We heard a couple of bills in the House Agriculture Committee last week that dealt with lab-grown meat substitutes.
Read more: Lab-grown meat needs to stay in Pitri DishHouse Bill 1126 would require proper labeling for these products, but it would not ban them from being sold in grocery stores. The author of the bill explained he tried to run a bill a few years ago that would ban plant-based dairy products from being sold as “milk,” but he lost the fight. He decided on this issue just to try to at least force the people making a lab-grown meat substitute to say that it was grown in a Pitri dish and what is in it besides actual meat.
House Bill 2829 would ban lab-grown meat substitutes from being sold in Oklahoma. It would not stop any research being done at state universities.
We don’t need these products in Oklahoma. There’s a move to go from beef, pork and chicken production into these other alternatives, but this is a direct assault on the American agriculture industry, which must be protected.
Also last week, we passed the first bill on the House floor.
House Bill 1276 would require school districts to come up with a plan for restricting cell phone usage (and smartwatches and other such devices) during the school day by the beginning of next school year. These phones are a distraction from learning and the content is proven to cause all kinds of problems for young people. Kids with a valid medical reason would still have access to their devices. I’m in favor of this bill, and I especially like that it gives schools the leeway to figure out their own policies for dealing with this issue.
We also passed House Bill 1151 in committee. This would shift school board elections to June and November from the current February and April election dates. The author of the bill says this will save school districts $16.8 million. Schools are responsible to cover the cost of these separate elections, so moving them to dates when other elections are already scheduled makes good financial sense.
Another good bill from last week is House Bill 1098. This would allow volunteer rural firefighters to do training under their rural fire coordinators in their county or local fire district. These are unpaid volunteers, most of whom have other jobs. They can’t take off work for weeks at a time and pay their own expenses for these trainings in Oklahoma City or Tulsa. This just makes sense.
Remember to listen to my Capitol update on the radio at 7:35 a.m. every Thursday on KPRV.
As always, if I can help you with anything, please call my Capitol office at (405) 557-7413 or email me at rick.west@okhouse.gov.
Rick West serves District 3 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes part of LeFlore County.
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