House Concurrent Resolution 1027 is essentially an agreement between the House and Senate that their work in the statehouse will finish by Thursday, but that they'll gavel out late next week, just in case they decide to tie up any legislative loose ends.
The measure also leaves a window open for the second half of May, during which lawmakers can reconvene for business as long as they get 24 hours' prior notice.
That could include veto overrides, if the governor returns any high-priority bills, though lawmakers are giving no indication of plans to carry those out.
The resolution passed with a majority in both chambers, but Democrats – and some Republicans – oppose the move.
Sen. Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, criticized ending early on the House floor as a dismissal of Oklahomans' needs.
"I'm concerned that we're implying that there's not still work to do," Kirt said. "I don't think this will be well-received back in our districts. And I think that's for good reason, because they want to see us up here solving real problems."
Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, and Chair of the far-right Freedom Caucus, called it a "shirking" of the legislature's duty, and a rush to get back to campaigning in-district.
"This is an election year," Jett said. "People want to go back and knock on doors so they can hold on to their corner offices. This is inappropriate. We should be staying here till the end of time so that we can focus on the policy issues that we were elected to do for the people of Oklahoma."
Sen. Brent Howard, R-Altus, ran the measure as the assistant majority floor leader of the Senate. He said lawmakers have one responsibility: to pass the budget, and that it is already complete.
"There's always going to be business," Howard said. "We've taken care of that. More opportunity up here just means more opportunity for us to go to those pet projects to look at those."He said that personally, he's not looking forward to another election. It's Howard's last year in the legislature after he decided not to seek another term.
"I am looking forward to not having the general population worry about things getting pushed through at the last minute," he said. "And knowing that this legislature… took care of business, adjourned and saved taxpayer money by doing that in a timely fashion."
