Three conservative bills by Sen. Dusty Deevers fail committee with bipartisan disapproval

Yahoo

21-02-2025

A senator from Elgin called out to his followers on social media to ask for prayers Wednesday morning, just hours before a busy day for the far-right legislator.
"Please pray for me today," wrote Sen. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin, who is a Baptist pastor. "May Jesus Christ be praised."
For over two hours Wednesday, Deevers presented three bills to the Senate Judiciary Committee, seeking to create covenant marriages, place restrictions on divorce and equate Oklahomans who have an abortion to murderers.
All three bills failed 6-2 in committee, with bipartisan disapproval.
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The votes against Deevers' legislation came nearly a year after former state Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, stalled work in the Senate through a two-hour filibuster in an attempt to force the Senate's leadership to consider measures by Dahm and other members of the far-right caucus.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Brent Howard, R-Altus, told The Oklahoman he decided to hear Deevers' bills Wednesday amid discussions among Republicans as to whether people's ideas aren't heard because of who's proposing them or the substance of their bills.
Deevers personally asked Howard to hear his bills at the start of the legislative session, Howard said, to which the chairman agreed while making his disapproval for the bills known to Deevers.
"It's not an easy process when you have that type of meeting where there are things that get voted down," Howard said. "I think that the general population viewer probably appreciates being able to have (the bills) seen and conversations be had and out in the open."
Despite his lack of success Wednesday, Deevers told The Oklahoman he's encouraged by the outcome. He called it progress given that some senators have never gotten a hearing on their anti-abortion bills.
"This is how change happens," Deevers said.
The senator added that debate is how culture and politics are changed. He said he's confident in the morality and logic behind his proposed legislation and thinks each debate brings them closer to becoming law.
"There is no conservative case against equal protection for preborn children or for marriage being the flimsiest legal contract in existence," Deevers said.
In the meeting, Deevers garnered just two supporters out of the committee's eight members: Sen. Lisa Standridge, R-Norman, and Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee.
Standridge, a freshman senator, drew statewide outrage before the legislative session started when she introduced a bill that would've prevented all cities in the state besides Oklahoma City and Tulsa from providing services to people experiencing homelessness. The senator has since promised to make changes to the bill.
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Jett is the state chairman of the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus, an affiliate of a national far-right Republican group. Deevers serves as the organization's vice chair of the Senate. They are two of the only three publicly known members of the group.
"I am very glad that Senator Howard gave us an opportunity to have these debates publicly, and I am very thankful to Senators Jett and Standridge for their support," Deevers said.
But it wasn't Standridge or Jett who made a motion to pass the first bill Deevers presented. Instead, the "do pass" motion to advance the bill to a vote was made by a Democrat from Oklahoma City, Sen. Michael Brooks-Jimenez. The motion was seconded by the only other Democrat in the committee, Sen. Mary Boren, of Norman.
"We didn't want the Republicans who may be inclined to vote against it to be put in a position of having to do the 'do pass' and second," Boren told The Oklahoman. "We also wanted to make sure a vote was carried. We wanted them to vote up or down on it."
"We thought that it'd be good for us to take the initiative on that particular bill."
The bill, SB 228, sought to create the Covenant Marriage Act of Oklahoma, an act that would've allowed Oklahomans to enter into a covenant marriage. It offered a $2,500 income-tax credit for joint filers.
For people in a covenant marriage, a divorce would only be granted in cases of abandonment, abuse and adultery.
"I believe we stand at a crossroads," Deevers said during the committee meeting Wednesday. "For too long, marriage has been treated as disposable, leaving women financially devastated and children as collateral damage and society weaker."
The senator's first question on SB 228 came from the committee's vice chair, Sen. Todd Gollihare, R-Kellyville. His line of questioning set the tone for the bill's hearing as committee members from both sides of the aisle asked Deevers about the financial impact of the legislation, its religious components and the grounds for divorce in a covenant marriage.
"Senator, did you author a manifesto on Christian Nationalism entitled 'The Statement on Christian Nationalism and the Gospel?'" Gollihare asked.
Deevers answered, "Probably, I did," then asked what Gollihare's question had to do with his bill.
The vice chair said the question was germane, then cited a line in the manifesto authored by Deevers and his executive assistant, James Silberman, that states, "To define marriage as the covenant union of a biological male and a biological female."
Gollihare's subsequent line of questioning included asking whether Deevers realized the language in SB 228 is gender neutral, if he knows same sex marriage has been legal in Oklahoma since 2014 and if Deevers intends to provide a covenant marriage to all Oklahomans regardless of sexual orientation.
"Due to current law, it would happen if they chose to sign the declaration of intent," Deevers answered.
The bill was voted down after Howard said, "We cannot legislate morality through bills."
The conversation regarding Deevers' other marriage-focused bill, SB 829, was the shortest of the three he presented, lasting about 20 minutes that ended in a 6-2 vote against the bill.
If passed, the bill would've prohibited no-fault divorce in Oklahoma, striking provisions in the state statutes that allow couples to divorce on the grounds of incompatibility.
Howard was the only committee member who asked Deevers questions on the bill. He brought up instances in which people cite incompatibility in a divorce petition instead of other reasons, like adultery, to shield the children involved.
Deevers said laws deter actions that are shameful and illegal.
"If they know they're going to be exposed in public, that is a good deterrent," Deevers said.
Deevers' SB 456 would've allowed Oklahomans who obtain an abortion to be charged with first-degree murder. It drew the longest conversation, lasting about 75 minutes.
Gollihare pointed out that the penalty for first-degree murder is a life sentence with or without parole, and sometimes, a death sentence.
"If you take a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," Deevers said.
The senator argued that the state Constitution provides a loophole so that a woman in Oklahoma won't be prosecuted for having an abortion.
"We have a protected class of murderer in our state," Deevers said.
The bill drew additional questions from Gollihare and Boren, along with a 13-minute biblically focused debate in favor of the bill from Jett.
"There's a prohibition from the creator of the universe to take a human life, and his son said, 'Whatever you do to the least of these, you've done it unto me,'" Jett said.
Gollihare argued that SB 456 wouldn't prevent abortions and instead, would expose women to a capital offense punishable by execution.
"I hate abortion. I think it's a black mark on our history and on our country," Gollihare said. "I am 90 percent with you, but I do not believe this bill does anything to solve the issue."
Deevers told The Oklahoman on Thursday that anti-abortion advocates and social conservatives should be encouraged by the events that unfolded in committee.
"This is the process to getting a bill like this passed," Deevers said. "Abortion will be abolished in Oklahoma. It is not a matter of 'if' but 'when.' And we are closer to that 'when' after yesterday's hearing."
"This is the most entertaining #okleg Senate Judiciary committee meeting I have ever watched," Cindy Nguyen, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma policy director, said on social media during the committee meeting. "I have never seen a public smack down in the Legislature like this."
Boren said it is a positive thing for Oklahomans to see how persistent and deliberate Deevers is regarding his Christian Nationalist agenda.
"It took a lot of courage and leadership for Senate Republicans to have those issues heard in a public forum, to deliberate them and then to vote consistent with the values and priorities of Oklahomans," she added.
Boren said she wasn't surprised by the votes of her Republican colleagues. In private conversations, she said she hears the concerns of Republicans who are tired of the overreach into the personal and private lives of people.
"They do want the priorities of faith and family and order and structure to be reflected in our laws, but they don't like the legalism," she said.
On Thursday, Howard told The Oklahoman he doesn't want to force his own beliefs on people.
"The views I have I think are trying to be more representative of the general population," Howard said.
Unlike last year, several of Deevers' bills are getting hearings, he said, including five that have passed committee so far.
"I am very pleased with the new Senate leadership allowing greater participation in the lawmaking process from all wings of the party," Deevers said.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Republicans vote down three conservative bills by Sen. Dusty Deevers