By Terry Harrison
It has been a week of relative quiet at the House of Representatives following a storm of activity last week. Last week we considered hundreds of bills to the near-midnight hour every day. This week, we considered less than 10 measures, none of which were substantive. Committees either did not meet at all or had very brief meetings with few Senate bills scheduled for consideration. The management of the House of Representatives (or lack of it) continues to frustrate me. As you may have heard earlier this week, it is not just the Democrat members of the House who are upset about the proceedings in the House. Republican members have spent most of this past week in turmoil, leading to the ousting of Floor Leader Lance Cargill. Even Republican members were upset at the scheduling of several measures that took long debate, were divisive in nature, and will meet a certain death in the Senate while important bills authored by both Democrats and Republicans were not heard at all. The new Floor Leader is a freshman Republican who will only be able to schedule bills at the decision of a three member committee. It seems apparent to me that “leadership by committee” is born of distrust.
Wednesday was highlighted by numerous rural firefighters who came to the Capitol to visit with their legislators about the crisis in funding following these many months of wildfires. With numerous firefighters watching the proceedings from the House gallery, Rep. Dale Turner from Holdenville made a motion to move Senate Bill 1735 to the House calendar for consideration. This is the bill that would provide immediate emergency funding payable directly to our rural fire departments. Every Republican member in the House Chamber at that moment voted to block the motion. They refused to consider the bill, releasing a press statement later in the day saying they were working on “their own plan.” At this writing, we are at the end of our seventh week of the legislative session with no action taken to relieve the funding for our rural firefighters. This kind of “in your face” obstructionism should be a wake-up call to all Oklahomans.
It was another week of District 18 constituents visiting the Capitol for various events and concerns. It was good to see A.J. Bristow on Ag Day; McAlester is always well represented in the day’s festivities. Walter Phelps, long-time president of the Pittsburg County Firefighters’ Association, and his wife Betty were at the Capitol speaking to legislators about critical funding needs. Area Aging Agency representatives visited the office as well. Certainly a highlight of the week was Main Street Day, with Checotah being my annual Main Street favorite. Linda Burns and her host of helpers do a tremendous job of promoting Checotah.
I want all of you from District 18 who may have tried to call me this week to know that the House of Representatives’ telephone message system was not working. If you were not able to talk to my assistant Janice Stotts or to leave a message, please try again on Monday. Do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of assistance to you. Call the toll free number at the Capitol, (800) 522-8502, or my law office at 423-2400.
