I’ve filed five bills for the 2022 legislative session, and I have two bills that are still active from last year. I’ll be discussing these in this and my next newspaper column.
House Bill 2972 would allow physicians assistants and nurse practitioners to sign off on medical exemptions for jury duty. Right now only doctors can do this. In rural areas, people often don’t have a family physician. Instead they see a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner as their main health care provider. This places a real burden on those who are summoned for jury duty but who have a medical condition that would keep them from being able to serve. they often have to seek a doctor’s signature from somewhere far from home. This bill was a request bill from the LeFlore County court clerk’s office and area judges.
House Bill 2991 would help students who are involved in 4H. The legislation specifies that if a student is involved in an official 4H project or activity, they cannot be counted absent from school, and their absence cannot negatively affect their grades. They also would be allowed to make up any coursework missed while they were gone. I saw this same bill passed in Tennessee, and thought it would be great for our local young people who participate in 4H. So, I contacted the Tennessee legislator who ran that bill and got her help in writing my own. I’ve gotten support from 4H, Farm Bureau, the Department of Agriculture and others for this bill, so I’m pretty hopeful.
House Bill 2979 gives Oklahomans the right to grow a garden. The right to grow food for oneself or family is a primal right. This bill would assure that right shall not be abridged by any government entity. Likewise, this legislation would assure that water collected for the production of such personal food sources as gardens shall not be forbidden or abridged by municipal prohibitions if the water comes from non-municipal water sources, such as gray water from sinks or water bottles. With all the food supply issues we’re having, I’m not convinced the federal government or even local governments won’t at some point try to tell us that we can’t grow our own gardens, or at the very least try to regulate home gardens and the water we use for them. This bill would keep us free to garden as we wish.
As I said, I’ll write about my other bills in my next column. By the time this one is printed, we will be just days away from the legislative session that starts at noon on Feb. 7. I sure would appreciate your prayers and good thoughts for me as I head back to the Capitol for the show. I appreciate you all very much.
As always, if I can help you with anything, feel free to 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.