Senate fight contributes to bottleneck

Saturday, May 7th 2005, 2:42 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A partisan fight in the Oklahoma Senate has contributed to a huge bottleneck of legislation as the 2005 Oklahoma Legislature heads into its final three weeks.

With only 13 regular working days left, lawmakers still have almost 700 bills to deal with, including such difficult issues as taxes, lawsuit reform and changing the workers compensation system.

A check with legislative staff showed 687 bills were still alive, with most of them already sent or on their way to joint House-Senate conference committees for further work.

If all those measures were ready for floor action on Monday _ which they aren't _ it would require the House and Senate to act on more than 50 bills a day for the rest of the session.

Despite the backlog, leaders insist the workload is not insurmountable and lawmakers can get out on time by a 5 p.m. May 27 deadline.

Senate leaders of both parties put a happy face on a three-day struggle over control of the Senate, which involved GOP Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin's efforts to preside over the 48-member body.

It was part of a GOP effort to get a vote on a workers compensation bill that died on Thursday when a legislative deadline expired.

Three days of shouting, walkouts and banging gavels ended Wednesday when the two sides agreed to a procedural vote on reviving the bill.

That motion required a two-thirds majority and died, as expected, on a 26-22 party line vote. Democrats outnumber Republicans by that margin in the 48-member Senate.

Afterward, the two sides played down any time lost because of the partisan fray and said there were benefits from the battle.

It put the spotlight on the need for ``meaningful'' workers' compensation reform, said Senate Minority Leader Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City.

Senate President Pro Tem Mike Morgan, D-Stillwater, said the fact that Republicans and Democrats were able to amicably resolve the stalemate bodes well for reaching agreements on workers compensation, lawsuit reform and other difficult issues.

``It shows that anything is possible if we keep talking,'' Morgan said.

He conceded the skirmish delayed some possible floor action, but said the fight's effect on the flow of legislation was minimized because it occurred during a normal lull in floor action.

Morgan also said much behind-the-scenes work continued on the budget and other issues during the three-day period. ``We never stopped working,'' he said.

Still, many think the tense infighting could have a negative residual effect on the session because of bruised feelings left by the partisan rancor.

About an hour after Democrats and Republicans declared peace and Fallin handled the gavel over to Morgan, the spin in a news release from Coffee was that Republicans consider the procedural vote to resurrect Sen. Scott Pruitt's bill as essentially a vote on the contents of the workers compensation legislation.

Coffee said earlier that whether the vote becomes an issue in next year's elections depends on what kind of workers compensation bill eventually passes.

Republicans say worker's compensation insurance, which covers medical claims for workers who are injured on the job, is too expensive and that the system needs to be changed to bring down costs and stimulate business growth. Democratic leaders say they also support improvements in the system but don't want to make changes that would be harmful to injured workers.

Republicans took over the Oklahoma House for the first time in over eight decades this year as result of the 2004 elections. The state GOP has served notice that taking over the Senate and the governor's office will be the top goals of the party in 2006.

Heading into the final three weeks, Morgan, House Speaker Todd Hiett and the governor's office say they are upbeat that lawmakers can pass ``meaningful'' legislation in the areas of workers compensation, lawsuit reform, tax cuts and other issues.

Hiett and Morgan said lawmakers will have to put in some long hours, however, especially in the final weeks.

``I think we're going to have to work a lot of hours, but that's why we're here,'' Hiett said.

He said the House has been in negotiations with the governor's office on key issues and everything ``is going very well.''

Earlier in the session, the House cut off discussions with Henry's office during the height of a dispute over a college bond program, which eventually passed.

``I think it is possible that we will accomplish most of our major goals _ meaningful work comp reform, a permanent tax reduction, a new funding program for highway and bridge maintenance, education reform and, of course, a balanced budget,'' the speaker said.

``We're very pleased with the progress we're making in those discussions,'' said Paul Sund, spokesman for Henry. ``We have every reason to believe that the governor's major initiatives are going to fare very well in the remaining weeks of the session.''