Bills altering state agencies advance
Two bills giving Gov. Kevin Stitt authority to hire and fire the heads of Oklahoma's Medicaid agency and the Department of Transportation shot through the state House of Representatives on Tuesday. Senate Bills 456 and 457 are two of five bills giving the governor almost complete control of the state's largest agencies. The other three, House Bills 2479, 2480 and 2483, await a floor vote in the Senate. The five bills are a package agreed to by Stitt and legislative leadership that gives the governor authority to hire and fire the heads of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority and the departments of transportation, mental health and substance abuse, juvenile affairs and corrections, and to appoint or dismiss at will the members of the boards that now run those agencies. Government reformers have long sought such changes on the grounds that the current setup gives chief executives and legislators little control over state government operations. Opponents say such overarching power will foster cronyism. The two bills passed easily on straight-party votes, with Democrats complaining that bringing the two measures to the floor during deadline week wasted time better spent on House bills, which must be heard by Thursday afternoon. Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City, admitted the two Senate bills could have been heard Monday. But, he said, “We believe this is transformational and will set us on a better path. We want to do this as quickly as possible.” Taken together, the bills continue a decadeslong transformation of the governor's office from hardly more than a seat in the balcony to something closer to the conductor's stand. And Stitt, with Republican supermajorities in the Legislature, would assume unprecedented authority.
Other bills
The House slogged through about 60 bills, including another government reform measure, this one a favorite of House leadership. HB 2484, by Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, creates an Office of Government Accountability that essentially expands the Legislature's fiscal staff from six to 15. Echols, who presented the bill, said years of cutbacks have left the Legislature unable to properly oversee the state's finances. Democrats fretted about costs, who would be appointed to the positions and how much they would be paid. But the Republican super majority brushed aside those objections. HB 2484 is similar to legislation championed by Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, which creates a Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency. Advancing without opposition was HB 2673, by Rep. Kevin Wallace, R-Wellston, which provides for $2,500 pay increases for state employees. Rep. Sean Roberts, R-Hominy, presented the two most contentious bills — HB 2339, which prohibits schools from vaccinating children without parental consent, and HB 2429, which authorizes the Oklahoma State Election Board to search the voter rolls, using “data validation,” for “potential noncitizens.” Democrats said both bills were a waste of time and set about to prove it. Dragging out the vote through questions and debate, they made Republicans spend more than 90 minutes on the two bills combined on a day without much time to spare. Democrats said Roberts provided little evidence that children were being vaccinated without parental consent and none that non-citizens are voting in Oklahoma elections. Roberts said a child in the Tulsa area was vaccinated despite a medical exception because of incomplete records, and that his bill provides another layer of protection in such cases. Roberts said it is impossible to know how many non-citizens might be on Oklahoma's voter rolls without his bill. Authorities say illegal voting is rare in Oklahoma and most often involves misuse of absentee ballots or confusion about when felons are eligible to vote.