By Ian Meehleder
The Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature began their second day of their week-long campaign at the Oklahoma City Capitol Building today. A multitude of bills were debated, amended and passed successfully, bringing with them an array of new legislation and bipartisan ideas. Today was a historic day for OIL as well, as for the first time in their history, the legislative bodies passed not one, not two, but three bills through both the House of Representatives and the Senate floors. The previous record has always rested at one bill in one day through both floors, however today marked a new era of OIL.
The student-led legislature has not always been this successful, though. From humble beginnings back in 1969, OIL has always strived for integrity and leadership throughout Oklahoma and its colleges. The legislature does not lobby for any agenda, issue, political party, or candidate, further maintaining its renowned purity and ceremony. The legislature began under the watchful eyes of George Nigh, who, at the time of its inception, was Lieutenant Governor of the State of Oklahoma with a known passion for education of Oklahoma’s youth in legislative understanding and processes.
That said, the legislature historically has maintained a steady, sometimes even frustratingly slow pace. Some sessions in the past have not passed but one bill the entire week, while other sessions maintain about one bill per day for a total of five per session. Today’s passage rate alone has set the stage and charted the course for unprecedented success on the House and Senate floors. Some representatives and senators claim this to be a product of progressivism, while others claim the group as a whole has an outstanding dynamic this session.
Strictly speaking historically, this particular session definitely qualifies as an outlier. While bipartisan bill support has increased dramatically thus far, there is no telling what the next few days hold. However, I believe this to be an excellent portrait of the current state of politics in the United States of America. Support for the Democratic Party has increased dramatically in the past two decades, and has led to incredible results in the American legislative branch at the federal and state levels. Furthering debate on key issues is healthy for politics, the more opinions exist on the floor, the more people are represented in the general population. However with growth of one party comes the decline of another, and for Republicans this growth is nothing shy of bad news. A party-controlled floor is an easily moved floor, and that seemed to be the case in the House of Representatives today. All three Senate proposed bills were passed without much debate at all, and an additional five bills were passed by the House to be sent to the Senate for further amendment and debate.
Only time will tell if this is a growing trend or a simple outlier of sessions, but one can be certain that there is no telling at this point what will come in the upcoming days of session. With a plethora of bills on the horizon, I for one am excited to see what comes next in the saga of session.