State Sen. David Holt, R-Oklahoma City, is using social media to pull back the curtain for his constituents on the nearly a dozen bills he authored last session that were signed into law.
He's using the hashtag #11BillsIn11Days to explain the origin of each piece of legislation, how it progressed through the chambers, and how it affects Oklahomans. He goes into much more detail on his blog.
This continues my support of transparency, & hopefully you'll enjoy it. Here is episode 1: https://t.co/gjyAjZSVcZ (3/3) #11BillsIn11Days
— Mayor David Holt (@davidfholt) June 21, 2016
The northwest Oklahoma City Republican told eCapitol's Cynthia Santos it's the first-time he's done a long-form online recap of the session, starting with an update about legislation dealing with civil asset forfeiture:
"Paid lobbyists supporting reform of civil asset forfeiture reform approached me about authoring this bill…Ideas come from lots of places, but it is not uncommon for lobbyists to approach legislators with ideas for legislation," Holt writes. Holt continues, saying he was unsure the measure would even be heard in committee, though it passed unanimously. Holt also stated that he negotiated with Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater over some language to ensure that law enforcement didn't fight the measure. The floor substitute adopted represents those negotiations with law enforcement, he explained. "I think the story behind them is interesting and I think it illustrates recurring themes," Holt said. "As I tell those stories, I digress a bit about how this thing that happened on this bill…are things that happen on a lot of bills, so by the end of this if you've read all 11 you're going to have a master's degree in Oklahoma's legislative process."
Holt said he may not do it every year because of the time commitment. But he says more Oklahomans paid attention to the Legislature this year than in recent memory.
So far he's also posted updates about legislation dealing with teacher contracts and utility payments.
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