The second week of the legislative session proved as busy as the first, with dozens of bills being heard in House policy committees and Appropriations and Budget subcommittees.
Read more: Second week of sessionI passed my House Bill 2963 in the Appropriations and Budget Education Subcommittee. This bill would remove the requirement that homeschoolers or students attending a non-accredited school receive a 22 on the ACT in order to qualify for the Oklahoma’s Promise Scholarship. This is not a requirement for students in traditional public schools. and frankly its discriminatory. If a college accepts these students, and they otherwise would qualify for this scholarship, we shouldn’t place an additional barrier in their path.
House Bill 2964 passed the Public Health Committee. This is a constituent request from a gentleman who went to obtain his medical records and found he was being charged for each page and each X-Ray. He talked to the hospital and realized state statute says a patient shall be charged. This would change that to may.
House Bill 3431, would ensure that foreign adversaries could not only own land in the state of Oklahoma, but they would not be able to own rare earth or critical mineral rights either. This bill passed the State Powers Committee.
A reminder that bills have to pass both policy and oversight committees before the majority floor leader’s team decides if they will be heard on the House floor. These bills still have a long way to go in the legislative process.
I also had a page in my Capitol office for the week. Gavyn Muncrief is a junior at Pocola High School. He’s the son of Zac and Adrian Muncrief. Gavyn serves on his school’s Student Council and says one of his proudest achievements was helping to overturn a vote to remove the school’s library. After high school, he hopes to attend Sacred Heart University to major in public policy and Catholic studies. He said he eventually would like to become a U.S. Senator. I wish him all the best.
On a final note, I wanted to share an update I recently received from Anthony Echelle with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation regarding a few projects in our area.
On U.S. Highway 59, from State Highway 9 to Sunset Corners, the Transportation Commission on Feb. 2, awarded the final contract to complete the five-lane surfacing to Duit Construction Company for just over $33 million. Construction is scheduled to begin later this spring and take around a year to complete. This is combined with the recently completed $21 million grading and bridge project. The total construction costs for the 5.7-mile highway widening will be around $54 million.
On State Highway 112 over the Poteau River, two new bridges will be constructed at a cost of $18 million. One bridge will be westbound, the other eastbound. The project also will extend the four-lane highway about 1.5 miles to connect with the new bridges. This work is around 25 percent complete and should be completed in mid-2027.
Remember to listen to my Capitol update on the radio at 7:35 a.m. every Thursday on KPRV.
As always, if I can help you with anything, please call my Capitol office at (405) 557-7413 or email me at rick.west@okhouse.gov.
Rick West serves District 3 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes part of LeFlore County.