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Showing posts with label House District 53. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House District 53. Show all posts
In an election for Oklahoma state House of Representatives in Oklahoma's 53rd legislative District today, Republican incumbent Randy Terrill defeats Democrat Troy Green 56% to 39%, according to this latest exclusive KFOR-TV poll conducted by SurveyUSA.
Terrill leads among men and women, young and old. 19% of Republicans cross over to vote for Green; 26% of Democrats cross over to vote for Terrill. Independents split. Among the small number of Oklahomans who have already voted via absentee ballot, Terrill leads by 50 points; among likely voters, Terrill leads by 15.
OKLAHOMA CITY – The principal author of Oklahoma’s immigration law thinks a new executive order issued by President Bush undermines last week’s federal court order temporarily blocking enforcement of parts of the law.
An official with the National Chamber Litigation Center, representing one of the plaintiff groups challenging the law, disagrees.
State Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, issued a statement Tuesday saying that Bush’s order requires anyone contracting with the federal government to use the E-Verify system to check on the work status of employees.
“Judge (Robin) Cauthron claimed federal law does not allow the use of E-Verify to ensure an employee is a legal citizen or resident of the United States, but now President Bush has ordered federal officials to use the system for that explicit purpose,” Terrill said. “It’s clear the judge’s decision was based on an incorrect reading of the law.”
Not so, says Robin Conrad, executive vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based chamber litigation center.
The executive order in no way undermines the court order, “which properly recognized the ‘substantial likelihood’ that HB 1804 is pre-empted by federal law,” Conrad said Wednesday in an e-mailed reply to Terrill’s contention.
“As the court correctly held, federal law expressly prevents states from acting in this domain,” Conrad said.
The president’s order relates only to the ability of the federal government to mandate use of the Basic Pilot program by its own contractors, “but says nothing whatsoever to suggest that states may do so,” she added.
Conrad also said that the executive order is only the first step in a lengthy administrative process.
“There are serious doubts about its legality,” she said, “and, at the end of the day, it is for the federal courts to interpret federal law, not the executive branch.”
Last week, U.S. District Judge Robin Cauthron issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of certain portions of the state immigration law that are scheduled to take effect July 1.
The Chamber of Commerce of the United States and several Oklahoma chamber and business groups are challenging those sections’ legality.
Some challenged language requires businesses to verify the work-authorization status of independent contractors or be required to withhold state income taxes at the top marginal rate.
Another section under challenge requires contractors who want to do business with the state to participate in a status-verification system for new hires.
Other parts of the law have been in effect since November of last year. Terrill said that Cauthron’s ruling is inconsistent with decisions from other jurisdictions.
“Now President Bush’s executive order makes it obvious the judge’s ruling was wrong and should be overturned,” the lawmaker said.
A judicial ruling to halt implementation of the private employer provisions of House Bill 1804, the state's omnibus anti-illegal immigration law, was undermined this week by a presidential executive order, state Rep. Randy Terrill noted today.
"It was clear from the very beginning that Judge Cauthron's ruling was inconsistent with recent decisions in other similar cases, most notably in Missouri and Arizona," said Terrill, a Moore Republican who authored House Bill 1804. "Now Present Bush's executive order makes it obvious the judge's ruling was wrong and should be overturned."
Last week, Judge Robin Cauthron issued a ruling that prevents implementation of the private employer provisions of House Bill 1804.
Those provisions would have required employers contracting with the state government to verify that their employees are not illegal aliens by using a simple federal database (E-Verify), allowed Oklahoma citizens to sue an employer who fired them while retaining an illegal alien to perform the same job, and required businesses to check the citizenship status of independent contractors.
In that ruling, Cauthron claimed "federal law prohibits use of the Status Verification Systems to verify employment eligibility."
That claim was contradicted this week by President George W. Bush when he issued Executive Order 12829, which requires anyone contracting with the federal government to use the E-verify system.
Bush's order stated, "It is the policy of the executive branch to enforce fully the immigration laws of the United States, including the detection and removal of illegal aliens and the imposition of legal sanctions against employers that hire illegal aliens" and noted that E-verify "provides the best available means to confirm the identity and work eligibility of all employees that join the Federal workforce."
"Judge Cauthron claimed federal law does not allow the use of E-Verify to ensure an employee is a legal citizen or resident of the United States, but now President Bush has ordered federal officials to use the system for that explicit purpose," Terrill said. "It's clear the judge's decision was based on an incorrect reading of the law."
Terrill noted that other complaints of House Bill 1804 opponents are also falling apart.
Although business groups claim E-Verify is burdensome for employers, Stewart Baker, an assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, recently wrote, "In fact, it's a bit less burdensome than ordering books for the first time from Amazon.com."
In articles posted on the agency's "Leadership Journal", Baker dismantled many of the claims of E-Verify critics.
To use E-Verify, he noted the employer must enter data about a new hire such as name, social security number, date of birth, and other data that employers already record on federal forms.
"Anyone who has seen it done once can do it, and the process takes a few minutes," Baker wrote. "Understanding the rules that go with the process requires a bit of online training, but that takes at most an hour or two.
Plus, E-Verify makes it unlikely that a company will get a Social Security Administration notice at the end of the year indicating that some of its new hires have Social Security Numbers that don't match their names. So time spent now on verification will save hassles later."
"One by one, the criticisms of House Bill 1804 are being dismantled and it's becoming clear opponents of the law have just one goal - the continued exploitation of cheap illegal alien slave labor to drive down the wages paid to Oklahoma citizens," Terrill said. "Oklahoma can do better and we will when Judge Cauthron's poorly reasoned decision is overturned."
Lawmaker Praises Ed Kelley’s Brilliant Analysis, “Awesome Hair” (Parody)
OKLAHOMA CITY – A state lawmaker today praised Ed Kelley, editor of The Oklahoman, for providing “the kind of analysis you won’t get anywhere else, ever. Seriously. You’re not going to hear anyone else say the stuff he does, not even on YouTube, a chat board, or scrawled on a bathroom wall.”
“Just because a man apparently spends most of his waking hours filming ‘video commentaries’ like a high-tech Ted Kaczynski updating his manifesto, some people are inclined to dismiss his statements as ‘rants’ or ‘early stage Alzheimer’s,’” said state Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore. “But not me. You’ve got to give it up for a guy with such awesome helmet hair.”
In a recent video commentary posted at newsok.com, Kelley and his unmoving hair said expanded welfare benefits “make sense for any woman” whether she’s an illegal immigrant or a resident of the super-wealthy suburb of Nichols Hills.
“Critics might think folks living in million-dollar Nichols Hills mansions should pay for their own health care, but those people clearly aren’t giving Ed Kelley’s awesome hair the respect it deserves,” Terrill said. “A man whose hairdo doesn’t give in to gravity, wind or other forces of nature cannot be held to the standards of ‘logic’ and ‘reason.’”
In another video, Kelley criticized thousands of Oklahoma citizens and church leaders for rallying at the state Capitol in support of state Rep. Sally Kern and in opposition to radical homosexual activists. In that commentary, Kelley also complained that Terrill “rammed” an omnibus anti-illegal immigration law “down the throats” of Oklahomans. That legislation, House Bill 1804, passed the Legislature with 125 votes in support and just 20 opposed.
“Some people – we call them ‘voters’ at the Capitol – see the overwhelming passage of a bill that continues to receive 80-plus percent support in polls as lawmakers responding to the will of the people,” Terrill said. “It took Ed Kelley and his hair to uncover the massive conspiracy, and he should be commended for it.”
In that same commentary, Kelley complained that lawmakers were wasting time on legislation that doesn’t amount to “a hill of beans,” such as the wildly popular proposal to make English the official language of state government.
Those interested in truly important issues can view Kelley’s commentaries alongside NewsOk videos, such as one on how to get “The Perfect Eyebrows” and a chat with an elephant trainer.
Terrill noted Kelley’s videos combine solid production values with a “crazy uncle locked in the attic aesthetic” that is only slightly destroyed by the off-frame sounds of cameramen apparently nodding off while Kelley drones on.
Terrill said Kelley has the potential to become “an Internet superstar, maybe as big as the fat dude who wears the Tron suit.”
“Just look at the guy’s schoolmarm glasses – that’s the sure sign he’s an ‘intellectual,” Terrill said. “If only Ed’s videos were seen by a larger audience than his family and Oklahoman employees who are contractually obligated to watch.”
Those interested can view Kelley’s “truly unique analysis, awesome hair and intimidating eyewear.”
In "‘Bully' pulpit gone wrong” (Opinion, Dec. 16), state Sen. Mike Morgan accused me of "bullying” an unelected, largely unaccountable bureaucracy.
Heaven forbid.
I don't know about Sen. Morgan, but I was elected to represent my constituents, the working families of Oklahoma, not a bureaucracy that sees the state treasury as its own private stash of "mad money.”
I believe it may be time for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, who oversee the state's college system, to undergo an independent performance audit. For some reason, Sen. Morgan finds that extremely upsetting.
My concern is that the regents now have a budget exceeding $1 billion and have also been given a half-billion-dollar bonding authority, yet they continue to request budget increases greater than $100 million every single year while simultaneously subjecting students to massive tuition and fee increases.
Worse yet, the regents have become increasingly belligerent and nonresponsive, frequently thumbing their noses at much-needed reforms.
For example, the regents actually argue that taxpayer-funded scholarships should be diverted from Oklahoma citizens to illegal aliens. Then, apparently to make life tougher for Oklahoma's working families, the regents support diverting the remaining scholarship money for poor students to wealthy families who earn more than $100,000 per year.
They also oppose requiring students to maintain the same grade point average in college — a mere 2.5 — that they must maintain in high school to qualify for the scholarship.
The regents' biggest moral failing is their approval of never-ending tuition and fee increases. Compared with 2003, the year before the regents were given tuition-setting authority, they have increased tuition and fees by more than 50 percent.
That may be one reason why they weren't particularly fond of a new law allowing freshmen to lock in tuition rates for four years.
Those dramatic tuition hikes have come in spite of record state appropriations for our college system.
Thanks to the regents, higher education is becoming increasingly unaffordable to the average Oklahoman — most of whom are not independently wealthy — and it's becoming very difficult, if not impossible, for families to save or invest enough money to cover the cost. Tuition and fees have grown faster than savings can grow even in most official state college savings programs.
As a result of the regents' self-serving policies, Oklahoma students are forced to forgo a college education or assume massive debt to pay for a degree.
Upon graduation, many students are forced to leave the state to obtain jobs that will pay enough to cover their living expenses and debt payments. If the regents want to understand the reason for Oklahoma's "brain drain,” then perhaps they need to look in the mirror.
Sen. Morgan shouldn't confuse demands for accountability and performance with "bullying.” The taxpayers of Oklahoma shouldn't keep writing blank checks to the regents.
An increasing number of legislators feel the tail has been wagging the dog for way too long. The regents need to be held accountable. I believe an independent performance audit just might do the trick.
Terrill, R-Moore, represents District 53 in the Oklahoma House and is chairman of the House Revenue and Taxation Subcommittee.
