Report on House Bills

I thought many of you would be interested in reading about what the House committees advanced during their first 3 weeks.  During the first 3 weeks, all bills must pass out of committee. 

            The Republican leadership together with the Caucus has tagged several areas for importance.  Some bills will come through the Senate, some through the House.  Economy issues include workers comp reform with an administrative system, income tax rate reduction, and workforce development through education. Infrastructure spending via an 8-yr. pay-as-you-go plan by House Speaker Shannon will be considered.  Education funding reforms and local control bills will be on the docket.  Health and Human Services will of course be under consideration with DHS reorganization.  Also to be considered are ways to address more medical in underserved areas and mental health facilities.  Second Amendment protection and yet more laws on drug enforcement will come from Public Safety.

            So then, here are some of the highlights and lowlights.  The first one is called Rep. Paul Wesselhoft vs. Big Brother.  He has introduced bills to disallow drones with weapons, driver’s licenses with tracking software and will require a warrant for law enforcement to access location information from cell phone providers.  In a similar vein, Todd Thomsen has a bill that allows school districts to deregulate from certain rules that are unfunded mandates.  Sally Kern has a bill that would nullify Agenda 21.  You are probably familiar with these Reps as some of the most conservative and they wish to guard us against government intrusion.  Agenda 21 is a UN initiative.  Best I can explain it is an imposed tax on property that the UN thinks they can force upon USA. 

            Bills for budget and finance were advanced.  Elise Hall has a measure to limit budget increases during boom times so that the state would be more prudent and not get ourselves in the kind of troubles we often encountered in the past.  Speaker TW Shannon wants agencies to prioritize the federal monies they receive, so that if the federal water spigot goes dry, we know what to cut first.  Shannon also has a Bond Cap bill that would limit total state indebtedness and another bill concerning sale of unused state assets as follow-up on last year’s law.

            Worker’s Comp reform will come from the Senate, but Randy Grau has a bill to privatize Comp Source into a mutual insurance company.  Comp Source is the state-run insurance company that writes workers comp.  A few years back it was the only company businesses could go to.  Now it is one among many private insurers and this has helped bring down rates. 

            Gus Blackwell has several bills to remove archaic and bad bills that are on the books.  Jason Murphey, has a bill that would remove language regarding a fire ant research and management committee, the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Act, the Oklahoma Military Base Closure Prevention Task Force and an Oklahoma Office of Volunteerism.  A bill by Grau, removes a misdemeanor for blasphemy (Hollywood breathed a sigh of relief) and another that  would remove a requirement that county commissioners not own railroad stock.

            McCullough has a bill to disband the Children First Program which he claims eats funds and performs marginal results.  Sally Kern has a bill that allows victims of human sexual trafficking to get their prostitution records expunged. Sean Roberts would allow no public funding of pro-gun control PR. 

            Taxation was addressed.  A bill to (finally) remove the Franchise Tax from businesses by Leslie Osborn advanced.  Franchise tax is a tax simply for the right to run a business in Oklahoma and is much-hated by the business community.  It collects $45 million annually.  Pat Owenbey has a bill to expand electronic items included during the sales tax holiday.  Dustin Roberts wants to exempt home bakeries from state health licensing in consideration that many organizations raise money through bake sales and health inspections and equipment discourages bakers.

            Mike Ritze wrote a bill that would nullify Obamacare.  Speaker Shannon has a bill to disallow Obamacare’s religious intolerance and a second that would disallow Medicaid money be used for morning-after pills.  Hulbert and Roberts have a measure to allow a person to seek a physical therapist without a sponsoring doctor. This would aid disabled veterans among others, and return to an earlier standard in Oklahoma.

            Minority Leader Scott Inman got bipartisan support for his bill to tweak the A-F grading scores of schools.

            Curtis McDaniel advanced an anti-texting while driving bill.  Kern put forth a bill to allow private schools to set gun policies independent of public schools. Steve Vaughan has a bill to forgive citizens with a rap incurred long ago, who have a very clean record in order to buy a hunting rifle.

            Two major, sea-change  legislative initiatives will be voted on.  Scott Biggs wants a House Joint Resolution to ask amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution.  It has been called Right To Farm in other states and it nullifies government intervention in a farmer’s right to use new technology and methods. North Dakota passed such an amendment last year because environmental groups, animal rights groups, EPA and others are using the courts to beleaguer farmers who lack resources to oppose their demands.  Speaker Shannon has a welfare “workfare” reform that would require anyone who is able-bodied to work 35 hours per week on a list of projects in order to get welfare assistance.

            These are the things that will be debated hotly in the House over the next 3 weeks.  Then House and Senate trade those bills that pass. Wait! I left out the story on Horse Processing Plants. Long story.  Another day.