Oklahoma Lawmakers Begin 60th Session with Stitt’s State of the State Address
Lawmakers have assembled at the State Capitol today for the start of Oklahoma's 60th legislative session.
Gov. Kevin Stitt will initiate the lawmaking season with his seventh annual State of the State speech where he will make plain his policy wish list to a joint legislature and the public.
Stitt is likely to mention cutting state income taxes, keeping state agency budgets flat and increasing the diversity of state energy resources. This will all be in the context of a second Trump administration.
But if he wants any traction on it, buy-in from both chambers of the legislature is a must.
And lawmakers have their own priorities, some aligning with Stitt's, some not.
Among them is balancing the state budget, while considering what the governor and agencies want and the more than 3,100 bills filed this session.
KGOU will carry live special coverage of the governor’s State of the State speech Monday at 12:30 p.m. View a full roundup of legislative priorities here.
State Lawmakers File Bills on Meat, Additives, and Land Ownership
Oklahoma lawmakers filed dozens of agriculture bills for this upcoming session, from changing food ingredients to who can own land.
Oklahoma could join other states in outlawing or restricting the sale of cell-cultivated meat. Two bills would ban the product of meat grown from animal cells.
Another bill would ban the production, distribution and sale of certain substances as food additives, including food coloring such as blue dye 1 and red dye 40.
Lawmakers are also looking at foreign land ownership again. One bill in the House of Representatives would add specific countries to existing state law regulating who can own property.
In Oklahoma, people from outside the country who are not bona fide state residents cannot purchase land. Last year, a new law banned a “foreign government adversary” or company controlled through such a government from owning land in the state.
Rep. Justin Humphrey Joins Lawsuit Against Oklahoma DOC Over MarQuiel Ross’ Death
State Representative Justin Humphrey says he plans to join an open-records lawsuit against the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Humphrey is joining a complaint filed by the family of MarQuiel Ross, who died in an Oklahoma prison.
Ross was murdered by his cellmate while he was incarcerated at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
Ross’ family members say the Department of Corrections tried to cover it up and that the agency is withholding records about his death. The DOC refutes the claims.
Rep. Humphrey announced he plans to join a lawsuit against the department.
It’s not the first time Humphrey has supported the defendants. He criticized the Department of Corrections at the Capitol in October.
But in a recent press release about Ross’ death, the department accuses Humphrey of lying.
The department says he has “repeatedly misrepresented facts, spread misinformation, or outright misled the public” about their operations and that “his characterization of the incarceration and death of Marquel Ross is no different.”
Former State Lawmaker Ryan Kiesel Dies at 45
Civil rights lawyer and former state lawmaker Ryan Kiesel has died.
Kiesel was elected to the state house in 2004, serving three terms.
After leaving public office, he became the ACLU of Oklahoma’s executive director, and for nine years, led the organization’s support of civil rights advancement and criminal justice reform.
His prominent support of State Question 780 was followed by voter-approval in 2016. The ballot measure reclassified some non-violent drug and theft crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. It’s credited with reducing the state’s prison population, and when lawmakers made it retroactive in 2019, it resulted in what was then the nation's largest single-day commutation.
Kiesel died Friday after a long battle with cancer. He was 45.
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