It’s been another busy week at the State Capitol. Thursday was our deadline to pass House bills through their House committees. A bill must pass its committee before it is eligible to be heard on the House floor.
This week, I had two bills I authored that passed committee.
On Monday, I presented House Bill 2008 before the House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee. HB2008 guarantees Oklahomans the right to use working animals by preempting local governments and state agencies from banning the use of livestock for entertainment, transportation, education, exhibition, ranching or service.
This bill was a request from a constituent in District 31 and is one I filed last year that carried over into the new session. The Oklahoma Cattleman’s Association and the Oklahoma Farm Bureau are both in support of this bill. It passed committee 17-1 and has now been added to the House floor agenda to be heard in the next two weeks.
On Wednesday, I had a second bill pass committee as well. House Bill 3128 standardizes language around the privileges of an authorized signer on depository accounts. It also clarifies and cleans up language surrounding payable upon death beneficiaries.
The Oklahoma Bankers Association requested this bill to help define specific guidelines for the banking industry. It was heard before the House Banking, Financial Services and Pensions Committee, where it passed 10-0.
As bills pass committees, they are added to the added to the House floor agenda, but must have a principal Senate author before the bill can be heard by the entire House. Now that the committee deadline has passed, this is the stage we’re currently in.
Over the next two weeks, the Legislature will spend hours in their chambers each day to hear and vote on hundreds of bills. We’ll spend all day, as well as a few evenings too, considering these bills.
Out of 1,361 new House bills that were filed this year, in addition a few hundred that were carried over from last session, we passed 469 through committee this year. The deadline to pass bills through their chamber of origin is Thursday, March 12. Last year, we were here on this deadline day until about 10:30 p.m., plus several other evenings as well.
Thank you for the opportunity to represent District 31 in the House!
Rep Garry Mize, a Republican, serves District 31 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which includes Logan and Oklahoma counties.
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