Press Releases

The Oklahoma District Attorneys Association has presented state Sen. Rob Johnson with its Liberty Bell Award. The award was presented during a June 21 ceremony at the Faculty House Restaurant in Oklahoma City.

Johnson was honored by the state’s prosecutors for his work to amend the state’s expungement statutes during the recently completed legislative session. Expungments clear the criminal records of first time offenders.
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Sen. Dan Newberry today issued the following statement following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act:

“The Supreme Court’s ruling is an extraordinary disappointment, but it provides the public with valuable information about Obamacare. Today’s ruling lays bare the deception of the Obama administration in assuring the public that the Affordable Health Care Act was not a massive tax increase. This is an extraordinary fraud – if presented to the American people as the huge tax increase it really is, the proposal would have been overwhelmingly rejected.

Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, released the statement below following the Supreme Court announcement on the president's health care law: read more.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Jerrod Shouse, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said today that State Senator Frank Simpson and Representative Pat Ownbey have achieved a 100 percent rating by the NFIB.  The NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association.

"Small business is the engine that drives Oklahoma's economy," Shouse said. "By supporting small business, Frank Simpson and Pat Ownbey are supporting working families and Oklahoma communities." 

State Sen. Clark Jolley has been named Legislator of the Year by the Oklahoma State Troopers Association (OSTA). Jolley was author of legislation directing a supplemental appropriation of $5 million to the Department of Public Safety to fund an Academy to train 40 Highway Patrol cadets.

In just the last three years, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) has lost about 80 troopers, primarily because of retirement. Jolley has advocated funding annual trooper academies to fully restore and maintain optimum numbers in the OHP.

State Senator Charles Wyrick said Monday the public has lost confidence after a series of ill-conceived decisions at GRDA. He’s calling on Greg Grodhaus, incoming Chair of the GRDA Board of Directors, to resign.
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Gov. Mary Fallin has signed into law a measure that will allow veterans to have a special emblem on their Oklahoma driver’s licenses.
Senate Bill 138, authored by Sen. Roger Ballenger and Rep. Jerry Shoemake, authorizes the Department of Public Safety to create driver’s licenses with a small flag in one corner, to serve as a designation of veteran status.
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