Now that Oklahoma’s governor can hire and fire the heads of five state agencies, a new working group will evaluate the Senate’s role in vetting his picks.
"How do we make those processes more robust to make sure that as we give the governor more control over the executive branch that we also take our role even more seriously on the confirmation?" said Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, who announced the working group on Wednesday.
The group may make long-term recommendations like Senate rule changes, but its focus will be executive nominations in the short term.
"How do we handle them next week? How do we handle them the following week? Because these are coming at us quickly, and so we need to be prepared very quickly," Treat said.
Gov. Kevin Stitt signed legislation last week giving the governor authority to hire and fire the heads of the health care authority, corrections, juvenile affairs, mental health, and transportation departments.
The working group is made up of five Republicans — Sens. Kim David, Frank Simpson, Rob Standridge, Roger Thompson and Darrell Weaver — and two Democrats — Democratic Leader Kay Floyd and Sen. Julia Kirt.
"[Treat] has said that he supports robust vetting. We have asked a few times since that statement what that’s going to look like. So, we’re going to have a working group to decide what that’s going to look like," Floyd said.
Stitt has appointed some board members but no directors at the affected agencies.
The working group will make recommendations by April 4.