Cantrell: The 2023 legislative session ends

It’s been a crazy, busy couple of months, but my first session is officially in the books. We had quite a productive session, passing bills covering everything from economic development to teacher pay raises to affordable housing.

Sessionstartedwith1,901House Bills and 1,191 Senate Bills filed ahead of deadline. In the end, we passed over 370 House and Senate Bills onto the Governor during the regular session. So far, over 280 bills have become law through the Governor’s signature or through a veto override, which requires a 2/3 vote from each chamber.

A few of those bills that have become law are House Bill 1894, House Bill 1897, House Bill 1893, Senate Bill 776 and Senate Bill 775; I served as the principal House author on all these bills.

Now, I’ve talked about these bills before, but for a quick refresher.

First, House Bill 1894 allows county clerks to sign, accept or receive documents digitally. HB1894 allows photocopies, photographs, digital copies, photographic film, or optical disk versions of records to serve as the original record and to be admissible by the county for accounts payable and inventory.

Next, House Bill 1897 modifies statutory reference to the Oklahoma 9-1-1 Management Authority and House Bill 1893 changes the penalties for assaulting county elected officials.

I was particularly excited to see Senate Bill 776 get signed into law. It’s a shared service for counties’ bill. It allows boards of county commissioners to enter into intergovernmental cooperative agreements with local governmental units. It is designed to be a more efficient use of county funds and increase efficiency when working with other cities, counties and the state.

Last, the Governor vetoed Senate Bill 775. However, the Senate overrode the veto on April 26. Then, it moved to the House, where we voted 94-0 to override it as well. The bill received a 2/3 vote from each chamber; therefore, it is now law!

I am still waiting on the Governor’s consideration of Senate Bill 724. It was sent to his desk for review on May 24, so hopefully, we will hear something soon.

In the meantime, we passed our budget and ARPA bills during our concurrent special session, which allows us to come back to override any vetoes on those bills if needed.

Weapprovedourstatebudgetfor Fiscal Year 24 this week. The entire budget is appropriated through dozens of bills, but the general appropriations bill, House Bill 1004X, passed the House on Wednesday.

One part of the budget I want to highlight is SB33X, which provides $10 million for home-based services for developmentally disabled individuals and $5.6 million for the Child Abuse Multidisciplinary Account. Investing in these services strengthens the fabric of our communities, and I am thankful to see it included in the budget.

I’ve learned so much over the past several months and look forward to applying my knowledge to serve House District 49 further!

Again, thank you for electing me to serve District 49. It is truly an honor and privilege to represent you at the State Capitol. Please do not hesitate to contact me at 405-5577383orjosh.cantrell@okhouse.gov.. Rep.JoshCantrell,aRepublican, serves District 49 Oklahoma House of Representatives, which covers Carter, Love and Marshall counties.