The week of February 24th was the first deadline week of the legislative session, which is high time for parliamentary shenanigans and sleights of hand. This week was no different. When the Oklahoma Senate Health and Human Services Committee passed legislation easing up on the job requirements for the directors at a major state agency, Senators Julia Kirt and Carrie Hicks asked questions…and didn’t always get straight answers. The same happened in the House, where the House Rules committee tried to pass four major bills affecting state agencies on a consent agenda. We sat down with Senators Hicks and Kirt at Higher Grounds in Hicks’ district to talk about about what this means for government transparency and the expertise– or lack thereof– leading our state.

For a compilation of the bills that the House Rules committee tried to pass out on consent agenda, see this aggregated thread by NonDoc’s Tres Savage.