By Rep. Cody Maynard
The Oklahoma Youth Expo was held March 11-21 at State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City. This is the largest junior livestock show in the world. It brings together about 7,000 youth participants from across the state who are members of either FFA or 4-H to compete for the title of Grand Champion.
One of the highlights for legislators is the Legislative & Celebrity Showmanship event, which pairs a legislator and other state officials together with a student from their district.
This year, I had the pleasure of getting to show a sheep with Sawyer Phelps from Silo FFA.
This event raises money for scholarships for the youth participants, and it is always a lot of fun.
The youth who participate in OYE are hard workers. They’ve often spent months raising their animals or working on other agriculture projects to bring to the show. It’s really phenomenal all they accomplish. I admire their dedication and ingenuity.
On a much more serious front, we were incredibly blessed to not have any fires in our House district, for which I am very thankful. But many areas of the state were not so fortunate. As of this writing, there were four people who lost their lives because of the fire in Garfield, Haskell, Lincoln and Pawnee counties. About 200 injuries were reported, and about 400 homes were damaged with some completely destroyed.
We mourn with those who mourn such losses, and we’ll do all we can as Oklahomans to help those affected recover. I want to especially recognize the amazing work of our firefighters and other first responders as well as all of the volunteers who are trying to help those affected.
This coming week is deadline week in the House. We have until March 27 to pass House bills on third reading and enroll them to the Senate. I show we currently have 174 bills eligible to be heard next week, and that number could grow as high as 222. It will no doubt be a busy week of hearing bills, listening to questions and answers and undoubtedly some debates.
After this deadline, we’ll receive Senate bills and begin hearing those in committee before they come for a vote on the floor. At the same time, we’ll continue working on our state budget.
