Sifting Through Thousands Of Bills: Deciding What Stays And What Goes

Oklahoma lawmakers have filed more than 2,000 bills for the 2024 legislative session. But which ones take priority?

Out of all of those bills, only a few hundred will ever be seriously considered.

There have been hundreds of bills filed on education, healthcare, and economic development. But, there have also been bills filed that would require the 10 commandments in school, ban furries, and require journalists to get government drug testing.

Right now, leaders at the capitol are sifting through all of the bills that have been filed, and determining what their priorities will be for 2024. “There's a lot of serious members doing serious things, but there are some unserious members doing unserious things,” said Rep. Jon Echols, ( R) House Majority Floor Leader. “Out of the several thousand, most of these are going to get weeded out.”

Rep. Echols has the job of reading all of the bills filed and assigning them to the committee. “What we're looking for this year are bills that are serious and address serious problems. We're not looking for headline-grabbing bills, that the goal is to see how many headlines they can get,” said Rep. Echols.

Echols says it’s important for Oklahomans to know that any lawmaker can file any piece of legislation they want, but just because a bill is filed doesn’t guarantee it will receive a floor hearing. “What we see in bill filing is roughly 2,000 bills will be filed in each chamber. after that roughly 400 bills will pass off the house floor,” said Rep. Echols. “And then only 50-100 house bills will end up signed by the governor.” “Some of these, yeah, they may never see the light of day, but some of them will,” said House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson.

Rep. Munson echoes the hope of her republican counterpart that lawmakers will stay on track in 2024. She is hoping some of the “headline-grabbing bills” will not cloud lawmakers' focus. “Really talk about what are the issues that Oklahomans are actually facing,” said Rep. Munson.

Some of the priorities for the house include economic development, healthcare, and education. “Whether you're a Republican or Democrat, we're here for the people. That's why we get up in the morning and if that's not why you're doing it you shouldn't do it,” said Rep. Echols.

Governor Kevin Stitt will give his State-of-the-State address on February 5th and lawmakers will begin discussing bills in committee the next day.