On May 26, we officially concluded our regular legislative session after months of hard work. Of the 1,991 House bills and joint resolutions introduced this year in our regular session, 213 were sent to the governor. Gov. Stitt also received 203 of the 1,273 Senate bills and joint resolutions introduced.
I want to discuss House Bill 2351 and House Bill 2352 briefly.
I was proud to author HB2351; it would direct the Department of Health to create a program for people with diabetes to purchase insulin at a discounted, post-rebate rate.
The goal is to make insulin affordable for people who do not have insurance. It passed unanimously in the House, but it remains in the Senate.
Next, HB2352 creates the Oklahoma Rural Highway Improvements for Safety Act. It requires the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to add a minimum of 250 center-lane mile upgrades for rural two-lane highways.
Under HB2352, projects are selected based on historic fatality rates, traffic counts and connectivity of rural communities. In addition, priority will be given to areas experiencing traffic growth over the past five years, specifically Highway 37 and 259.
Transportation infrastructure is crucial to the success of our rural communities. I was grateful to run this bill; unfortunately, it remains in the Senate, and they will have the opportunity to pass it next year.
Currently, we remain in special session to a call of the chair. In our special session, we introduced 50 House bills and joint resolutions and 40 Senate measures; 52 of those were sent to the governor. Since those bills were in the First Extraordinary Session, we can reconvene later to consider any veto overrides. For example, we met on June 12 to override the veto of House Bill 1005X.
Even though it wasn’t always easy at times, it turned out to be a productive session. The House accomplished great things for Oklahoma this year, especially regarding funding education, including teacher pay raises, more dollars for classroom instruction, and an increase in funding for schools that receive lower amounts of ad valorem than others.
Now that regular session is over, it is good to be back in the district. I look forward to seeing everyone around town. As always, please feel free to reach out with any thoughts or concerns on legislation. I can be reached at (405) 557-7363 or at eddy.dempsey@okhouse.gov.
Dempsey, a Republican, is in his second term representing House District 1. His district includes McCurtain County and southern LeFlore County.
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