House advances a package of bills on energy, public safety, taxes and education; roll-call results

The Oklahoma House on March 11 considered and, in most cases, approved a set of bills spanning energy, public safety, criminal procedure, taxation and school policy. Several measures passed on final passage with recorded roll-call tallies, while others moved forward without extended floor debate.

Key measures the chamber acted on included two bills related to the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA). House Bill 14 20 would allow GRDA to retain proceeds from the sale of property that a federal regulator once required for lake access; the House approved final passage, 72 ayes and 6 nays. House Bill 14 22 raised GRDA’s bonding capacity from $2,000,000,000 to $3,600,000,000 to finance three projects noted by the sponsor: a 650-megawatt generation unit, a 450-megawatt generation unit and refurbishment of the Salina pump station; the House recorded 67 ayes and 17 nays on final passage and recorded an emergency vote later in the tally (70 ayes, 6 nays) as announced on the floor.

Other bills that passed on final passage included: - HB 20 33 (request bill from Oklahoma Primary Care Authority) — related to public health and safety; final vote recorded as 68 ayes, 18 nays; Representative Moore announced his intent to move to reconsider the vote on a later legislative date. - HB 20 83 (dual office-holding exemptions for certain officers) — added municipal and campus police officers and deputy sheriffs to a list of exemptions; final vote recorded as 83 ayes, 3 nays. - HB 13 56 (agriculture; farm-gate gates liability changes) — sponsor said the bill addresses people leaving gates open and shifts liability in certain circumstances; final vote 88 ayes, 0 nays. - HB 10 98 (firefighter training; rural/volunteer departments) — prohibits state or county-mandated training for rural volunteer fire departments while allowing local departments to require training; final vote 83 ayes, 4 nays. - HB 18 34 (Inhofe disaster savings account; revenue and taxation) — creates a disaster savings account; final vote 58 ayes, 25 nays. - HB 16 84 (tax/tagging for legally obtained surplus military vehicles older than 35 years) — final vote 87 ayes, 0 nays. - HB 20 51 (supervised physician status for unmatched medical graduates) — allows certain medical school graduates who did not match to work as supervised physicians for up to two years; transcript shows roll call in progress and the bill advanced; final roll-call tally not specified in the transcript excerpt. - HB 21 37 (procedures for involuntary medication of persons incompetent to stand trial) — final vote recorded as 84 ayes, 0 nays. - HB 19 91 (allow bonding out in county of original warrant) — final vote recorded as 85 ayes, 0 nays. - HB 19 96 (sheriffs’ commissary auditing) — clarifies procedures for unclaimed inmate funds; final vote recorded as 86 ayes, 0 nays. - HB 21 53 (brick-and-mortar charter schools may implement a sibling preference that supersedes other enrollment preferences) — final vote recorded as 84 ayes, 1 nay; emergency provision also approved by the roll call announced on the floor. - HB 14 12 (changes to A–F school report card metrics; replace chronic absenteeism with instructional time) — final vote recorded as 74 ayes, 15 nays; emergency provision recorded on the floor. - HB 21 64 (public corruption; ethics and procurement changes following interim study) — final vote recorded as 88 ayes, 0 nays. - HB 22 60 (tax incentives for cybersecurity and automotive industries) — final vote recorded as 59 ayes, 27 nays after a motion to strike the title for fiscal impact; the bill nevertheless passed that day on final passage as announced. - HB 21 85 (follow-up oversight for juvenile custodial assaults) — the bill passed as announced on the floor; transcript excerpt does not provide a clear roll-call tally in the provided segment. - HB 13 60 (attorney general address confidentiality for domestic abuse victims) — final vote recorded as 88 ayes, 0 nays.

Several bills were advanced to third reading earlier in the session without extended floor debate. Where the transcript included roll-call tallies, those are recorded above; for a small number of measures the excerpt shows the bill advanced and a roll call in progress but does not record the final numerical tally in the excerpted lines.

The House adjourned to reconvene on March 12 at 10:30 a.m.