Breaking News: Veto of the Meth Bill
(Pictured: Governor Barnett (OSU) vetoes Senate Bill OU-009)
Jessica Zimmerman (OU), November 12, 2021
Friday afternoon, a press conference was held in the executive room. Governor Barnett (OSU), Lt. Governor LeVan (RSU), and Attorney General Slagle (OSU) were all in attendance. After several important questions were answered regarding the future of OIL as an organization, Governor Barnett ended the press conference by attending to Senate Bill OU-009.
As the governor read over the bill, he told the press, “The urge is to veto this right here in front of everyone.”
This is exactly what he did.
Lt. Governor LeVan immediately took the bill back to the Senate, and the process of a veto overturn began. The Senate wasted no time altering the orders of the day to hear the bill.
As Governor Barnett stood in the back of the chamber. His only comment was, “Overturning a veto on my birthday, thanks for that.”
Senator Tessla Brewer (OU), the author of the bill, stood before the Senate to rally support for her bill.
“Body, ya’ll passed this already, by a lot…there’s no reason we shouldn’t educate Oklahomans on the danger of meth and how to make it.”
Senator Brewer (OU) urged the other members of the Senate to “make history again” by overturning the veto.
In immediate response to the author’s explanation, the bill was previously questioned.
With nine votes in the negative, Lt. Governor LeVan announced, “This veto is hereby overridden by the OIL Senate.”
As the bill was quickly rushed to the house, Governor Barnett lagged behind the group.
“I figured they’d overturn it,” he said.
When the bill arrived, the House quickly finished voting on the bill they had been hearing, and a potion was made to address the vetoed bill.
Lt. Governor LeVan brought the bill to the front of the House with a very rousing speech.
“I come before you today as a statewide elected official elected by all of you in this room, a position I hold very near and dear to my heart…I take special grievance when those in the executive branch choose to ignore the popular will of the working people of OIL. You may or may not have heard that OU-009 was vetoed earlier today by the governor. We as a body moved collectively to pass this bill.”
The Lt. Governor expressed his grievances that Governor Barnett was infringing on the desires of the people, and he urged the House of Representatives to follow in the Senate’s footsteps and override the veto.
In a vote of twenty-eight to three, the veto was officially overturned.
Lt. Governor LeVan congratulated the House of Representatives with another rousing speech.
“It brings me great pride to deliver this objection to executive tyranny to the desk of Nathan Barnett on his birthday.”