Last week, the House passed five bills that would give the governor greater authority to hire and fire agency heads of five of the state’s largest appropriated entities.

The measures also would give the governor and both chambers of the Legislature the ability to appoint more members to the boards that govern these agencies.

This week, the governor invited House and Senate members to stand at his side at a press conference to announce an agreement had been reached by all to move the legislation forward so it can soon be signed into law.

This is great news for state taxpayers.

This will give the state’s chief executive the ability to function as the true executive and make adjustments as needed in a much timelier manner than currently occurs.

It also will give the Legislature, whose members are elected by the people to serve as their representatives, greater oversight of the agencies and their spending of taxpayer dollars.

Agency boards will still be required to conduct meetings in public and for their actions to be reported transparently.

There are a number of checks and balances in place to ensure the process works as it should.

Also this week, one of my bills advanced. House Bill 1003 passed the House with a unanimous vote of 94-0 and moves to the Senate. This bill would grant tax exempt status to the Oklahoma American Legion.

This status already is enjoyed by organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign War and Daughters of the American Revolution. Its past time for it to be extended to the American Legion, which helps our state’s veterans in a number of ways, from providing food and clothing to other assistance when needed.

This was the first bill I filed as a representative, but because of the state’s economy it did not advance.  I am hopeful that with the state’s current revenue surplus it will be signed into law this year.

Last week was committee deadline week. Apart from bills authored by the speaker of the House or the budget chair, any bill not advanced by the deadline is essentially dead for this year.

The House started with 1,733 bills and 21 resolutions at the beginning of the session; 465 bills were reported out of committee.

On a final note, I want to discuss House Bill 2632, the Patient’s Right to Pharmacy Choice Act.

This is free-market legislation that provides patient access to the pharmacy of their choice while providing price transparency and fairness for our local pharmacies.

Current statutes give pharmacies owned by pharmacy benefit managers unfair advantages, such as better prices for the same drugs, reimbursements after sales and gag orders that stop pharmacists from telling patients how they can pay less for their prescriptions.

This bill would establish an advisory council of professionals with expertise in pharmacy to oversee the pharmacy benefit managers and to make recommendations to the Insurance Commission, which currently oversees the managers.

This would give patients in rural or smaller communities the same access to lower-priced prescription drugs and access to the pharmacies of their choice.

The pharmacists at small, local, independent pharmacies have personal relationships with many of their customers, which allows them to extend better quality of care.

Yet, they are often outdone on prices by bigger pharmacies who use deceptive consumer practices and anti-competitive tactics.

This bill will even the playing field for our local mom-and-pop pharmacies. I support it 1,000 percent.

As always, I would love to hear from you about these or any other issues. I can be reached at (405) 557-7407 or mike.sanders@okhouse.gov.