Alva Review-Courier -

The House finished its committee deadline this week for all policy bills from the Senate, as did the Senate with House bills. Interestingly, we started out the session with a total of 2,631 bills and joint resolutions filed between the House and the Senate. At the point where bills traveled to the opposite side of the Capitol the number of active measures had been whittled down to 819 in total between the Senate and House. Now, after bills have gone through committees in the opposite chamber the number of bills surviving is down to about 645. I am sure before session is over the number of bills sent to the governor will be below 500.

This time of year, people who are paying attention to the process will hear many motions to strike title or the enacting clause. Bill authors will do this as a sign to other lawmakers that they want to keep the bill moving through the legislative process but they are committing to change language in the bill before its final passage. The Oklahoma Constitution does not allow a bill to pass without a title or an enacting clause. Having a bill pass both the House and Senate without title or enacting clause is like shooting a gun with blanks. It may make the same noise as a real bullet but it cannot do anything but make noise. Both title and enacting clause must be restored before final passage of the bill in its chamber of origin and before it is sent to the governor who must then decide whether to sign it into law. Bills with title on and enacting clause in place are sometimes called “live rounds.”

One item getting a lot of attention in our area is Senate Bill 868, which allows farmers to apply for a grower’s license to produce industrial hemp from certified seeds. The measure authorizes the state Department of Agriculture to develop and administer a production program under the 2018 Federal Farm Bill. The problem with this is the Federal Farm Bill of 2018 doesn’t go into effect until the fall of this year. Thus, anyone planting this year would not be able to receive any federal assistance set out by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). We are currently working with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture and the USDA to guarantee payment and coverage of the Farm Service Agency for those wanting to plant hemp this year. The pilot program looks to be extended to aid those wanting to plant hemp this year. The pilot program was put in place last year, under which state farmers had to partner with a state university in order to grow the crop. Farmers in western Oklahoma are very concerned about finding a solution to this program as hemp should be a good cash crop as other grain prices remain low. Please watch as we will try to solve this in the weeks to come to accommodate the farmers’ need to get this crop in the ground in the next few weeks.

Thank you for allowing me to represent northwest Oklahoma. I hope you have a great week. If you have questions or need to contact me, please call my office at 404-557-7339 or email me @ [email protected]. May God bless you and our great state.