Oklahoma Farm Bureau members are invited to attend the Oklahoma Water Resources Board’s upcoming stakeholder input meetings this month. As the largest user of water in Oklahoma, it is crucial for agriculture to have a voice in these meetings. The stakeholder meetings will center on the impending updates to Oklahoma’s Comprehensive Water Plan with discussions on water policy, future water supply and demand, water challenges and more. Two virtual meetings will be offered on Aug. 18 and Aug. 31 for participants who are unable to attend an in-person meeting. More details will be shared on these virtual meetings soon. For […]

The first regular session of the 59th Oklahoma legislature adjourned sine die on Friday, May 26, and the halls of the state Capitol have once again grown quiet. Throughout the nearly four-month legislative session, Oklahoma Farm Bureau members and staff worked hard to make the voice of rural Oklahoma heard at 23rd and Lincoln. In a session overtaken largely by education funding discussions, OKFB members still saw success in several key agricultural areas. Landowner Advocacy OKFB was pleased to see the passage of HB 1962 by Rep. Carl Newton and Sen. Darcy Jech. This bill allows persons between the ages […]

The first week of May did not see many bills making progress at the state Capitol due to the continuing logjam over education funding. The House and Senate spent more time behind closed doors in caucus meetings than on their respective chamber floors. The key sticking point centers around rural public schools and whether they should receive more of the proposed additional per pupil funding than their urban counterparts. Gov. Kevin Stitt and House Republicans have held firm that rural public schools should be a priority consideration of the spending packages due to the vast majority of the proposed private […]

The last legislative deadline week ahead of sine die was met with gridlock at 23rd and Lincoln. The major issue affecting nonrelated legislation is the difference of opinion over an education package and tax cuts. The House and the governor have spent most of the session in nearly lockstep on both of those issues while the Senate has had a considerably different opinion. This week the governor began vetoing nearly all Senate bills on his desk, issuing a message that he would continue doing so until the Senate threw their support behind his education and tax cut plans. The Senate […]

The Oklahoma State Legislature returned to the House and Senate chambers for the first week in a two-week floor work period. Both chambers have until next Thursday, April 27, to approve bills from the opposite chamber of origin. HB 1847 by Rep. John Kane and Sen. Grant Green passed the Senate this week with an emergency clause allowing it to go into immediate effect upon approval by the Governor. HB 1847 adds two members to the Emergency Drought Commission, which would allow two members from the Commission to meet and discuss ideas ahead of official meetings without being in violation […]

The legislature crossed another deadline threshold this week finishing up the second and final committee deadline of the legislative session. While Senate bills assigned to House Appropriations and Budget still have one more week, all other bills were required to be passed out of their assigned committee from the opposite chamber of which they originated from. Initial numbers show that there are roughly 500 bills and joint resolutions remaining available for consideration ahead of the next deadline on April 27, which will require bills to be passed off of the floor of the opposite chamber. Following the April 27 deadline, […]