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One hundred years ago today, the Oklahoma Legislature ratified the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. It’s a centennial worth celebrating—but a planned panel discussion at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO) this evening entirely misses why.

House lawmakers have voted to increase benefit payments to some state government retirees, but have chosen not to provide an appropriation to fund the additional expense. Instead, lawmakers voted to raid pension system assets to cover the cost of the higher monthly payments, which will reduce the systems’ solvency, and they advanced the bill despite lacking any firm estimate of the associated cost.

Two days after six Republican senators joined Democrats to defeat legislation opposed by the Oklahoma Education Association, the union is promoting a national day of school readings on transgender issues.

Gov. Kevin Stitt has endorsed Medicaid expansion and urged lawmakers to enact a de facto tax increase to pay for it. A related funding measure was placed on a Feb. 26 committee agenda for a morning vote, but the committee did not convene. The reasons for the delay were not immediately revealed, but challenges continue to surround the tax-increase proposal, ranging from the fact that it will not generate enough revenue to cover the state cost of Medicaid expansion to suggestions the proposal may be illegal .

All new state government workers would be made “at will” employees under legislation that has advanced from a House committee, marking movement on a reform endorsed by Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Legislation that would increase the appointment power of the governor, House speaker, and Senate president pro tempore has gained easy approval in a Senate committee.

Legislation to reinstate caps on noneconomic damages in certain lawsuits has gained approval from a Senate committee.

The operations of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission have long drawn criticism for excessive secrecy and lack of public transparency. Two bills that have cleared a Senate committee seek to address that problem.

For decades, Oklahoma attorneys have not been allowed to practice law unless they join the Oklahoma Bar Association. Due to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding free speech and the right of association, a Senate committee has voted to end that mandate.

Six Republican senators joined Democrats to defeat legislation that would require routine recertification elections for education unions, providing a victory for a teachers’ union that recently gave failing grades to most of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation.