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 state’s share of $3.19 billion in federal dollars to help address costs and needs resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, and help Oklahoma be better prepared to deal with future such events.

Under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) the federal government is making nearly $1.9 billion in funding available to the state of Oklahoma, with an additional $1...