Alva Review-Courier -

The ongoing drought has produced major challenges over the past several months, including wildfires. I want to express my sincere thanks to Mooreland Fire Chief Travis Case, his department, and all first-responders and other volunteers who faced...

The next to the last week of the 2022 legislative session was extremely productive as we worked on measures to help address pressing needs throughout our state through a variety of policy legislation and with the budget process. I think just about...

At this point in the legislative session, we still have a lot to do and not a lot of time left. Oklahoma’s Constitution says we must adjourn the legislative session by 5 p.m. on the last Friday in May. This year, the last Friday in May is the 2...

Senate approves HB 3144 by huge margin; would ban discrimination against 'firearm entities' We’ve now passed the deadline for the Senate to vote on measures that started out in the House, and they’ve wrapped up votes on bills that were first int...

I want to thank everyone who has continued to pray for Jason Smith and Tyler Morris, the volunteer firefighters whose truck rolled over as they battled a large wildfire in Beaver County. I’d urge your continued prayers for Jason and Tyler, and I a...

Before catching you up on recent events at the state Capitol, I want to ask each of you to keep our firefighters and their families in your thoughts and prayers. I know we were all very concerned after hearing reports that two volunteer firefighters...

Here’s a very short civics lesson for you today – a bill has to be approved in both the Senate and the House before it can go to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. At this point in the legislative session, the Senate bills that made it throu...

March 3 marked the deadline for Senate committees to vote on measures that were introduced in this chamber. Of the nearly 800 bills that were filed this session, along with other measures that were carried over from last year, about 400 cleared that...

When it comes to the importance of agriculture in our state, I never tire of promoting the hard work of Oklahoma farmers and ranchers. As chair of the Senate’s Agricultural and Wildlife Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to highlight and c...

We’ve completed the second week of the 2022 legislative session, continuing to work through substantial committee agendas and voting on legislation in the full chamber. Numerous bills are making their way through the Senate that will enhance our e...

We’ve convened the 2022 legislative session, which begins each year on the first Monday in February and must end no later than 5 p.m. on the last Friday of May. The first day of the session is also when the governor delivers his yearly State of t...

The 2022 legislative session will get underway Feb. 7. Last month, the state Board of Equalization (BOE) met to make its initial certification of how much revenue would be available for the Legislature to appropriate for the coming budget year. The...

Last month, I began gathering signatures so that the Legislature could call itself into special session to fight back against federal overreach – specifically, the push by the Biden administration to force both public and private sector employees t...

Personal freedoms, private enterprise, the free market, states’ rights – I am concerned all of these are at stake right now. I’m talking about the latest incidence of federal overreach, and that is the Biden administration’s effort to coerce both pu...

In my last article, I talked about how I had been appointed to serve on the Joint Committee on Pandemic Relief Funding, the bipartisan, bicameral panel that has been tasked with vetting and making recommendations to the governor on the use of our...

As we head into fall, the number of important meetings at the Capitol, including interim studies and other work in preparation for the coming session, are increasing weekly. While I’ll be chairing the Agriculture and Wildlife Committee hearings f...

As I’ve watched the news from across the country, I’ve seen crimes going up while politicians continue to say the crime rate is dropping. Just because states around the country have softened their laws on what a felony is, it doesn’t mean the crimes...

We’ve now concluded work on the budget and policy legislation, and wrapped up the 2021 session at the Capitol. One of my final measures to present was Senate Bill 270, which updates various state laws related to veterinary medicine in the state ...

The most important job of the Legislature is to write and approve a balanced budget. I would go beyond that and say we have a responsibility to the citizens of this state to prioritize the fundamental core services of government, make targeted...

We’re now in the closing weeks of the session, and work continues on the state budget daily. On the floor, we’re continuing to vote on bills that have come through conference committee – these are bills that were passed in slightly different versi...

Under Oklahoma’s Constitution, the Legislature must complete its work by no later than 5 p.m. on the last Friday in May. That means we’re in the closing weeks of the session. At this point, we’ve passed deadlines for floor votes on bills from the o...

We’re coming up on the next big deadline for action on most bills. April 22 is the last day for the Senate to vote on legislation sent over from the House, and the last day for them to consider bills we sent over. There are a few exceptions to t...

Increasingly, I’ve been hearing from citizens worried about foreign investors attempting to purchase land in Oklahoma. More specifically, the concern is that they are buying up Oklahoma land to grow medical marijuana. Talking to my fellow members o...

Without a doubt, the Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted our work in the Legislature. Many good bills filed a year ago, including some of my own, wound up being laid over after the building was closed for several weeks in order to prevent spread o...