I can’t remember in recent history when a session has started slower or when we have changed out a speaker midway through the first few days. In a vote of the Republican caucus members, Rep. Jeff Hickman, of Fairview, was elected to the new role of Speaker of the House.
Most members have at least a year to prepare for this role and the duties that come with it. Speaker Hickman had about 10 minutes of grace time before the realities of the job set in. This is a monumental task that he faces, but knowing the new Speaker, he will do just fine.
Speaker Hickman was raised on farm in northwest Oklahoma and is a product of the rural school system. He knows what each one of you face from a day-to-day business aspect and has made the same choices you have when it comes to running a farm and dealing with the government. We are excited at Oklahoma Farm Bureau to have a speaker who knows what it is like to live and work in rural Oklahoma. Speaker Hickman will be up to full speed in no time, and we look forward to working together to move Oklahoma forward.
As I mentioned, we have been off to a slow start. With the reorganization of the leadership, many bills have been put on hold. This is not to imply that the committee chairs are not doing their jobs, but some bills have been held back or authors changed. We have had good success so far in limiting the hearing of a few bills that deal with people trespassing on your land and also have been successfully educating people on the unintended consequences of a few animal rights bills.
Unfortunately, while a few bad bills have been stopped, a few more remain. We saw a wind bill that limits where landowners can place wind turbines on their land pass out of a Senate committee. Let me be clear that while not all people agree on windmills, our policy does take the side of landowners. We will continue to watch these bills as they move along in the process. Being an election year and given the fact that a few members are termed out, running for leadership positions or running for higher office, we stand a great shot of seeing many things that are not “Main Street” normal this year.
