We’re at the midway point in the legislative session. The House has passed 381 bills and joint resolutions over to the Senate, and we received 327 Senate measures to consider. Most have been second read and assigned to committees. The next few weeks will be focused on committee work, then we’ll start hearing legislation from the opposite chamber on the House floor while they consider our measures.
Despite the slow floor week, we held several important meetings at the Capitol this past week. The Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) presented its latest report to the Oversight Committee - an examination of revenues, expenditures and asset valuation for the Oklahoma state park system under the Department of Tourism and Recreation. LOFT looked at contracts to remodel and operate restaurants in our parks as well as at impacts from a recent bond package. There are some concerning items in this report for lawmakers to scrutinize in the coming weeks.
The Joint Committee on Pandemic Relief Funding also met. Several working groups of the committee met as well. Health and Human Services heard from new Higher Education Chancellor Allison D. Garrett on funding requests from various state colleges to help address the nursing shortage in our state.
Government Transformation and Collaboration heard survey results from nonprofits negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The group is working with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce before recommending the release of $25 million in grants to address needs such as housing and food security, behavioral health services, substance abuse treatment, human trafficking and domestic violence aid. The working groups will make their recommendations to the full committee, which will determine what gets passed along to the steering committee and the governor for final selection.
The public portal for ideas and projects to use American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, meanwhile, officially closed March 31 after receiving more than 800 applications totaling more than $13 billion in requests.
That’s about $11 billion more than we have to distribute. The full committee will be examining these requests to see which ones are recommended for funding.
The House this past week also observed AERO Oklahoma Day at the Capitol. The day focused on the many contributions of aerospace and defense industries in Oklahoma - two of the state’s largest sectors. Combined, the two have an economic impact of about $44 billion annually and employ about 120,000, with an additional 200,000 jobs impacted.
Aerospace manufacturing is one of the state’s fastest-growing industries, according to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. More than 1,100 aerospace entities operate in the state including manufacturers, maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities, research and development, military and others.
I was fortunate to be invited to dinner on the eve of this event with many representatives from the industries. Chris VanDenhende, chief financial officer and chief strategy officer for Southwest Fuel Systems and Mint Turbines in Stroud, also attended. VanDenhende spoke recently at the Stroud Chamber banquet. It was a pleasure to get to see him again and to discuss his company’s growth in our House district.