Legislative leaders announced today a Fiscal Year 2021 state budget agreement designed to hold education funding harmless while limiting most budget reductions to 4% or less amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is a far better budget than many expected and that should come as a relief to the citizens who rely on core services and the agencies that serve them, given the effect of both depressed oil and gas prices and the pandemic on state revenues,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City.

Senate Democratic Leader Kay Floyd issued the following statement in response to Gov. Stitt’s announcement on Wednesday of plans to reopen Oklahoma businesses:

“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has hurt many of Oklahoma’s small businesses and their employees. We agree preparations must be made to safely reopen these businesses and put Oklahomans back to work but this must be done based on sound data and recommendations from public health experts.

Multiple media are reporting that former-U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, one of Oklahoma’s most honored and influential to rise to national political prominence, died early this morning.

We will greatly miss his voice of wisdom on so many issues.

The last few weeks have been fast and furious as we worked through hundreds of bills in our committees.  Thursday is the deadline to report Senate bills out of the Senate.  We ended reporting out more than 400 bills out of committee and have around 200 more to hear on the floor.   

 I have 22 bills this working their way through the process.  Three of them (SB 824, 899 & 996) are awaiting House consideration.