The 2026 Legislative session is in full swing!

The 2026 Legislative Session is upon us, and things are in full swing. As always, the session starts with the State of the State address given by the Governor. This year, he seemed to use the speech to discuss his accomplishments, as well as a few challenges. The most controversial parts of his speech dealt with eliminating marijuana in Oklahoma and challenging the Legislature not to give in to tribal governments. He definitely wanted to go out swinging. With over 5,500 bills to review, we are working hard to narrow down those that have a real impact on us.

This session, we have asked for legislation that would allow a phase-in of the new bonding requirements. We hate that we didn’t address this last session, so we are working as hard and as fast as we can to do so now. We know you need time to transition into these new mandates, so we have worked to draft legislation that will allow for that. HB 3469 (Boles/Green) and SB 1976 (Green/Boles) have been introduced to help us with this issue. HB 3469 passed one of the two House committees this week and is now on to the next committee hearing.

Also, we are part of a working group trying to clean up the PRSA statutes, with the goal of protecting us from predatory lawsuits. This is going to be a mediated negotiation, as the Senate has said they would like to make this a priority. Therefore, leadership is assisting in bringing the parties together to work through the details.

We have a long way to go, but Darlene Wallace (your Legislative Chair) and I are working hard every day to monitor and influence legislation. Stay tuned—we might be calling on you to contact your legislator!

Bobby Stem

OEPA Director of Governmental Affairs