Committee advances bill to restore regents’ authority over geographic restrictions

A House committee on an unspecified date advanced a bill to remove statutory geographic restrictions and to allow the Oklahoma State Regents of Higher Education to carry out what the bill’s sponsor called their constitutional duty.

The committee adopted a proposed committee substitute (PCS) as the working draft and then voted to advance the bill. The sponsor, Representative Hassenback, said the universities named in the bill are those “statutorily restricted to provide content to students in certain areas.” Vice Chair Wolfley presided and announced the PCS adoption; the vote to advance the bill was recorded in the transcript as “5 I’s, 1 A,” after which the chair declared the bill to pass out of committee.

Representative Hassenback framed the measure as restoring the regents’ ability to act. “Allowing the regents to do their constitutional duty,” Hassenback said when introducing the PCS. She told members the bill would define a “functional exception” in statute that she said the regents have operated under but that the exception has not previously been defined in law.

Members questioned how the bill’s geographic provisions were chosen and whether universities and system leaders were consulted. Representative Townley asked specifically what the bill would change about geographic areas. Representative Ransom asked about the process used to create the bill and how universities were selected for inclusion.

Hassenback said she sent a letter to every university president in the state of Oklahoma, provided her cellphone number for follow-up, and has spoken with “many university presidents, several in the last 5 days.” She said she has worked “closely with the regents for higher education, as well as the RUSO directors and presidents and the community college director and presidents.” She also said she was not invited to any meeting where all presidents were present together.

When asked whether the regents already had a functional exception, Hassenback replied that they do but that the bill would define it in statute so the regents could meet requests from universities that fall within that exception.

After brief discussion and questions, the committee adopted the PCS as the working draft, and Representative Hassenback moved adoption of the bill. The transcript records the committee vote as “5 I’s, 1 A,” and the chair declared the bill to pass out of committee. The meeting then adjourned.

The transcript refers to the measure alternately as “House Bill 28 54” and “House bill 28 50”; the PCS was adopted and the committee recorded the passage as noted above. The bill’s subsequent steps (full-house consideration, committee referral, or floor calendar placement) were not specified in the transcript.