2007 Session Countdown 3 days to go

It is cheerful but different in the Oklahoma Senate. Just about everything that I could see is half and half. the Democrats are on the West side and the Republicans are on the East. Senator Coffee, the C0-Pro Tempore of the Senate has his big office just across and opposite from Senator Morgan, todays Pro Tempore. Each one has there Staff Only room so that the leader can get to the floor without going thorugh his waiting room.
Petitioners must make a choice, ask for a joint meeting or see one leader before the other or just lie and say "I came by but you were busy so I saw him first.
The parking lot is an issue. Each Leader has about the same number of requests for visitors so the list has doubled but the parking lot didn't grow! The AA's (secretaries) are reporting that their Co's have been meeting and the joint operating agreement lays out the rules of the road, what to do in case of ties, disagreements and general pouts.
Each Co has three bills that he or she can put on the Committee Agenda to be heard without the agreement of the other Co. All other bills go on the agenda by agreement between the Cos. Bills not agreed on go to Rules. Tie votes result in dead bills, really dead bills because the Senate has adopted a "Final Action" Rule similar to that in the House. Final Action means dead for this Legislature, not just this session.
Over in the House, Pre-session review of introduced but un-assigned bills has been on-going for several days. Reports are that some chairmen have been pretty heavy -handed. Last session only a handfull of Democrat authors got their bills heard. This year there may be even fewer.
Last session Todd Hiett treated the Tribes kind of rough. Look for the Senate Democrats to try to take advantage of this.