Lawmakers in the Oklahoma legislature sped through a packed floor schedule Monday, passing every measure they considered.
It was their first day of about two weeks of extensive discussions over bills, followed by public votes, before the deadline for all bills to be referred to the opposite chamber rolls around on March 27.
Bills brought up in the House include requiring health insurers to cover certain breast cancer screenings, establishing the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority and improving education-related infrastructure within the Oklahoma Military Department.
‘Regardless of party lines…we care about you’
It was a pink day in the Oklahoma legislature, as lawmakers in both chambers were adorned in the color in solidarity with Assistant Minority Leader Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, who recently was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Provenzano’s House Bill 1389, which would require mammograms and other early diagnostic breast cancer screenings to be covered by health insurance, was one of only a handful of measures to pass unanimously in either chamber.
She introduced the bill to her colleague with tears in her eyes.
"House Bill 1389 ensures that health benefit plans cover low dose mammography screenings, diagnostic and supplemental breast cancer screenings without cost sharing," Provenzano said. "One in eight women in America are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. Early detection is key to saving lives."
Rep. Denise Crosswhite-Hader, R-Yukon, was the single lawmaker who asked a question about the bill, but only to help her colleague highlight the need for the proposed legislation.
"If this bill was in place, could you tell me what this might do?" Crosswhite-Hader said. "Say, if someone's mother had cancer."
Provenzano passed the vibe check, answering with more statistics.
"4,287 women were diagnosed [with breast cancer] this last year in the State of Oklahoma," she said. "If this bill can help save a mom, I hope you’ll consider voting for it."
And all 95 lawmakers who voted did. Now, the bill heads to the Senate for what is likely a similar result, as members in that chamber also wore pink in support of Provenzano.
Once the measure was formally approved, lawmakers whooped and hollered over their claps, slowly moving to form a line and hug their colleague.
By the end of it, Majority Floor Leader Rep. Josh West, R-Grove, made a personal — yet politically poignant — statement to his Democratic colleague.
"Representative Provenzano, regardless of party lines, I guarantee it," West said. "I can speak for everyone, saying we all care about you."
The moment stood out as a breach in the partisan wall that often keeps bills proposed by Democrats from even seeing the yellow-tinged lights of most committee rooms in the statehouse.
More bills from the House and Senate
House Bill 2024, by Rep. Nick Archer, R-Elk City, would establish the Oklahoma Space Renaissance Act, which appropriates $51.3 million into the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority in the next fiscal year.
Per the bill, $1.3 million are for regular operations, $35 million for building a new air and spaceport to help with rocket testing, and another $15 million for microgravity research — or the weightlessness experienced by objects in space.
Also related to building up essential military transportation needs, Edmond Republic Rep. Kelly Hines introduced House Bill 2516 by House Speaker Kyle Hilbert on the floor, which aims to create the Base Infrastructure Needs and Development Schools Revolving Fund.
With fewer members and thus more time to discuss bills, the Senate took a more methodical approach to their floor discussions.
At one point, Senators went in circles for about 20 minutes discussing Senate Floor Leader Julie Daniels’ Senate Bill 418, regulating bathroom gender designations within Oklahoma’s prisons and the Department of Corrections at large.
Sen. Regina Goodwin questioned Daniels as to who's going to be checking people's genitals to make sure they are "exclusively male or female" before they enter a restroom while incarcerated.
Daniels said those determinations would be based on the determined sex when people are booked into jail or prison.
Senators also considered allowing state judges to tote concealed handguns in Senate Bill 742 by Sen. Todd Gollihare, R and expanded jurisdictional authority for sheriffs to operate outside the county in which they were elected with SB 523.
