) – A measure to stop the illegal purchase of Oklahoma land passed the Senate unanimously Wednesday. Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, worked with the attorney general’s office in crafting Senate Bill 212 to keep non-U.S. citizens from directly or indirectly, through a business entity or trust, owning land in the state unless otherwise authorized by law.
“Oklahoma land is as rich for growing crops as it is with the heritage of hard-working people. It is no wonder a lot of people want land here, including those from other countries,” Bullard said. “It is not an excuse to allow foreign nationals to buy up one of our most valuable resources, especially when they are cartels and from communist parties. We cannot continue to auction our state off to the highest criminal bidder.”
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 8th) - On the heels of Oklahomans’ overwhelming defeat of State Question 820 that would have legalized recreational marijuana, Sen. Jessica Garvin, R-Duncan, Wednesday said the result of the recent election shows the state’s medical program needs reformed.
With more than 61% of voters rejecting the state question, not a single county voted in favor of the measure. Opposition to the question included industry leaders, educators, law enforcement officials and community leaders.
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 6th) – The House on Monday unanimously passed a bill that would allow personal vehicle owners the option of registering their personal vehicles every two years instead of just annually.
Let's compare absentee and early vote totals from tonight versus 2018's State Question 788 (medical marijuana legalization). Some caveats: SQ788 was a June primary in a gubernatorial election year, while SQ820 is a March primary as the lone ballot item statewide; turnout will be vastly different, but pay attention to the percentages.
Oklahoma’s new chief law enforcement officer says the state’s inundation with illegal marijuana production and distribution has unleashed significant new challenges to public safety and general law and order.
Voters will decide Tuesday whether it should be legal to possess and grow marijuana for personal, recreational use in the state.
In his first appearance at the Tulsa Press Club since being sworn into office, Attorney General Gentner Drummond said that for him, “The question is not shall we smoke or not smoke marijuana. The question is: Will we let this state be invaded by Mexican cartels, Central American cartels and Chinese operatives that are absolutely destroying our state?”
I can't expound on this any better than others have. Oklahoma has enough problems without exponentially exacerbating marijuana's hostile takeover of our state.
Please vote no on State Question 820.
Check out these links for reasons on why to vote no:
(March 6th) School administrators from across the state gathered at the state capitol today to encourage a NO vote on SQ 820, the effort to legalize recreational marijuana in the state. All speakers iterated they were making these statements as individuals with experience in our schools and were not speaking on behalf of the entities where they are employed.
Muskogee Superintendent Dr. Jarod Mendenhall led off the event. “Under the cover of the state’s medical marijuana program, we have seen an increase in students using marijuana. SQ 820 will increase that access and puts our schools in a very difficult situation because marijuana’s use is so difficult to detect. As educators our goal is to maximize a student’s ability to achieve, but marijuana strikes at that very core. Ingesting THC as the adolescent brain is actively developing has horrible consequences. Marijuana use among those under 25 harms brain development including difficulty in thinking, problem solving, and memory loss,” Mendenhall stated.
A state’s citizens have the right to self-government. They also have the right to hold government officials accountable.
Most Oklahomans support both concepts. But they are under attack via a proposed federal regulation related to declaring a “public health emergency.”
Fortunately, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is pushing back.
WASHINGTON, DC (March 2nd) - Ahead of Daylight Saving Time, Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 for the 118th Congress. The legislation would end the antiquated practice of changing clocks twice a year.
Washington, D.C. (Feb. 28th) – Congressman Josh Brecheen participated in the House Homeland Security Committee’s first full committee hearing entitled, “Every State is a Border State: Examining Secretary Mayorkas’ Border Crisis.”
The hearing discussed the widespread and debilitating impact President Biden’s border crisis is having on communities across the United States.
State Election Board Offers Tips, Reminders for Oklahoma Voters
(Oklahoma City || March 3rd) – Voters head to the polls Tuesday, March 7 for a special state question election. Some voters also have county questions and local propositions on the ballot. The State Election Board offers these tips and reminders to Oklahoma voters.
