State House committee tackles, passes several AI regulation bills

House Committee Passes Numerous AI Regulation Bills

OKLAHOMA CITY (February 20th) – The Oklahoma House Government Modernization and Technology Committee passed numerous artificial intelligence (AI) regulation bills on Tuesday [February 20th].

Legislature releases proposed redistricting plan

The State House and State Senate released their proposed redistricting plan today. Details and links are below. There are some interesting decisions that were made, including the moving of some districts (such as SD18 from eastern Oklahoma to the OKC area). Take a gander at your area for changes (interactive map; you have to fiddle with the layers to view the Senate map as the House is default).

Press releases from both the House and Senate are below:

House Announces Redistricting Plan

The Oklahoma House of Representatives today announced its legislative redistricting plan.

By law, the Legislature must redraw its legislative district boundaries to reflect changes in population every ten years.

“These districts are based on unprecedented public input gathered through the most town halls ever held, several committee meetings involving every House district, and public map submissions,” said Rep. Ryan Martinez, R-Edmond, chair of the House Redistricting Committee. “By putting the public in the driver’s seat, the House was able to produce a very strong map providing fair and proper representation for all Oklahomans for another ten years.”

Speaker McCall appoints State and Federal Redistricting Committee

House State and Federal Redistricting Committee appointed

OKLAHOMA CITY – The House State and Federal Redistricting Committee was appointed Friday to continue the House’s public-focused redistricting process throughout the 2021 legislative session.

House Speaker Charles McCall appointed the 29-member bipartisan committee to establish the formal policies and protocols for House redistricting. After the delivery of final U.S. Census data, the committee will advance legislation containing new districts to the full House for consideration.

“The unprecedented public involvement and outreach completed to date will continue to be the basis of House redistricting going forward,” said McCall, R-Atoka.

The standing committee will base its work on public input gathered by the House’s eight regional redistricting subcommittees, which conducted dozens of town halls across the state to hear from citizens about the composition of districts for the next decade. In a historic move, every House member was appointed to a regional subcommittee to ensure total representation of the full state in the redistricting process.

The State and Federal Redistricting Committee will hold its first meeting next week to adopt policies, protocols and a public map submission process.

Bipartisan group files legislation to address missing, murdered Native Americans

Bipartisan Legislation to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Announced

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A bipartisan group of House lawmakers filed legislation for the second half of the 57th Legislature to address Oklahoma’s missing and murdered indigenous people.

House Bill 3892, authored by Rep. Merelyn Bell (D-Norman), would require law enforcement to collect detailed biological information about the missing child, the person reporting the child missing, and the alleged suspect(s).

“Too many Native American families in our state have suffered loss and trauma when a loved one went missing or was murdered, especially when that loved one is a child,” Bell said. “We must be intentional about preventing the next child from being ripped from their family and community.”

House Bill 3893, authored by Bell, would allow for the creation of an electronic repository of student photographs to ensure there is a current photo of the child for law enforcement to use in helping locate them when they are identified as missing.

“In missing person cases, every second counts,” Bell said. “The creation of a photo database will allow law enforcement to obtain data critical to their success in locating missing persons in a timely manner.”

House Bill 3345, or Ida’s Law, authored by Rep. Mickey Dollens (D-OKC),  outlines the creation of the Office of Liaison under the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons. The Office of Liaison will consist of a missing person specialist with significant experience working alongside tribal communities.

“HB3345 is in honor of Ida Beard,” Dollens said. “Ida has been missing since June  30, 2015. Beard is a citizen on the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and her missing person case remains open to this day. Ida is one of many Native American women and girls across the country that has vanished without a trace and continues to vanish at alarming rates.”

House Bill 2847, authored by Rep. Daniel Pae (R-Lawton), creates a Red Alert System through the Department of Public Safety for when indigenous people are reported missing.

House Bill 2848, authored by Rep. Pae, would require law enforcement officers to take an additional hour of CLEET training that would focus solely on cultural competency and sensitivity training when interacting with missing indigenous people and their families.

“Like most issues, one of the biggest barriers to helping with the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous people is education,” Pae said. “My bills deal with educating the public when indigenous people go missing and educating law enforcement about the needs of this community. I appreciate my colleagues for shining a light on this issue, and I look forward to working with many more to get this legislation across the finish line.”

Dollens, who held an interim study on MMIP over the summer, feels confident that this session will yield results for the Native American community.

“My work on this issue began with a phone call from one of my constituents,” Dollens said. “Since then, we have added more lawmakers from both parties to this fight. I am hopeful that our momentum will continue, and we will be able to provide our native friends and families with both resources and peace of mind.”

Stitt signs bill to increase speed limits on turnpikes, certain highways

Governor Signs Bill to Increase Speed Limits on Turnpikes, Highways

OKLAHOMA CITY – Gov. Kevin Stitt today signed a bill into law that will increase the speed limit on Oklahoma turnpikes from 75 to 80 miles per hour and on certain state highways from 70 to 75 miles per hour.

Rep. Daniel Pae, R-Lawton, is the House author of House Bill 1071. Sen. John Michael Montgomery, R-Lawton, is the Senate author.

Pae, serving his first term in the Legislature, said he worked with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol on the language of the bill and gained their support. He joked the bill had become known as the Pae-Way Bill.

“While we wanted to increase the speed limit on our turnpikes and state highways, we also worked to ensure the safety of Oklahoma drivers,” Pae said. “We will use traffic and engineering studies that take into consideration things such as traffic density and infrastructure quality to determine where we could safely increase these speed limits.”

Pae said the speed limits in the bill will be implemented gradually, sensibly and safely.

Pae also worked with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation to include language in the bill pertaining to traffic studies to keep the state in line with federal regulations so we can continue to receive federal highway dollars.

This was Pae’s first bill to be signed into law.