Senate Democrats Make Power-Play With Senate Rules Change

Majority Democrats in the Oklahoma State Senate made a power play at Tuesday’s legislative organizational day on a pair of votes to amend the rules that govern the Senate’s procedures.

“Senate Republicans were seeking a more open, more democratic process within the Senate rules. But in contrast, the Senate Democrats – despite having their narrowest majority ever –decided instead to operate behind closed doors. The majority made a power play instead of opening up the process to more debate and new ideas,” stated Senate Republican Leader Glenn Coffee of Oklahoma City.

First, Senate Democrats voted down an amendment by GOP Senator James A. Williamson of Tulsa that would have required a committee hearing on a bill – over the objections of the committee’s chairman – if at least half the committee and the bill’s author requested it.

“In his address to the Senate, Senator Hobson said ‘we are all equal’ in the Senate. But without my amendment in the Senate rules, a single committee chairman can kill an important reform measure without a hearing or a vote. There is nothing equal about that,” Williamson stated.

Then, Senate Democrats pushed through additional procedural legislative hurdles by adopting an amendment to the Senate rules to prohibit senators from restoring a bill’s title or enacting clause in a floor substitute amendment, requiring separate votes on each motion. Since a bill cannot become law without a title or enacting clause, the Democrats’ amendment renders a vote on a floor substitute amendment meaningless by allowing Democrat Senators to vote for a popular floor substitute amendment to a bill, and then ensure the bill cannot become law by voting against a motion to restore the bill’s title.

“The Senate has always operated as a place of ideas, and has given each point of view a fair hearing. Today’s votes did not uphold that proud tradition,” Coffee concluded.