Latest news with #DavidBullard
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Public obscenity bill that could impact drag shows heads to Oklahoma governor
Sens. David Bullard, R-Durant, left, and Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, speak on the Senate floor ahead of the chamber's organizational day on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Senate on Thursday sent Gov. Kevin Stitt a bill that would bar obscene performances on public property or areas where minors are present despite concerns that it is unconstitutional and aimed at impacting drag shows. House Bill 1217 makes it a crime to engage in adult performances, or to permit them, on public property where a minor could view them. Violators would be guilty of a misdemeanor subject to a fine of up to $1,000, one year in jail or both. Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, the Senate author, said the bill does not mention drag shows. 'If the behavior is obscene, regardless of dress, then it should not be allowed in front of minors,' Bullard said. Critics said state law already prohibits obscene displays. They said the measure targets drag performances, the LGBTQ+ community and violates constitutionally protected free speech rights. 'Let's be clear from the outset that House Bill 1217 is an anti-speech, anti-queer, anti-art bill masquerading as a protection against obscenity,' said Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City. 'It does not use the word drag. But make no mistake. This bill is absolutely about drag.' Opposing the bill is a 'wink at corruption,' said Sen. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin. 'We are living in a time where grown men parade around in lingerie and exaggerated prosthetics, performing in front of wide-eyed toddlers in public and at libraries, and some call that progress,' Deevers said. 'That's not progress. It is perversion. And Jesus calls it evil.' Deevers asked why it is acceptable to arrest someone for exposing themselves at a park, but not when they 'wear exaggerated prosthetics and gyrate in front of children.' Sen. Mark Mann, D-Oklahoma City, said because the language is so broad, it could ban theatrical performances, cultural performances and cheerleading routines. 'What this is really about is one small group in our community, a group of our neighbors, making another small group in our community uncomfortable, and so we're going to have a piece of legislation to go after one group because it makes another group uncomfortable,' Mann said. Sen. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa, said there was a time when Elvis Presley, known for gyrating his hips, could only be videoed from the top up because some felt he was so sexually obscene that it was not good for public viewing. The measure passed by a vote of 39-8. This story was updated at 3:33 p.m. to better describe the bill. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Panel advances bill banning delivery of abortion-inducing drugs in Oklahoma
Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, sits at his desk on the Senate floor during the chamber's organizational day on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY – A Senate panel on Monday advanced a measure to prevent the use of popular abortion-inducing drugs, including mifepristone. House Bill 1168 makes it a felony to intentionally deliver abortion-inducing drugs in the state. 'We are stopping the pill from the abortion side of this just because of the damage it does to an unborn person, primarily, but also because of the damage it does to women and mothers,' said Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, the Senate author of the measure. Abortion in Oklahoma is already illegal, except to save the life of the mother. Abortion-inducing drugs, like RU486, better known as mifepristone, are not the same as the morning after pill. Abortion-inducing drugs end a pregnancy while the morning-after pill prevents pregnancy. 'RU486 has one intent and that intent is to murder an unborn child,' Bullard said. Bullard said the measure would also prevent it from being shipped into Oklahoma through major carriers. The measure would make it a felony with a fine not to exceed $100,000 or up to 10 years in prison or both. 'I simply cannot believe that we are continuing to try and create new felonies for substances that are legal, that do provide valid medical relief to individuals here in our state,' said Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City. Hicks said she was appalled that the state continues to push the envelope when mothers are going into sepsis and experiencing fatal conditions before they can get medical intervention. 'This is the only medical procedure in the world that the success of the procedure depends on the death of the patient,' Bullard said. The measure passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee by a vote of 7-3. It is available for consideration in the Senate. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New bill provides tax credit for pregnancy resource center donors
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – This week House Bill 1201 authored by Rep. Cody Maynard (R-Durant) and Sen. David Bullard (R-Durant), is set to move forward after passing the Senate Revenue Taxation Committee, granting some tax relief for any individual contributing to nonprofit pregnancy resource centers. HB 1201 would give an income tax credit equal to 70% of what an individual contributes specifically to a nonprofit pregnancy resource center. Additionally, the bill includes qualifying entities providing maternity housing and facilities offering care for new mothers and newborns. School cell phone ban moves one step closer at Capitol Oklahoma Senate leaders highlighted Oklahoma has roughly 40 pregnancy resource centers across the state. 'These centers are on the forefront of helping new mothers and women in crisis pregnancies get the help and support they need,' Bullard said. 'This legislation encourages Oklahomans to donate to these vital organizations that play a key role in protecting the unborn by providing women with the resources they need to choose life. At its core, House Bill 1201 is a pro-life bill that enables women to build a better future for themselves and their children.' HB 1201 limits the tax credit to $50,000 per person each year, capping credits at $5 million annually. The bill now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House committee discards bill requiring potty training before pre-K
A House committee on Wednesday rejected a bill to require potty training for children entering pre-K and passed legislation banning cellphones in schools. (Photo by Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY — A bill that would require children to be toilet trained before entering pre-K has failed in a House vote. The House Common Education Committee struck down Senate Bill 382 by vote of 8-3 on Wednesday. The bill would have permitted public schools to temporarily withdraw a student after three or more soiling incidents until the child is toilet trained. Schools also could connect families with toilet training resources. Students with disabilities would have been exempt from the rule. The legislation from Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, and Rep. Marilyn Stark, R-Bethany, passed almost unanimously through the full Senate. Bullard said a lack of toilet training puts 'an undue burden on the schools.' But, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers opposed it on Wednesday. The committee panned the bill without discussion nor debate. Rep. Ellen Pogemiller, D-Oklahoma City, said after the meeting that the bill could impact children who haven't yet been recognized as having a disability. Some children aren't identified for disability assistance until after they are enrolled in school, she said. Toileting resistance is more common among young children who have autism or developmental delays, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'That bill wasn't going to help the kids that need it most,' Pogemiller said. Also on Wednesday, the committee advanced a bill with an 8-3 vote that would ban students from using cellphones in public schools for a year. Senate Bill 139 would allow districts to decide whether to keep the cellphone ban in place after the 2025-26 school year. A similar bill that originated in the House passed through the Senate Education Committee the day before. House Bill 1276 would require districts to implement a policy restricting cellphone use during the school day, but it would allow local school boards to opt out and continue permitting cellphones if they wish. Lawmakers from both chambers now will have to negotiate which bill language they prefer to send to the governor's desk. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill would limit initiative petition signatures by county, giving less-populated counties disproportionately larger influence
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A bill advancing through the Oklahoma Legislature would change how citizen-led initiatives make it onto the ballot by capping the number of petition signatures that can come from each county, a move critics say is designed to silence urban Bill 1027 (SB 1027), authored by State Sen. David Bullard (R-Durant), would prevent more than 10% of required signatures from coming from Oklahoma or Tulsa counties. Meanwhile, each of the state's 75 other counties, most of which are rural, would be capped at 4% of total understand the bill's impact, it helps to know how the initiative petition process works. Oklahoma lawmakers working to move bills forward as deadline approaches Say, for instance, you're tired of new cars having obnoxiously bright LED headlights, and you want the state to outlaw them. You could petition the state to let voters decide if that should be a now, your petition needs to get signed by at least 92,263 registered voters to make it on the ballot. If it makes it on the ballot, more than 50% of voters would have to vote in favor of it come election time for it to become law. In recent years, Oklahomans legalized medical marijuana and expanded Medicaid following this process. Under current law, there are no restrictions on where petitioners can gather signatures to get an item on the ballot. State Sen. David Bullard (R-Durant) sees a problem with that. 'Right now, in order to get those, they only have to go to two, maybe three counties,' Bullard said while debating SB 1027 on the floor of the Oklahoma Senate last week. He claims people who gather signatures on petitions tend to skip over rural counties. 'We have 77 counties statewide,' Bullard said. 'So the system we have now actually allows them to ignore other people, in other counties, and just stay in two counties.'It is why he wrote SB 1027, which would cap how many signatures petitioners can get in each SB 1027, petitioners would now only be allowed to get 10% of the 92,263 needed signatures from Oklahoma County and another 10% from Tulsa the other 75, largely rural, counties, they would each be capped at contributing no more than 4% of the needed signatures.'We are actually moving out to more counties, getting the signatures of a more diverse population of Oklahomans,' Bullard Amber England, who has led numerous petition efforts over the past decade, takes major issue with Bullard's assumption.'It's a lie that we don't go to all 77 counties,' England said. 'Every state question that I've been involved in over the last decade has gotten signatures from all 77 counties.'She says that was especially true in her most recent effort, which successfully got a minimum wage increase question on ballots next year.'We trained over 200 people, people from Broken Bow to Guymon, all the way up to Bartlesville, down to Altus,' England said. 'All these folks fanned out across the state. Every person that picked up a clipboard and a pen and went out and collected signatures at rodeos, at festivals, at parades, all across the state in every single county of this state.'News 4 crunched the numbers on Bullard's bill, and found, even under his bill, as long as petitioners can get the maximum 10% of signatures in both Oklahoma and Tulsa counties, they'd only need to visit as few as 20 other counties to gather enough signatures to get the needed 92,263—still leaving out the state's 55 least-populated counties.'They're actually taking the grassroots component out of the state question process,' England said. 'They're also disenfranchising rural voters by saying that only 4% of rural voters can sign a petition in any one given county.'The bill passed the Senate last week along party lines. 'Ludicrous, unnecessary': OK legislators take aim at initiative petition law again; passes House But that wasn't before some debate and concerns.'How does this square with the constitutional principle of one person, one vote?' Sen. Michael Brooks (D-Oklahoma City) said while debating SB 1027 on the floor of the Oklahoma Senate last SB 1027, not every signature would carry the same instance, Oklahoma County makes up nearly 20% of the state's if the people in the county could only contribute 10% of a petition's signatures, as SB 1027 proposes, their voices would effectively be cut in half compared to their share of the state's then, take Cimarron County, with fewer than 2,00 residents, it makes up 1/20th of 1% of Oklahoma's total SB 1027, every person there could sign a petition, and Cimarron County would still be nowhere near hitting its cap of 4% of total signatures. News 4 crunched the numbers again and found it would basically mean Cimarron County's influence on whether something makes it on the ballot would be 96 times greater than Oklahoma County's, when considering each county's share of the state's total population.'How does that not fly directly in the face of our constitutional right for the people to petition and have their voices heard?' said Sen. Regina Goodwin (D-Tulsa), while debating SB 1027 on the floor of the Oklahoma Senate last still sticking to his argument about reaching rural voters, defended the bill in response to Goodwin.'Because we are not allowing them to ignore the voice and signatures of the 97.5% of the other counties in the state,' said if you ask England, she thinks this was never about including more voices.'Their motive is to take power away from voters. State questions have to pass by a majority of voters in Oklahoma, 50% plus one,' England said. 'They just want to control all the process themselves. Special interest groups and powerful politicians, and lobbyists are just mad right now. They're mad at Oklahoma voters because they can't control the,m and they want to be able to control them. And so they're rewriting the rules to take the freedom for Oklahomans to actually decide issues for themselves.'News 4 reached out to the bill's Senate sponsor, Bullard, and House sponsor, House Speaker Kyle Hilbert (R-Bristow). Bullard never responded. A spokesperson for Hilbert said he would be unable to meet with News 4. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
