[Oasfaa] state legislative update

[Fair, Bryce]

Numerous bills have "died" in the past two weeks as they failed to be passed out of committee by a certain deadline.  However, a couple of bills are still alive and moving through the process.  Following is a brief update.
 
HB 2446 (Rep. Braddock/Sen. Paddack) - This has now become a very important bill for the Oklahoma's Promise program.  The bill initially dealt only with special income eligibility provisions for adopted children.  However the Senate author of the bill agreed to include some important amendments that we requested.  These were added to the bill on the Senate floor yesterday.  The amendments would do the following:
    -Delay for one year the new second income limit requirement and the new college GPA requirement that were passed by the Legislature in 2007.  These two new requirements would be delayed until the 2010 high school graduating class (rather than the 2009 class as currently in the law).
    -Create a Task Force on Oklahoma's Promise to meet later this year to conduct a comprehensive review of the program's income eligibility requirements and college retention requirements and make recommendations for the 2009 Legislature (we asked for the one-year delay in the two new requirements so that this Task Force would have time to conduct the review and make recommendations before the new provisions go into effect).
    -Change the language on the new college GPA requirement to a cumulative GPA calculation rather than the unique calculation currently in the statute.
 
In addition, on the Senate floor, Sen. Kenneth Corn further amended HB 2446 to include the provisions of his Second Century Promise Act, which he has amended to several bills previously.  In addition to creating the Second Century Promise program, his amendments would expand the OKPromise income eligibility by changing the $50,000 limit from "taxable and nontaxable" to "taxable" only. 
 
The bill will now return to the House and we expect it to end up in a conference committee.  There the bill can be further re-written before possibly coming out for a final vote in both the House and Senate.  The current text of HB 2446 is available at: http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/2007-08bills/SB/hb2446_sahb.rtf 
 
 
Other bills still alive:
-SB 1988 - OKPromise - exception to the 3-yr limit to start college for students in the military.  The bill is pending action on the House floor.  Text at http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/2007-08bills/HB/SB1988_hflr.rtf
 
-HB 3397- Guaranteed Tuition - this bill makes amendments to the guaranteed tuition law passed in 2007 impacting state system institutions.  Changes include removing two-year colleges from the legislation.  This bill has actually already passed both the House and Senate and is now pending action by the Governor (expected to be signed).  Text at http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/2007-08bills/HB/hb3397_enr.rtf
 
 
Bills that recently died (the content of these bills can always be amended into another bill) include:
-SB 1931- OKPromise - providing a $100,000 income eligibility limit for certain public school teachers.
-SB 2164 - OKPromise - providing an "OHLAP Enhancement Award" to cover fees & books.
-HB 3120 - Academic Scholars - increasing the limit on participation of nonresident students from 25% to 30%.
-HB 2513 - Concealed weapons on campus.
 
Let me know if you have any questions.
Bryce
 

Bryce Fair 
Assoc. Vice Chancellor for Scholarships & Grants 
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education 
Phone:  (405) 225-9162 
Fax:  (405) 225-9230 
E-mail:  bfair at osrhe.edu 

Mailing Address: 
P.O. Box 108850 
Oklahoma City, OK  73101-8850 

Street Address: 
655 Research Parkway, Suite 200 
Oklahoma City, OK  73104 

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.onenet.net/pipermail/oasfaa/attachments/20080418/b7938282/attachment.html