This past week the Oklahoma House of Representative spent the first day of the legislature adopting new rules for engagement. At the beginning of each 2-year session, both the House and Senate adopt rules by which they will operate for those 2years. These rules define not only the duties of the legislators and dictate their day-to-day activities; they determine how the legislative process will be conducted.
The big uproar happened when Representative Charles Key introduced two key rules to bring openness and more representation toward the legislative process. Key’s first rule was to assure all bills were assigned to the appropriate committee.
Key explained his amendment “would stop the practice of arbitrarily assigning bills to whatever committee. It would create some type of a system that was dictated by rule, for example rule of law, for this body to operate under. What happens occasionally, a bill will be assigned to a committee where it really doesn’t make sense for it to be assigned.”
After the explanation of his amendment, Republican Floor Leader Dan Sullivan asked, “Do you have any examples of any committee that has been assigned bills…that would not be corresponding to their area?”
Representative Key quickly pointed out that bills that don’t have the support of House Leaders, as an example, they are usually assigned to the Rules Committee where they are left to die. But Key ended his reply, “we can go in to great detail and talk about specific detail and talk about certain bills if you like?”
Not wanting to reveal certain legislation the House Leaders have decided to kill, Representative Sullivan quickly raised his hand to table the amendment and close anymore discussion. Key then turns to the Speaker to request a recorded vote so the public has record of who is in favor of killing bills. The motion to table the amendment passed and Republicans assured the practice of a minority continuing the practice of killing bills they deemed frivolous.
The tabling motion passed 56 Ayes to 42 Nays.
The Establishment Republicans really turned their ugly head when Representative Key presented his next amendment. Key stood up again and explained, “This is the amendment that would stop this practice that has gone on for a long, long time of just one or two or three handful of members denying you the right to have a bill heard.” Key further comments, “We are all here sent by our constituents. And we all have an equal right to represent them by stopping that practice.”
Amanda Teegarden from OK-SAFE writes, “The current practice of the Oklahoma Legislature is to allow the Committee Chair to kill any bill he/she wants, thereby limiting the bill process from the outset. Conversely, this current practice means that the Chair controls which bills are allowed to move forward.”
Republican Representative Hickman, who opposes the amendment, argued, “[Isn’t] there currently is a process that if a committee chairman doesn’t hear your bill that you can get your bill heard through a sign out a charge/discharge petition? Don’t we already have a process that which allows us to accomplish this?
Key replies, “We do have a process, but it doesn’t work. Anyone that’s been here for a while knows that this is the essence of political power. Most members do not want to take a position against a committee chairman because they have so much power to hear your bill or not to hear it. So, a lot of members don’t want sign that discharge petition.” Then Key goes on saying, “Why should we have a discharge petition anyway? Every one of us was equally elected to this body. The people sent us here. This is about the People’s work. It’s not about us as individuals or a chairman that wasn’t elected by the people. “
Next, Republican Representative Don Arms raises his hand and exposes the ruling class’s true condemnation toward constituents when he said, “And I am going to be painfully honest…and if you want open government, here it is.”
After a short pause, Rep. Arms continues, “We all have constituents in our district that may not be the brightest and the best, for lack of another term, they may not understand the things we see in this chamber; the political process of making laws. A Legislator meets with a constituent at a coffee shop and that constituent says there ought to be a law.
Imitating a constituent in a country/uneducated voice, Arm says, “Dad gummite, there ought to be a law.”
He goes on, “It’s ridicules! Wouldn’t you agree they expect us to go take it up to the Capital and try to pass it? Then at that point, be best thing for everybody’s concern is for it to be killed somewhere. How do you address that? You need the protection of that Committee Chairman to go to him and say, ‘I got a guy and I promised him I would introduce this bill. It’s a terrible idea how I stop this train before it changes the law in the negative way.’ And I am not being facetious with that at all.
Key just calming replies, “You need to trust the members. The members are here to represent the people. We’re here to make those decisions; NOT a committee chair.”
Republican Representative Dennis Johnson continues degrading constituents saying, “I’m sure you had some ding-bat bill introduced to you. Do you tell the person that it’s a bad bill and I am not going to run it? Or do you tell them something different?”
“As a chairman of a bill, I am going to hear it…And if it’s a quote “ding-bat” bill or frivolous bill, then that is going to be committee members to talk and decide about it,” Key replied.
The final jab was from Republican Liebmann when he told Key, “I don’t want to embarrass anyone, but I’ve killed some bills. And when you see one coming through saying, ‘Oklahoma is going to print their own money and not use the federal money anymore.’ Do you think that’s fair for staff to waste their time hearing and putting all that together? And for the committee people to come in and hear that?"
YES. YES. YES. And Y.E.S!!!!! Especially if it’s a bill that gives Oklahoma an opportunity to purchase real money based on commodity goods instead of US Dollars backed by our debt to China. But for some reason, Liebmann believes will Liberty Bills such as these are frivolous.
And most of the Republicans agreed, voting to deny “The Peoples” business in favor of allowing the Special Interest from the State Chamber to reign. This is the true picture of the Republican Party in Oklahoma. We have a few Republicans, like Representative Key, willing to stand up in front of the political powers while most others bow down to the Alter of Elitism.
The 53 Nays (the ones who voted down the Key amendment) include: Armes, Banz, Billy, Brumbaugh, Casey, Cockroft, Coody, Cooksey, Cox, Dank, Denney, DeWitt, Enns, Farley, Faught , Hall, Hardin, Hickman, Holland, Jackson, Jordan, Joyner, Kirby, Liebmann, Martin (Scott), Martin (Steve), McCullough, McDaniel (Randy), McNiel, Mulready, Nelson, Nollan, Ortega, Ownbey, Peters, Peterson (another disappointment), Quinn, Richardson, Roberts (Dustin), Roberts (Sean), Russ, Sanders, Schwartz, Sears, Shannon, Stiles, Sullivan, Thomsen, Trebilcock, Vaughn, Watson, Wright, and the Speaker Kris Steele.
All 53 Nay votes were cast by Republicans.
A truly sad display… They can’t be trusted!
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