OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Legislature will call a concurrent legislative session to allow public input to continue to drive how $1.8 billion in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds are spent.
The concurrent session, to begin Wednesday, allows the Legislature to immediately return in the interim to enact an ARPA spending plan as agreed to by the Joint Committee on Pandemic Relief Funding.
The joint committee was established last year as an intra-branch partnership process with the executive branch to determine how ARPA funds are to be spent. Public committee hearings and project submissions have been ongoing for months and are continuing.
Through the joint committee process, $17.8 billion has been requested through 1,400 projects submitted by the public to the committee. The state has $1.8 billion to allocate.
"Ensuring the joint committee's public-driven process can run its full course is in Oklahoma's best interest. A concurrent session allows for a comprehensive, strategic plan to be enacted through appropriations after a full vetting of submissions and public discussion of how to best deploy these resources," said Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City.
After months of public testimony identifying needs ARPA funds could address statewide, Oklahoma has established several priorities for strategic investments. These match needs identified through portal submissions, as well.
"Oklahoma established a strong process, driven by the public, to place the legislative and executive branches in a partnership to listen to the public's wishes for ARPA dollars. This action simply keeps that train on track," said House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka.
The vast majority of states have used their traditional budgeting process to deploy ARPA funds, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. Oklahoma's budgeting process involves both the legislative and executive branches.
"The joint committee and its executive branch partners have been digging deep and preparing an outstanding plan for use of the significant taxpayer dollars available to state government through ARPA. We look forward to continuing the work we started together in a manner consistent with how the vast majority of other states are allocating these funds," said House Speaker Pro Tempore Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow.
The special session call also covers appropriations related to Project Ocean, a transformational economic development project considering Oklahoma for a major manufacturing operation. Under legislation introduced this ses sion, $698 million would be allocated under the Large-scale Economic Activity and Development Act (LEAD Act) to pursue Project Ocean.
"We are confident Project Ocean will choose Oklahoma, but should it not, this mechanism allows for the legislative action necessary for the allocated funds to be quickly recaptured," Hilbert said.
Related to Project Ocean, the Fiscal Year 2023 budget agreement reserved $250 million for the Progressing Rural Economic Prosperity Fund (PREP) to help retrofit areas of Oklahoma such as industrial parks to compete for future economic opportunities.
"The details of how to best deploy that $250 million in a way that helps make all of Oklahoma competitive for future economic megaprojects remain under discussion and, once finalized, can be codified in this session," said Senate Appropriations Vice Chairman Chuck Hall, R-Perry.
The concurrent session will begin Wednesday and reconvene at the call of the chair sometime in the legislative interim when the ARPA spending plan is final or action is needed related to the LEAD Act or PREP Fund. The concurrent session can remain open after regular session adjourns, which must occur by 5 p.m. Friday, May 27.
"The steps taken today ensure that the distribution of these funds will be done in an open and transparent manner, even while the Legislature is not in regular session. I look forward to getting these federal funds distributed to benefit the people of Oklahoma," said Senate Appropriations Chairman Roger Thompson, R-Okemah.
Under the Oklahoma Constitution, the Legislature may call itself into session when two thirds of the members of each chambers sign a call for special session. The signed call for each chamber will be publicly filed later today.
