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 of the virus. That certainly added to the workload this year as many of those bills were refiled for the 2021 session.

The pandemic is also having an impact on another important task we must complete this year, and that’s redistricting.

We are required to redraw legislative and congressional district boundaries every 10 years following the release of U.S. Census data, because, by law, populations must be divided among those districts as evenly as possible. In other words, we can’t have 200,000 people in one state Senate district and 50,000 people in another. It’s a principal about equal representation referred to as “one person, one vote.”

Unfortunately, the pandemic caused delays in conducting the census, and that’s pushed back the final population counts. By federal law, the Census Bureau is supposed to give states the final census numbers they need to conduct redistricting by April 1. We now know it will probably be this fall before states get those figures.

Despite that, we’re required by law to complete our work redrawing the boundaries for legislative seats by the end of session this year. That’s exactly what we’ll do, using the 2014-2019 American Community Survey, which is also done by the U.S. Census Bureau. This data gives us carefully prepared estimates about population changes, which will allow us to fulfill our responsibility under the law.

We’ll still need to use the final figures for redrawing the congressional district boundaries and to make any necessary adjustments to the legislative districts. This means we’ll need to return in special session this fall to complete those tasks.

Nevertheless, we’ve continued to make good progress and kept our promise to make this process as open and transparent as possible. We held 22 in-person and virtual town hall meetings across the state, giving citizens the opportunity to ask questions and make comments, and the public has been able to submit their own ideas about district maps, although the deadline for submitting maps is April 4 at 5 p.m. If you want more information, just go to oksenate.gov/redistricting.

April 8 is the deadline for committees in the Senate and House to consider legislation sent over from the opposite chamber. Eight of my bills originally introduced here in the Senate have now made it through various House committees, including my legislation creating a livestock registry to help farmers, ranchers and law enforcement keep an eye out for criminals known to have previously stolen cattle or other livestock, and my bill that allows folks to hunt or kill prairie dogs without a permit. I’m also the Senate author on several House bills this session, and I’ve already won committee approval for seven of those.

Once committees in both chambers have wrapped up their work on these bills, the House and Senate will have until April 22 to complete floor votes on bills from the other chamber. After that, you’ll see much more attention focused on the budget and redistricting bills.

To close, from my family to yours, I want to wish all of a very blessed and happy Easter.

It is my honor to serve you in the Oklahoma State Senate. You can reach me by calling 405-521-5626 or emailing [email protected].