Bill to Reduce
Frivolous Unemployment Claims Clears Committee
A bill aimed at preventing frivolous unemployment benefit
claims passed out of the House Economic Development and Financial Services
Committee this week.
House Bill 1911, by House Speaker T.W. Shannon, would modify
the Employment Security Act of 1980 by requiring applicants for unemployment
benefits to sign an affidavit stating the he or she does not meet any specific
criteria that would disqualify the applicant from eligibility to receive
benefits.
The measure also lays out a list of actions that would be
“misconduct” on the part of an employee if done during the course of employment
and that would disqualify a person terminated for any of those actions from
receiving unemployment benefits.
Finally, the bill shifts the burden of proof from the
employer to the terminated employee to show that the action that led to his or
her termination was not misconduct that would disqualify him or her from
receiving benefits.
HB 1911 passed the committee in an 8-4 vote. It now proceeds
to the House Calendar Committee, which will determine if the measure will be
heard by the full body of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
Legislation
Would Ask Voters to Further Limit
State Spending
State Rep. Elise Hall is concerned that without a more
appropriate spending limitation, Oklahoma’s
public sector could grow too fast in “boom” years.
House Joint Resolution 1011 would ask voters to approve a
constitutional limit on appropriations that would lower the current limit of a
12 percent increase on the previous year’s appropriations when adjusted for
inflation.
The legislation has been approved 14-9 by the House
Appropriations and Budget Committee.
State government growth has regularly exceeded private
sector growth in Oklahoma
since voters approved a 1985 spending limitation, according to Oklahoma Council
of Public Affairs fiscal analyst Jonathan Small. State employment grew by 8.57
percent from 2000 to 2010 while private sector employment grew by only 6.07
percent. Government expenditures have grown 72.20 percent from 2001 to 2010
while private earnings have grown by only 40.71 percent.
Rep. Wood’s
Electronic Monitoring Bill Clears House Committee
A bill that would require inmates being monitored
electronically to make arrangements to pay fines and restitution easily cleared
the House Public Safety Committee this week.
House Bill 1766, by state Rep. Justin Wood, would require an inmate assigned to the Electronic
Monitoring Program to report within 30 days of being placed into the community
to the court clerk and the district attorney of the county where the judgment
and sentence resulting in incarceration arose to address the payment of any
fines, costs, restitution and/or assessments owed by the inmate.
HB 1766 passed the committee on a bipartisan 12-0 vote. It
now proceeds to the House Calendar Committee, which will determine if the
measure will be heard by the full body of the Oklahoma House of
Representatives.
Committee
Approves Aerial Hog Hunting Bill
Legislation that would allow aerial hunting of feral hogs
has been approved unanimously in a House committee.
House Bill 1920, as amended by state Rep. Dustin Roberts,
would allow a permit for any landowner or any person who has contracted with a
landowner to engage in the management of depredating animals by use of aircraft
on the land of the landowner.
House Bill 1920 was approved by a 13-0 vote by the Oklahoma
House of Representatives Agriculture and Wildlife Committee. If approved
by the House Calendar Committee, the measure will be available for a hearing on
the House floor.
Committee
Approves Abortion Reporting Bill
Legislation would add expand abortion reporting law was
approved by a House committee this week.
House Bill 2015, by state Rep. Sean Roberts, would add
additional questions to the Individual Abortion Form completed by the abortion
provider, add additional reporting measures to the Annual Abortion Report
issued by the Oklahoma State Department of Health and allow registered voters
to initiate legal proceedings against an abortion provider who fails to comply
with the reporting requirements.
Roberts said the intent of the bill is to update reporting
requirements to reflect law passed since the Statistical Abortion Reporting Law
took effect in 2010.
For example, House Bill 2015 requires that an abortion
provider report whether or not they complied with the provisions of the
Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which lawmakers overwhelmingly
enacted two years ago, he said.
The Oklahoma House of Representative Public Health Committee
approved the legislation by a vote of 7-3. If approved by the House Calendar
Committee, the measure will be available for a hearing on the House floor.
Bill to Wind
Down Questionable Welfare Program Passes Committee
The Children First Home Visitation Program is a “moribund”
government program that is wasting funding that could better serve the targeted
population, according to one state lawmaker.
House Bill 1063, by state Rep. Mark McCullough would disband
the Children First Program, return federal Affordable Care Act funding and
suspend three smaller home visitation programs until an audit could be
performed.
McCullough said he is a proponent of home visitation, when
done right, which intervenes in the lives of fragile and broken families.
McCullough said that the number of individuals served by the
program has fallen drastically and the qualitative results of those served is
marginal. Despite receiving only 11 percent less in funding than in 2001, the
agency now serves 56 percent fewer individuals (a drop of approximately 4,500
individuals). Father involvement in the families served by the program
decreases by 10 percent over a 6 month period when while other qualitative
measures, at best, show small improvement over the control group.
McCullough said that in past two years he tried to work with
the program to make changes, but his bills died in the legislative process
likely due to lobbying by those associated with the program.
McCullough said critics will likely be shocked by his
proposal and will argue that we are dropping a service for thousands.
Home visitation is an excellent
way to send a professional into the homes of families that have multiple risk
factors for child neglect and catch people early in the social service process
before those risk factors balloon into full-blown crises. This program uses
nurses where paraprofessionals are becoming the new standard. The health of the
child and the mother are affected by multiple risk factors that can be
more effectively monitored and addressed by better, more modern interventions.”
After studying these programs for four years and at two
extensive seminars, he said there are numerous new models, which would likely
yield far better results.
Legislation
Calls for Reducing Waste and Improving Safety in Unregulated Prescription Drug
Delivery Industry
Legislators gathered at the state Capitol this week to bring
attention to unnecessary waste in pharmaceutical spending and the need to
evenly regulate pharmacy benefit managers.
State Rep. David Derby, R-Owasso, and state Sen. Rob
Standridge, R-Norman, introduced House 2100, to bring pharmacy benefit managers
under the regulation of the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy.
Derby said pharmacy benefit
managers have increasingly become direct deliverers of prescription drugs to
patients through out-of-state mail-order systems, but have yet to be regulated
in the same way as their licensed colleagues practicing in the Oklahoma retail
community pharmacy setting. To protect patients under industry
confidentiality standards and to minimize wasteful prescriptions in a costly
industry, House Bill 2100 would extend well-meaning regulation to this larger
prescription drug delivery industry.
Research shows that patients adhere to their
doctor-recommended drug regimens better when they receive their medications
from a local pharmacy rather than through a mail-order system, with compliance
rates much higher for life-threatening and chronic illnesses such as diabetes,
hypertension and asthma.
Bill that
expunges human trafficking records passes Public Safety Committee
House Bill 1058, authored by State Rep. Sally Kern, was
passed by the Public Safety Committee last week.
The bill passed the Public Safety Committee on a 10-0 vote.
The bill would allow those kidnapped and forced into human sex trafficking who
have had a charge or conviction of prostitution filed against them to have
their record expunged from law enforcement and court records.
House Bill 1058 will now move to the House for approval.
Native American
Caucus Elects New Co-Chairs
The Native American Caucus has elected the co-chairs of the
caucus and the caucus secretary for the 54th Legislature.
The purpose of the caucus is to identify and address state
policy that affects Oklahoma’s
39 federally-recognized tribes, and to facilitate state-tribal communications
and policy processes pertaining to sovereignty.
The caucus was established in 2006 through the foresight of
state Rep. Lisa Billy and former state Rep. Shane Jett. The National Council of
Native American Legislators was formed in the 1980s and was reformed as the
National Caucus of Native American State Legislators in 1992.
Billy said Oklahoma
is unique because it is home to so many tribes.
As a bipartisan caucus, members elect a Republican and
Democratic co-chair to head the caucus. State Rep. Dan Kirby was re-elected to
serve as the Republican co-chair. State Rep. Anastasia A. Pittman was elected
to serve as the Democratic co-chair.
State Rep. Seneca Scott was elected to serve as secretary of
the caucus.
Kirby, an enrolled member of the Creek Nation, said he is
committed to ensuring tribes have a strong voice at the Oklahoma Legislature.
Kirby currently serves as the chair of the House Insurance Committee.
Pittman, an enrolled member of the Seminole Nation,
previously served as secretary of the caucus for most of its existence. She
said she looks forward to serving the caucus as a co-chair. She is currently
the vice chair of the House Human Services Committee and the chair of Health
and Human Services committee for the National Caucus of Native American State
Legislators.
Scott is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and also
secretary of the National Conference of State Legislatures Native American
Caucus.
Scott said he was honored to serve the caucus as secretary.
Pittman said the caucus also serves brings national Native
American issues to the Oklahoma Legislature.
