Alva Review-Courier -

With less than a month left before the legislative session must be completed per our state’s constitution, we’ve officially wrapped up voting on measures from the opposite chamber and will now shift our focus to approving or denying any amendments made on Senate bills from the House. We’ll also work on finalizing the Fiscal Year 2023 state budget and vote on executive nominations. These are folks who are recommended by the governor to serve on boards and commissions, and each one must be approved by the full Senate.

My colleagues gave approval to three House bills I authored this past week. One measure is awaiting the governor’s signature and two are back in the House for their final approval of Senate amendments.

House Bill 3359 is on the governor’s desk. If signed, it would modify the education qualifications for those pursuing a career in funeral directing or embalming. Currently, students in these fields must take an additional 60 hours of classes not related to mortuary school before they can graduate. This legislation would remove that requirement, making this career path more financially attainable and in a quicker timeframe.

HB 1512 would assert the authority of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry to regulate agricultural structures and crop planting in unincorporated areas. Medical marijuana, livestock facilities and ag equipment would be exempt from the regulation.

HB 4412 would create a program to promote farming and ranching practices that increase the health, yield and profitability of the soil through baseline soil assessments, landowner education and grants to technical assistance providers. The program would be within the Oklahoma Conservation Commission. Both of these measures have been sent back to the House for their approval of amendments made in our chamber.

We also passed an important piece of legislation last week that will help us recruit and retain talented educators, reinforcing the teacher to classroom pipeline. HB 3564 would create the Oklahoma Future Teacher Scholarship and Employment Incentive program, which would give education students committed to teaching in our state a $1,000 scholarship their first three years of undergrad, a $2,500 scholarship their last year of school, and would then pay a $4,000 annual employment incentive payment each year for their first five years in an Oklahoma classroom. With the continuing teacher shortage and the number of emergency certified teachers rises, we must look outside of the box and find solutions to train more teachers in this very important field. I’m hopeful this measure will help fill the need for highly qualified and trained educators in our classrooms.

As we are entering the home stretch of session, I’ll keep you updated as we draw closer to a finalized budget. It’s an honor to serve you at our state Capitol. Please feel free to reach out if there is anything I can help you with. You can contact me at 405-521-5630 or via email at [email protected].