{"id":94915,"date":"2025-09-18T08:44:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T14:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=94915"},"modified":"2025-09-18T08:44:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T14:44:44","slug":"former-lawmaker-files-ballot-measure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2025\/09\/18\/former-lawmaker-files-ballot-measure\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Lawmaker Files Ballot Measure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Barbara Hoberock, Oklahoma Voice<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2013 A former Oklahoma lawmaker wants to dramatically alter how the Legislature conducts business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City, filed paperwork with the Oklahoma Secretary of State to circulate a proposed constitutional amendment that would require three bills from every lawmaker to be heard in committee. State Question 839<\/a> would also require any bills advanced from committee to be heard on the House or Senate floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key, who served in the House for 18 years, said the problem is too few have too much power, which impacts constituents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key said lobbyists and large money donors behind the scenes pick which bills get heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt means people from rural districts or not in leadership are not getting legislation that reflects their values,\u201d said Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, chairman of the Freedom Caucus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization has been critical of the current process where leadership assigns bills to committees and chairs determine what gets heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jett said lobbyists give the bulk of their contributions to leadership and to those who chair committees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current process allows members to hide from difficult votes because bills are not being heard, leaving their constituents wondering where lawmakers stand on policy issues, Jett said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key said he doesn\u2019t think the measure, if approved by voters, will fully fix a broken system, but it will have an impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is about fairness and equality,\u201d Key said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Not all bills become law for a reason\u2019  <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

But critics of the idea say there is a difference between a bill that has been copied from another state or organization and those that have been well-researched and vetted over several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery idea does not have equal merit,\u201d said Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should not be easy to pass a law, said House Majority Floor Leader Josh West, R-Grove. West is involved in determining which bills get heard on the House floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are here to create good laws,\u201d West said. \u201cNot all bills become law for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of bills didn\u2019t get a committee hearing in 2025, including Senate Bill 581<\/a>, by Sen. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin, that would have allowed residents, employees and businesses to be paid in gold or silver bullion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Deevers measure, Senate Bill 738<\/a>, would have required county sheriffs to protect people from infringements on rights guaranteed in the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Bill 1006<\/a>, by Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, also wasn\u2019t heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West said the current process works, but it requires members to garner support for their legislation, which is often done behind the scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Majority Floor Leader Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, said some bills are repeats of ideas that have not worked in the past. Others may be premature or in conflict with other laws or policies, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of factors go into determining which bills will be heard, said Daniels, a key player in determining which Senate proposals will be brought up for a vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the Oklahoma Legislature is one of the most conservative in the country and has passed bills that reflect that ideology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the body does not necessarily pass each iteration of a policy, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timing constraints<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Lawmakers say it is not possible to hear the thousands of bills filed during a legislative session, which runs from February until the end of May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House members are currently limited to filing eight bills that are possible for committee consideration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate has no limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Institutional knowledge and influence<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCertainly lobbyists, associations or individual constituents can bring an argument that is very persuasive,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cTo say just because an argument comes from a lobbyist is invalid or questionable rejects entirely the knowledge and information they can bring to an issue that is not easily agreed upon by all sides.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1990, voters approved a measure that prohibited lawmakers from serving more than 12 years. It became effective with the 1992 election. Although billed as a way to generate fresh ideas, one of the results was a loss of institutional knowledge in the House and Senate, which some observers say puts more power in the hands of staff and lobbyists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Milner has been a lobbyist for more than 35 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you talk to any member, particularly the new ones, they will tell you that if it weren\u2019t for lobbyists coming by and explaining the issue and giving them a perspective of it, they would not know or understand what they are voting on,\u201d Milner said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Barbara Hoberock, Oklahoma Voice OKLAHOMA CITY \u2013 A former Oklahoma lawmaker wants to dramatically alter how the Legislature conducts business. Former Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City, filed paperwork with the Oklahoma Secretary of State to circulate a proposed constitutional amendment that would require three bills from every lawmaker to be heard in committee. State Question […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8368],"tags":[2939,8437],"class_list":["post-94915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oknews","tag-elections","tag-oklahoma-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}