House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City, said at her weekly press conference Thursday that 21 Democratic bills advanced past the first round of House committee meetings.
She highlighted House Bill 3392 by her colleague from Tulsa, Rep. Amanda Clinton, as a big win for House Democrats this year. The measure calls for greater accountability around energy usage by data centers and other large industrial projects.
"This asks the Corporation Commission to put together a report to highlight how much energy is being used," Munson said. "So that way, if there are costs associated with this, those costs do not fall on regular, everyday people."
Munson signed on as a co-author to Clinton's bill, as it moves to the House Energy and Natural Resources Oversight Committee for another vote. If approved, it can head to the House floor.
Increased oversight of data centers and other industrial projects is a priority shared by both Democrats and Republicans in the House. House Speaker Rep. Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said that while he can't speak to the House Democratic agenda and hasn't personally looked at HB 3392, he's behind the mission.
"As far as data centers and transparency, I have been very vocal to all the individuals that all of the companies that are interested in putting in data centers — whether it's Meta, Google, OpenAI, Microsoft — they need to be more transparent," Hilbert said.
In the Senate, 13 bills from Democrats advanced, according to Sen. Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City.Among the measures her caucus has managed to get through Republican-dominated committees are Kirt's own water infrastructure proposal, Senate Bill 1332, and her housing development incentive plan, Senate Bill 1393.
Both Democratic caucuses are still worried about how the legislature will manage to stretch the state budget to provide services to Oklahomans. She called the governor's proposed budget unrealistic.
Kirt said she has more faith in her Republican counterparts in the Senate, like Appropriations Chairman Sen. Chuck Hall, to devise a working budget. But her worries persist.
"I have seen very solid spreadsheets from Senator Hall," Kirt said. "I know that he's very assiduous, very careful with those numbers, but I don't yet know what the priorities are that they're suggesting."
