2024 session marked by missed opportunities

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Democrats shared their views on the 2024 session as lawmakers worked toward final adjournment on Thursday. They said although their caucus had consistently called for bipartisan cooperation to solve real problems for the state, too many opportunities were missed that would have prioritized people over politics.

“We’re still not investing enough in our public schools, while diverting even more public money to private schools. We’ve missed opportunities to provide greater access to health and mental health care,” said Senate Democratic Leader Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City. “Despite the increased transparency in the budget process, something Democrats have advocated for years, not a single Democrat had a seat at the table for the final budget discussions. We all saw how effective the bipartisan, bicameral ARPA budget process was in identifying and funding projects that will have a positive impact on our state for decades. Not taking that same approach to the state budget was a missed opportunity on behalf of our citizens.”

Sen. Julia Kirt, Senate Democratic Leader-elect, said in terms of policy legislation, too many bills pushed through by the supermajority will undermine the rights of Oklahomans, from making the initiative petition process harder to use, to legislation threatening the quality of water.

“Politicians took away voters’ power by passing changes to our initiative petition. We should trust voters,” said Kirt, D-Oklahoma City. “Our citizens have a tool to address their concerns directly through the initiative petition process, but legislation approved in the last days of the session could take away citizens’ power by extending the process with red tape. That’s going to keep a lot of state questions from ever making the ballot. And after years of work to improve Oklahoma’s water quality, legislation that puts the profits of large poultry operations above the health of our citizens threatens to undermine those efforts. The health and safety of Oklahomans should have been placed over politics.”

To view the press conference held by Democratic Leaders on Thursday, go to: https://www.facebook.com/oklahousedems/.

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For more information, contact:
Sen. Kay Floyd at 405-521-5610
Kay.Floyd@oksenate.gov

Sen. Julia Kirt at 405-521-5636
Julia.Kirt@oksenate.gov