OKLAHOMA STATE SENATE / From the desk of Sen. Jessica Garvin
The countdown is on as the final month of session gets underway.
The House and Senate considered hundreds of bills from the opposite chamber by last Thursday’s floor deadline. Altogether, just under 500 bills were approved and either sent on to the governor’s office or amended and returned to their chamber of origin — this is where all but one of my Senate bills have found themselves. I’m currently reviewing those changes and then our chamber will decide whether to accept or reject the amendments.
I’m deeply disappointed that my SB 369 got caught in the crosshairs of the battle over education funding and was one of 25 non-education bills vetoed last week by the governor. As you’ll remember, my bill seeks to protect seniors living in nursing homes from sexual predators by prohibiting long-term care facilities from employing anyone on the Juvenile Sex Offender Registry or who has been convicted of human trafficking.
Currently, this registry is closed to the public due to it containing minors’ information. However, we need to ensure that long-term care centers can access the database and keep such predators from working with elderly patients, many of which are physically or mentally unable to protect themselves. It also decreases the time from seven to five years that nurse aides can be kept from employment by these facilities for nonviolent offenses. I appreciate Rep. Marcus McEntire helping me get this through the House and we’ll continue working to get this into law.
My other Senate bills deal with providing paid maternity leave for state employees; ensuring coverage for behavioral health services from out-of-network providers when necessary; and establishing several income tax credits to support employer-sponsored childcare subsidies and facilities. Another important measure seeks to clarify that abortion doesn’t include FDA-approved hormonal birth control, emergency contraceptives, or long-lasting reversible contraceptives.
I’m also continuing to work on four measures to further regulate and improve our state’s medical marijuana industry. These would allow OMMA to operate a quality assurance lab, hire secret shoppers to ensure compliance, and hire a vendor to create a statewide seed-tosell inventory tracking system. Another measure would also establish stricter packaging requirements and return policies for defective or dangerous products. These are just a few of the many reforms passed this session to protect patients and legitimate businesses.
Three of my House bills are currently awaiting the governor’s approval. These deal with requiring school districts to post information about issuing bonds prior to an election and requiring reserve minimum bids for property sold by counties to cover expenses due to a municipality. The other prohibits local governing authorities from creating local regulations that permit or require family child care home licensees to exceed or limit the provided capacity.
As of last week, no budget agreement had been announced as the two chambers and governor continue working to finalize education policies and funding. Since education receives a majority of state appropriations, the current stalemate over education bills must be reconciled in order for us to move forward in crafting a budget agreement. I’ll keep you posted. If you have any questions or concerns on legislative matters, please contact me. Please write to Senator Jessica Garvin, State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 237, Oklahoma City, OK, 73105, email me at [email protected] or call 405-521-5522.
