Lawmakers in the House and Senate have managed to approve nearly 800 of the 2,600 measures filed this legislative session for floor discussion.
The deadline for bills to pass their committee of origin is Thursday, so there could be hundreds more measures approved in the coming days.
Still, from big-ticket investments in education and water infrastructure to 2030 Census planning, responses to congressional mandates, and reform of the judicial selection process, members of the Republican majority have mostly advanced their agendas.
But the question remains how they will pay for upcoming expenses, as a projected $1.5 billion budget shortfall looms and the state's nearly $3.6 billion in savings begin to dwindle.
Key movement on the Education front
While Senate and House Republicans agree that Oklahoma needs to improve its education outcomes — and especially early childhood literacy rates — they disagree on how to pay for it.
Senate leadership unveiled its education spending plan last week, which proposes redirecting $254 million in teacher pension fund contributions to pay for teacher pay raises, early literacy and math intervention programs, a higher limit on school choice tax credit vouchers and more.
Measures related to the plan include Senate Education Chair Adam Pugh's Senate Bills 1338 and 1778, which aim to invest $60 million in early reading intervention programs and to hire more state-employed reading coaches, and Vice-Chair Sen. Ally Seifried's Senate Bill 1360, propping up similar intervention and coaching programs related to math.
Pugh's SB 1779 and Seifried's SB 1360 are awaiting Senate floor hearings and already have sponsors in the House. Still, tension between the chambers persists over whether pulling money from teacher retirement is the right way to pay for the state's dire education needs.
Surviving measures addressing federal mandates
Congress's "Big Beautiful Bill" comes with a slew of new mandates increasing the cost for state agencies to administer federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) and Medicaid programs, and restricting who is eligible to receive them. And while agencies are responsible for implementing practical changes to meet the new regulations, state lawmakers must approve and fund them while also pitching their own reforms.
Along those lines are measures like Senate Bill 1833 by Sen. Kristen Thompson, R- Edmond, which aims to prohibit Oklahomans from using their electronic benefit cards to buy candy, soft drinks, and other non-nutritious foods.
The measure aligns with Gov. Kevin Stitt and other Republican goals of seeking federal waivers, aiming to exclude those items from eligibility for purchase with tax dollars. It passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee along party lines on Feb. 9.
House Speaker Kyle Hilbert's pair of measures, dubbed the "SECURE Act," aims to tackle administrative error rates and immigration. Both House Bills 4422 and 4423 require state agencies to report benefit applicants in the country without a legal immigration status, and, Hilbert said, come at the request of the Trump Administration.
Both measures were approved by committees and the House floor along party lines, despite pushback from members of the Latino Legislative Caucus and their fellow Democrats. They are now pending discussion in the Senate.
Constitutional Amendments with traction
So far, the two proposals to alter Oklahoma's Constitution moving forward are coming from the House.
House Joint Resolution 1070 by Rep. Erick Harris, R-Edmond, would require that anyone running for the statewide office of Oklahoma Attorney General also be a licensed and practicing lawyer. Meanwhile, HJR 1074 proposes starting a board-run lottery fund to help pay for veterans' services.
The board would contain 9 members from leading state and national veterans advocacy and support groups: Disabled American Veterans, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Paralyzed Veterans of America, National Guard or Air National Guard, Military Order of the Purple Heart, the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, and two additional members appointed by the Oklahoma Veterans Council.
Making a comeback from last year is Senator Lonnie Paxton's Senate Joint Resolution 6, proposing to abolish the Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission and replace it with a Congress-style executive selection and Senate confirmation process.
Several other constitutional amendments are proposed, but are still awaiting committee hearings. Those include one to ban Sharia Law in Oklahoma (HJR 1040) by Rep. Gabe Woolley, R-Broken Arrow, and another to mandate a party-based election system (HJR 1019) by Rep. Eric Roberts, R-Oklahoma City.
