State Capitol, Oklahoma City - Oklahoma Senate Co-President Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma, issued the following statement regarding Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode.

"Denise Bode is a faithful leader who has provided nearly a decade of service to the people of Oklahoma as a member of our Corporation Commission. Oklahomans appreciate her hard work and commitment to our state, and we will miss her. I wish my friend and colleague the best of luck in her new endeavors.

The State Senate on Monday honored the distinguished life and career of the late Senator Robert M. Kerr with the passage of Senate Concurrent Resolution 32, dedicating the “Senator Robert M. “Bob” Kerr Memorial Highway” in Jackson County.

The soft-spoken Senator from Altus was first elected to the state Senate in 1986 and served through his passing in 2006.

Sen. Mike Schulz, author of SCR 32, said Kerr would always be remembered as a gentleman who had the respect and admiration of everyone at the State Capitol.

Each year, approximately one million pregnancies in the United States end in miscarriage, stillbirth, or the death of a newborn baby and Sen. Judy Eason McIntyre has authored a concurrent resolution mourning these deaths. SCR 25, co-authored by Rep. Mike Shelton, also designates October 15, 2007 as "Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day" in Oklahoma.
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Doctors should not pressure women into having abortions because medical tests indicate the baby may be born with disabilities. That was the message at a State Capitol Press Conference on Tuesday with Sen. James A. Williamson, principal author of Senate Bill 714, a measure to ban the use of state facilities or employees to perform abortions. That measure was recently vetoed by Gov. Brad Henry.
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“I initially voted in favor of Senate Bill 714.

“However, in the days since that vote I have visited with Governor Henry and multiple medical professionals.

SB 714 Author Disappointed by Senator Laster’s Flip-Flop on Abortion Issue

On Wednesday the evenly divided Oklahoma Senate fell one vote short of the 32 votes needed to override Gov. Brad Henry’s veto of a pro-life bill after Democrat Senator Charles Laster of Shawnee flip-flopped by voting against an override motion after voting 3 previous times in favor of the legislation this session – once in committee and twice on the Senate floor.
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House leaders killed a proposal to create a public umbilical cord blood bank only to reluctantly resurrect the language in a second bill.

Senator Jay Paul Gumm and Rep. Rebecca Hamilton introduced Senate Bill 139. The measure would have created the Oklahoma Public Cord Blood Bank at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

House Republican leaders refused to give the bill a hearing. Instead, House Republicans dropped almost identical language creating a public cord blood bank into a second bill that is sponsored by Republican lawmakers.

The bipartisan leadership of the Oklahoma Senate praised the passage of Senate Bill 357 by the House of Representatives, part of a bipartisan legislative agreement that will pump more than $200 million over the next five years into the fiscally-troubled Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System (TRS). When fully implemented in 2010, the plan will infuse $60 million a year into the TRS.

It is estimated that up to 1.5 million Americans have some form of autism, and reports indicate autism is growing at a rate of 10 to 17 percent each year. In an effort to help better educate the public about this neurological disorder, the State Senate voted on Thursday to declare April 2007 as Autism Awareness Month in Oklahoma. Sen. Mike Johnson was the principal author of the measure.
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