2007 Session countdown 8 to go

The Session starts when the Legislature convenes on February 5th. Interestingly, the cut-off for introduction of bills was back in the middle of January so unless you had a burning interest in what is going on, you are already behind!
You can catch up by going to http://www.lsb.state.ok.us/ that is the Legislative Home Page. Go to text of bills and click and then click senate or house and search and the bill number, subject and author will come up. You can scroll through these and then click on the bill number for full text. A large number of bills are "shell" bills and have no content. Content should be available by the first committee meeting but that is not always the case.
I have come up with some interesting stats FWIW which tell you nothing except that I have done a lot of scrolling.
House authors introduced 100 Revenue and Tax bills, 60 School bills. Banks and Trust Companies were tied with Poor People with 6 apiece. Water and Water Rights and Environment are on the move with a total of 22.
The Senate is not to be out done on Revenue and Tax bills with 106 and 52 for Schools. Poor Persons are doing well with 10 bills but Banks and Trust Companies only have 2 vehicles. A "Vehicle" is a legislative term for the bill that "Carries" your "Language."
Of course none of this means anything until you read the bills and find out if taxes are going up or coming down.
Another item of note are the Committee changes in the House. Way different than in the past in that previous standing committees have been replaced with a new order with working sub-committees under each area.
The Senate will be a complete mystery for a while. There are twenty-four Democrats and twenty-four Republicans. The initial agreement calls for Co-Chairs for each standing committee and equal party membership on the committees. Initial questions for lobbyists and other advocates are: Who do you go to first to get your bill placed on the agenda? Can you do it simultaneously? What if one says "OK" and the other says "No." We are not dealing with fading violets here. Same problem when your bill gets to General Order. Talk about Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered!