OKLAHOMA CITY – The House slipped a measure through very easily Wednesday declaring English as Oklahoma’s official language. The proposal for the bill, which now is on its way to the Senate, would require a vote from Oklahoma citizens before it becomes a law. However, the bill was approve 70-28, after an estimated hour and a half of procedural bibble-babble as opponents tried to get the measure shot down.

What impacts will this have on our state? One of the major impacts would be testing and examinations that are currently approved to be bi-lingual would be required in English-only. When a Hispanic citizen visits the Department of Motor Vehicles and attempts to get a driver’s license; they would be required to take the English examination — now being offered Spanish as well. Oklahoma Legislature passed a law several years ago allowing the tests to be offered to citizens in English and Spanish. If the bill passes, the Spanish version goes bye-bye.

It seems as though our Oklahoma republicans voted for the bill, including 15 Democrats. All of the opposition towards the new Bill 163 were Democrats.

“We have an obligation to defend our common language and safeguard it as an inheritance for future generations of Americans,” said Rep. Randy Terrill, House author of the bill. “Being able to read and write in English is critical, particularly when we are talking about driving.”

The bill also calls for ceasing the use of languages other than English on state documents and providing services, however, some agencies and organizations are required by the federal government to include various language versions of their documents and literature or risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding.

Who voted what?

The House of Representatives voted 70-28 Wednesday for Senate Bill 163, which calls for a vote of the people on whether English should be the official language of the state.

Democrats voting for the measure (15): Neil Brannon, Joe Dorman, Jerry Ellis, Rebecca Hamilton, Wes Hilliard, Terry Hyman, Scott Inman, Lucky Lamons, Ken Luttrell, Ryan McMullen, Richard Morrissette, Eric Proctor, R.C. Pruett, Brian Renegar and Purcy Walker.

Republicans voting for the measure (55): Dennis Adkins, Don Armes, Gary Banz, Lisa Billy, Chris Benge, Gus Blackwell, Ann Coody, Marian Cooksey, David Dank, Lee Denney, David Derby, Dale DeWitt, Rex Duncan, John Enns, George Faught, Jeff Hickman, Terry Ingmire, Mike Jackson, Shane Jett, Dennis Johnson, Rob Johnson, Tad Jones, Fred Jordan, Charlie Joyner, Sally Kern, Charles Key, Guy Liebmann, Scott Martin, Steve Martin, Mark McCullough, Randy McDaniel, Skye McNiel, Ken Miller, Jason Murphey, Ron Peters, Pam Peterson, Ron Peterson, Greg Piatt, Mike Reynolds, Phil Richardson, Colby Schwartz, Earl Sears, T.W. Shannon, Kris Steele, Dan Sullivan, Randy Terrill, Mike Thompson, Todd Thomsen, Sue Tibbs, John Trebilcock, Weldon Watson, Paul Wesselhoft, Susan Winchester, Trebor Worthen and John Wright.

Democrats voting against the measure (28): John Auffet, Scott BigHorse, David Braddock, Mike Brown, Ed Cannady, Wallace Collins, James Covey, Darrell Gilbert, Larry Glenn, Terry Harrison, Chuck Hoskin, Ryan Kiesel, Al Lindley, Al McAffery, Ray McCarter, Jeannie McDaniel, Jerry McPeak, Danny Morgan, Bill Nations, Anastasia Pittman, Paul Roan, Wade Rousselot, Mike Shelton, Ben Sherrer, Jerry Shoemake, Jabar Shumate, Glen Smithson and Dale Turner.

Republicans voting against the measure: None.

Excused (3): John Carey, Lance Cargill and Doug Cox.

Regional airline, Frontier, has decided to remove Tulsa from its regional destination list from Denver, Colorado. Tulsa, as well as four other cities: Sioux City, Iowa; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Jacksonville, Florida have all been red-lighted because Republic Air and Frontier are halting a code-sharing agreement.

The airline industry constantly fluctuates. At times you can find airline tickets for insanely cheap prices and sometimes they are so expensive you would rather ride a bicycle. However, the small regional airline Frontier seemed to always provide reasonable rates and decent in-flight service.

Between American Airlines MD-80 aircraft being downed twice for about a week each, then Skybus filing for bankruptcy, and now Frontier reorganizing from their bankruptcy; looks like flying around our region will get interesting this summer.