State Sen. Randy Brogdon has won national recognition for his legislation known as “The Taxpayer Transparency Act.” Senate Bill 1, by Brogdon, would create an online database to show where every single penny of the public’s money is being spent. The bill was approved unanimously this month in the Senate.

A bill to provide immunity from lawsuits to charity volunteers easily passed the Oklahoma Senate Tuesday on a 42 to 5 vote. Senate Bill 507 by Sen. Cliff Branan extends liability protections to volunteers who provide transportation services as part of their duties for charitable organizations, so long as the volunteer is not grossly or intentionally negligent.

State Sen. Jay Paul Gumm has won full Senate approval for a measure to give liability protection to gun manufacturers. Sen. Gumm said the language was based on a similar law in South Dakota’s statutes.

“This simply says that if a bad person takes a gun and shoots somebody, the gun manufacturer cannot be held liable for the criminal actions of that individual,” said Gumm. “It holds the manufacturer harmless.”

Gumm said the liability protection would not apply to manufacturers who build a defective product.

A measure that would enact a back-to-school sales tax holiday in Oklahoma was approved on Tuesday by the full Senate.

The two authors of the bipartisan proposal said the bill will help keep consumer dollars in the state. Under Senate Bill 861, the Oklahoma sales tax holiday would be held on the same days as the Texas holiday.

The bill was authored by Democratic Sen. Jay Paul Gumm and Republican Sen. Don Barrington.

State Capitol, Oklahoma City – The evenly divided Oklahoma Senate made history Tuesday by passing a pro-life bill that prohibits state funds, facilities, and employees from being used to perform abortions.

Senate Bill 714 is authored by Sen. James A. Williamson, R-Tulsa. The bill passed on a bipartisan 34 to 13 vote Tuesday, with 10 Democrats joining Republican senators to pass the legislation.

The State Senate on Tuesday approved a measure that would require the installation of carbon monoxide detectors in structures such as hospitals, nursing homes, apartments, houses and nurseries.

Sen. Richard Lerblance, author of Senate Bill 133, said the measure would protect Oklahomans from harmful levels of carbon monoxide omissions. From January 2006 to September 2006, the Oklahoma Poison Control Center responded to 84 instances of carbon monoxide poisoning, including two fatalities.

The Oklahoma Senate today said every family should be able to bank potentially life-saving umbilical cord blood from newborns through a publicly funded cord blood bank.

Senators approved Senate Bill 139 by Senator Jay Paul Gumm. The measure would create the Oklahoma Public Cord Blood Bank at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

State Sen. Jeff Rabon on Monday urged the Oklahoma House of Representatives to act quickly in approving a bill to provide supplemental funding for education.

Rabon said the Legislature must provide approximately $40 million in order to cover the costs of teacher pay raises approved last year and the increasing cost of health insurance benefit rates, or schools could be forced to cut personnel.

“Leaders in both the Senate and the House are mindful of the urgent needs of several state agencies and are working diligently to reach a consensus on how to best address them. Negotiations on a package of supplemental appropriations are continuing and I am confident that we are close to reaching an agreement.”

State Sen. Randy Bass has won approval from the full Senate on a bill to help growing military communities meet infrastructure needs. Senate Bill 751 would also extend the deadline originally approved in a 2002 bill designed to help two of the state’s largest tire manufacturing facilities, Goodyear and Michelin. Bass, D-Lawton, said both provisions were important to Oklahoma’s economy.