OKLAHOMA CITY – State lawmakers could be busy this fall, after Republican leaders in the legislature approved 163 interim studies.
Members of the House will conduct 91 interim hearings, while members of the Senate will host 72. Several studies will be joint between both bodies of the legislature.
Lawmakers will review subjects ranging from education, health care and mental health services to criminal justice policies, and retirement issues.
Senate Pro Tempore Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, said members of Senate use interim studies to take a more in-depth look at and hear from subject-matter experts about potential legislation and policies on a variety of topics.
Treat said all interim studies must be completed by November 8.
Senate interim studies include:
Agriculture:
• Senator Mary Boren, D-Norman, a study on farm-to-table reforms.
• Senator Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa, a study of urban agriculture
Appropriations:
• Senator Allison Ikley-Freeman, D-Tulsa, a study of disaster response funding protocols.
• Senator John Michael Montgomery, R-Lawton, and Senator Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, a study on innovating state capital asset management.
• Senator Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, a study on digital service.
• Senator Paul Scott, R-Duncan, a study on funding systems providing storm-shelter space.
• Senator Ron Sharp, R-Shawnee, a study of how charter schools are funded and the real cost per student.
Business, Commerce and Tourism:
• Senator Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, a study on blockchain, virtual currencies, and potential implementation in Oklahoma.
• Senator Brent Howard, R-Altus, a study on streamlining small business start-ups and entrepreneur growth.
• Senator Matthews, a study on reducing poverty by increasing home ownership and entrepreneurship opportunities.
• Senator Casey Murdock, R-Felt, a study comparing Oklahoma pawn shop financing with other states.
• Senator Scott, a study of requirements for obtaining a barbering license. • Senator Scott and Senator Howard, a study on stopping “robo calls”.
• Senator Rob Standridge, R-Norman, a study on how the state and subdivisions put Oklahoma first.
• Senator Standridge, a study of consolidation of workforce innovation boards.
Education Committee:
• Senator Boren, a study on textbook adoption and funding reforms.
• Senator David Bullard, R-Durant, a study on how best to use excess revenue from the Commissioners of the Land Office for schools.
• Senator Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, a study of professional development requirements for school districts.
• Senator Ikley-Freeman, a study of school policies on seclusion and restraint.
• Senator Kirt, a study on access to arts education.
• Senator Scott, a study of amending the Reading Sufficiency Act.
• Senator Scott, a study of summer feeding programs for youth.
• Senator Sharp, a study on oversight responsibilities of charter school sponsors.
• Senator Standridge, a study on Teacher and Leader Effectiveness (TLE).
• Senator Standridge, a study on the impact of cyberbullying on children and ways to combat it.
• Senator Gary Stanislawski, R-Tulsa, a study on House Bill 1017 school mandates.
• Senator Stanislawski, a study on the common education building equalization fund.
• Senator Stanislawski, a study on personalized learning.
Energy Committee:
• Senator Boren, a study on solar energy in schools.
Finance Committee:
• Senator Boren, a study on affordable housing initiatives.
• Senator Tom Dugger, R-Stillwater, a study on Oklahoma Green Cards.
• Senator Matthews, a study on accessing community reinvestment act funds.
• Senator Montgomery, a study on conditional cash transfers, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and development.
• Senator Montgomery, a study on student loan debt and its impact on the state economy.
• Senator Montgomery, a study of consumer debt.
• Senator Montgomery, a study on debt affordability and areas of potential investment.
• Senator Paul Rosino, R-Oklahoma City, a study on the aerospace equipment resource program.
General Government:
• Senator Joe Newhouse, R-Broken Arrow, a study of municipal regulation of aesthetic design elements in residential construction.
• Senator Standridge, a study on hospital districts.
Health and Human Services:
• Senator John Haste, R-Broken Arrow, a study of the Safe Babies Court Team program.
• Senator Hicks, a study of the cost of prescriptive medications.
• Senator Ikley-Freeman, a study on youth access to mental health programs
• Senator Ikley-Freeman, a study on child care deserts.
• Senator Greg McCortney, R-Ada, a study on raising the smoking age to 21.
• Senator McCortney, a study on medication assisted treatment for addiction.
• Senator Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, a study of requirements for assisted living/memory care units.
• Senator Scott, a study of Department of Human Services practices for investigating daycare facilities.
• Senator Scott, a study of the Family First Prevention Services Act.
• Senator Frank Simpson, R-Springer, a study on solutions to the opioid epidemic.
• Senator Simpson, a study of state services for children with Type 1 diabetes.
• Senator Standridge, a study of the Developmental Disabilities Services Division wait list.
• Senator Standridge, a study on improving Oklahoma health by pharmacy practice.
Judiciary Committee:
• Senator Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, and Senator Howard, a study of the Oklahoma Trust Act.
• Senator Sharp, a study on limited liability corporations.
• Senator Darrell Weaver, R-Moore, a study on recovering evidence from abandoned vehicles.
Public Safety:
• Senator Bullard, a study on transportation of mental health patients.
• Senator Daniels, a study of fines and fees in the criminal justice system.
• Senator Hicks, a study of current seatbelt laws.
• Senator Darcy Jech, R-Kingfisher, a study on cellular and electronic devices in Oklahoma prisons.
• Senator Mary Quinn, R-Claremore, a study on driver’s license testing.
• Senator Wayne Shaw, R-Grove, a study of the felony larceny threshold.
• Senator Weaver, a study of workplace violence on medical professionals.
Retirement and Insurance:
• Senator Montgomery, a study on retirement security.
• Senator Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, a study on pension law reform.
• Senator Rosino, a study of insurance coverage of Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Strep (PANDAS) and Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS).
Rules Committee:
• Senator Montgomery, a study of Article 10 of the Oklahoma Constitution.
• Senator Scott, a study on the 2020 Census.
• Senator Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, a study on county home rule.
• Senator George Young, D-Oklahoma City, a study on community impact studies. Transportation Committee
• Senator Micheal Bergstrom, R-Adair, a study on advanced transportation technology readiness.
• Senator Bergstrom, a study of state and federal requirements for commercial driver’s license training and testing.
House of Representatives studies include:
Agriculture:
• Representative Josh West, State Agriculture.
• Representative John Pfieffer, OSU Extension Office.
• Representative Del Krebs, Home and small-farm and food processing.
• Representative Sean Roberts, Beef Labeling.
Appropriations:
•Representative Jeff Boatman, Taxable Income Apportionment.
•Representatives Mickey Dollens, Kevin Wallace and Meloyde Blancett, Apprenticeship Tax Credits.
•Representative Jim Grego, Sales tax exemptions for Charitable retail stores.
•Representative Ronny Johns, Federal and state regulations on obtaining federal tax credits for developers of low income housing.
•Representative Jadine Nollan, Motor vehicle tax collections.
•Representative Mike Sanders, Dyslexia Funding – RSA.
Banking Retirement and Pensions:
•Representative Avery Frix, Cost of Living Adjustments.
• Representatives Melissa Provenzano and John Waldron, Student Loan debt examination in Oklahoma – Borrower’s Bill of Rights.
•Representative Ben Loring, Native American Tribes Access of OFFPRS.
Business:
•Representative Chelsey Branham, Economic growth within the state.
•Representative Brian Hill, OK Economic development and business growth.
•Representative Jim Olsen, Right to shop legislation.
•Representative Ryan Martinez, Wine direct shipping laws.
•Representative Zack Taylor, Boat dealers.
•Representative Emily Virgin, Working Family Policies.
• Representatives Melissa Provenzano and John Waldron, Creating the Workforce Oklahoma Business Need.
Children, Youth, and Family Services:
•Representative Carol Bush, Examining the physical and mental health implications as well as financial costs to unpaid family caregivers.
•Representative Kelly Albright, Paid family leave.
•Representatives Carol Bush and Brian Hill, Maximizing agency funds act for prevention of generational foster care, therapeutic foster parent retention and permanency for age out teens.
• Representative Brian Hill, Foster Care.
• Representative Mark Lawson, State supported child abuse prevention funding levels and available programming.
• Representative Mark Lawson, A review of the federal Family First Prevention Services act.
• Representative Cyndi Munson, Hunger and Health.
• Representative Kevin West, Vaccine Study: addressing public concerns on all sides of the issue.
• Representative Tammy Townley, Prioritizing the DDSD waitlist.
Common Education:
• Representative Rhonda Baker, Focusing on access of AP courses for all high school students in Oklahoma.
• Representative Rhonda Baker, Work Based learning opportunities for students and raising the skills of our population.
• Representative Chad Caldwell, 1017 Education Reforms.
• Representative Sherrie Conley, Studying the models of success created by and used in districts with non-traditional calendars that helped create academic success.
• Representative Derrel Fincher, Supporting Family Choice within the Oklahoma Public School System.
• Representative Derrel Fincher, Blended and Virtual Learning in Public Schools.
• Representative Toni Hasenbeck, Outcomes and strategies of targeting spending in the support of students and teachers fund (school Activity Fund).
• Representative Toni Hasenbeck, The new OKSDE A-F School Report Card.
• Representative Ronny Johns, Funding formula for virtual charter schools.
• Representatives Lundy Kiger and Randy Randleman, Charter School sponsor oversight responsibilities.
• Representative Mark Lepak, Possible revisions to alternative certification process and teacher recruitment initiatives.
• Representative Ajay Pittman, Basic Life Skills Education.
• Representative Jadine Nollan, Education – Discipline in the classroom.
• Representative Zack Taylor, Brick and mortar charter school funding.
• Representatives John Waldron and Melissa Provenzano, The teacher pipeline.
• Representatives John Waldron and Melissa Provenzano, Training for special education teachers for early intervention of issues and what policies are in the place for those with special needs?
County and Municipal Government:
• Representative Trey Caldwell, Examining the effectiveness of REAP grants in rural communities.
• Representative Denise Crosswhite Hader, Abandonment of Private Property.
• Representative Lonnie Sims, Arkansas River Flood Event of 2019.
Energy:
• Representative Daniel Pae, Renewable Energy.
Government Efficiency:
• Representative Mickey Dollens, Creating a taskforce to explore the jurisdictional questions about who responds when an indigenous woman is missing or murdered.
• Representative TJ Marti, Fraud Management.
• Representative Mike Osburn, Merit System Reform.
• Representative Mike Osburn, Utilizing technology for greater transparency and accountability in government contracting.
• Representative Ajay Pittman, Tribal affliation/citizenship data.
Health Services and Long Term Care:
• Representative Jeff Boatman, Review of access to statewide mental health programs for youth.
• Representative Chelsey Branham, DHS Programming.
• Representative Marcus McEntire, Certification of Hospice Administrators.
• Representatives Chris Sneed and Tammy Townley, Rural Healthcare.
• Representative Marilyn Stark, Prescription labeling for sight impaired.
• Representative Jay Steagall, The usage of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to address health issues such as PTSD, TBI, and others.
• Representative Danny Sterling, Addressing the alarming rate of childhood obesity and diabetes.
• Representative Tammy Townley, Medical Marijuana Advertisement (Weed).
• Representative Tammy West, Overuse of antipsychotics in assisted living centers.
• Representative Harold Wright, Reducing Second Hand smoke exposure.
• Representative Jason Dunnington and Randy Randleman, LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.
Insurance:
• Representative TJ Marti, An audit of the state employee’s prescription health benefit plan.
• Representative Lewis Moore, Cost of Health Insurance.
• Representatives Chris Sneed and Tammy Townley, Surprise Medical Billing.
Judiciary:
• Representatives Sherrie Conley, Josh West and Marcus McEntire, Criminal Justice reform.
• Representative Chris Kannady, Bail Bonds.
• Representative Garry Mize, Criminal Justice Reform.
• Representative Carl Newton, Post Incarceration Hearings Reform.
• Representative Daniel Pae, Criminal Justice Reform.
• Representative David Perryman, Study on the financial hardship caused by jury duty with an emphasis on the daily compensation paid to jurors who are empaneled on a jury.
• Representative Tammy West, A multi-state review of failure to protect statutes.
Public Safety:
• Representative Kelly Albright, Incarcerated caregivers.
• Representative Ross Ford, Investigations of Cold Cases of Missing Persons.
• Representative Ross Ford, Sex Offenders registry and requirements.
• Representative Justin Humprey, Restructuring Oklahoma Criminal Justice System.
• Representative Nicole Miller, Drivers licenses reinstatement and evaluation of the lack of licensure for individuals with involvement in the criminal justice system.
• Representative Lewis Moore, Drug and alcohol treatment in Oklahoma correctional facilities.
• Representative Denise Brewer, Oklahoma rates of domestic violence compared to other states and countries.
•Representative Cynthia Roe, Cost of Hepatitis C among inmates in DOC.
• Representative Marilyn Stark, ID for Inmates Upon Discharge (Criminal Justice Reform).
Transportation:
• Representative Denise Crosswhite Hader, Funding and Authority Relationship between ODOT and Municipalities/Counties.
• Representative Avery Frix, Transit.
• Representatives Chris Sneed, Terry O’Donnell and Avery Frix, The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River navigation system.
Utilities:
• Representative Kenton Patzkowsky, Eminent Domain.
• Representative Logan Phillips, Technology.
Veterans and Military Affairs:
• Representative Trish Ranson, Best practices for treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and how to maximize federal funds for services and resources for TBI survivors.
• Representative John West, PTSD – Mental Health.
Wildlife:
Representative Kevin McDugle and Senator Casey Murdock, Department of Wildlife.
