Legislative session begins Feb. 3; OHA Advocacy Day set for April 14

Posted on: 1/24/20

A total of 2,236 new bills and joint resolutions were filed by lawmakers for consideration during the 2020 legislative session, the Second Session of the 57th Legislature. House members filed 1,361 new bills and 16 new joint resolutions. Senators contributed 840 new bills and 19 joint resolutions. The total is more than was filed in 2018, 1,953, in advance of the 56th Legislature’s second session.

In addition to the new bills and joint resolutions filed, more than 2,300 bills and joint resolutions were carried over from the 2019 session and are available for consideration. The large number of carry-over bills and the high number of new bills filed means House bills number into the four-thousands for the first time.

This filing deadline does not apply to appropriations bills that will be heard by the Joint Committees on Appropriations and Budget (JCAB). Those bills typically are filed when legislative budget writers and the governor near an agreement on a spending plan usually in April or May.

The Legislature’s rules also allow the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore to file a bill at any time. Additionally, Senate rules permit a member to file a bill after the filing deadline. The legislation, however, can only proceed if the member agrees to turn over the measure’s authorship to the committee to which it is assigned if it is advanced by the committee. The bill still must be heard on the floor by March 12, the deadline for bills to be heard in their chamber of origin.

Save the date for OHA Advocacy Day on Tuesday, April 14, at the Oklahoma History Center. It will be a one-day event this year beginning with a briefing at the History Center, followed by State Capitol visits across the street.

2020 legislative deadlines you should be aware of:

Feb. 3 – Session convenes/State of the State by Governor
Feb. 27 – House/Senate committee deadline in house of origin
March 12 – Floor deadline for house of origin
April 9 – Opposite house committee deadline
April 23 – Opposite house floor deadline
April-May – Appropriations & Budget ongoing negotiations
May 29 – Sine Die Adjournment 

State budget update

General Revenue Fund collections in December exceeded those of one year ago but missed the monthly estimate, putting revenue for the first six months of fiscal year 2020 ahead of prior year receipts and just above the estimate, the Office of Management and Enterprise Services reported.

“Year-to-date collections for fiscal year 2020 continue to be above the estimate, in spite of the slight decrease in the December monthly figure,” said John Budd, director of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services. “Barring a nationwide slowdown or further deterioration in the oil and gas sector, we expect to remain well within the 5 percent cushion built into the general revenue budget.”

December’s General Revenue Fund (GRF) collections totaled $631.8 million, $11.2 million or 1.8 percent above collections in December 2018 but $8.9 million or 1.4 percent below the monthly estimate. Total GRF collections over the first six months of FY2020 were $65.6 million or 2.1 percent above the prior year’s collections for the same period and $28.3 million or 0.9 percent above the six-month estimate.

The State Board of Equalization is scheduled to meet Feb. 18. At that meeting, the board will consider an update to the FY2021 estimate and on projected FY2020 collections. The FY2021 number adopted by the board at that meeting will become the starting point for Gov. Kevin Stitt and legislative budget writers to craft that fiscal year’s budget.