Rep. Jason Murphey Challenges The Speaker's Concentrated Powers

Chairman Jason Murphey of the House Modernization Committee

Murphey Laments the death of TW Shannon's transparency reforms

Absolute Power

By: Jason Murphey | Sunday, June 14th, 2015 11:39:13 PM | 
  During the last fifteen months I have mostly resisted the temptation to write about my feelings regarding the current state of transparency in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. This may seem perplexing to my regular readers because up until March of 2014, I frequently wrote about the deliberative but systematic transformation of the House away from an institution of opaque process and concentrated power.

  In March of 2014, the most important of these reforms came to an abrupt halt. The House unexpectedly and immediately stopped the process by which the power of the Speaker of the House was being devolved into transparent and open processes.

Current Speaker of the House, Jeff Hickman

  Most readers probably already know of the Speaker's absolute power. He alone has the power to determine if a bill lives or dies. He appoints committee members, committee chairs, has direct control over the operation of the House and its 17 million dollar budget. Some say this power makes the Speaker the most powerful politician in the state; even more powerful than the Governor.

"When the House brought this reform to a halt in March 2014, I knew we had seen the first great reversal of transparency since I have been in the Legislature."

Former Speaker TW Shannon left the legislature in 2014.
Murphey contends that a reversal of his transparency
practices started shortly after he left.

  Though only in its infancy at the time of its execution, the devolution of power reform had started to show its potential. The power of the Speaker over the hearing of bills had been transferred to a Calendar Committee which cast open and public votes to schedule or not schedule bills. The power to control House operations was being transferred to a Governing Committee which had started to meet and would have evolved into a check and balance upon the operations of the House.
  When the House brought this reform to a halt in March 2014, I knew we had seen the first great reversal of transparency since I have been in the Legislature. I feared the House transparency movement had peaked and the ethics of the institution no longer supported the plan of reform.

Read Murphey's full article, here: http://www.hd31.org/blog.php?title=Absolute-Power

David Van Risseghem