Oklahoma House Speaker outlines his goals for legislative session

OKLAHOMA CITY — When Oklahoma House Speaker Kyle Hilbert commences the next legislative session, he plans to prioritize three issues — the state budget, a school cellphone bill and tackling workforce shortages.

“In this upcoming session, if we pass two bills, a state budget and a bill reducing the usage of cellphones in public schools, it will be one of the most substantial legislative sessions that I’ve experienced,” Hilbert, R-Bristow, said.

A transparent budget process was a priority for House and Senate leadership during the 2024 session, and it’s something that Hilbert hopes to continue improving upon with the House’s new Transparency Budget Portal. The House opened the portal in December, requesting public comment or complaints on any perceived “waste” or “inefficiency” by the state.

Reducing use of cellphones in Oklahoma schools also remains a goal of Hilbert’s as he said phones have become a major distraction for students.

“They’re just sitting on cellphones,” he said. “And I think us, as a Legislature, taking a step to address that moves the needle … (and) helps teachers, because I don’t think teachers and school administrators want their kids on their phones all the time. And what it looks like could look different in different school districts.”

Hilbert said solving workforce shortages in Oklahoma will be a third focus.

“Name the industry, they probably have a workforce shortage,” he said.

He said teachers, nurses and engineers are among the jobs with critical shortages. Growing a pipeline for these occupations is a goal for session, although the path to do so is unclear as more funding isn’t always the solution, he said.

“I believe in six of my eight years in the Legislature, we’ve put more money in education than they’ve ever had in the history of the state of Oklahoma, and our outcomes have not improved,” Hilbert said. “So money clearly is not the only factor. There are other factors at play. What are they and what can we do to go fix them and address them?”

No topics are “off limits” this session

While Hilbert has his own priorities for the session, he said no topics are “off limits” for House members.

At 30, Hilbert will be the youngest speaker in state history.

And while he said that means he may not have the historical perspective or movie references of some colleagues, he hopes his youth will bring a new perspective to his position and make him more nimble to needed change.

“I think some of the advantages of being young is, ‘Hey, let’s go. Let’s go do this.’ I want to see change,” he said. “I want to see things get better. Just because something’s always been done this way is not a good excuse. Maybe the way we’ve always done things is good, but if so, let’s provide the data and the reasoning on why the way we’ve always done things is a good idea.”

The Oklahoma State University graduate was first elected to represent Oklahoma House District 29 in 2016 and was elected by his Republican colleagues to serve as the next speaker in November.

“The interesting thing about the Legislature is we have 101 members in the House and 48 in the Senate, and all 149 can request a bill about anything they want,” Hilbert said. “There’s nothing that anyone can do to change that … I’m not going to sit here as Speaker and say, ‘Oh, that subjects off limits, we’re not going to talk about it.’”

Special legislative elections are expected in the coming months to fill two vacant Tulsa-area House seats as well as a Senate seat in a district covering eastern Oklahoma.

Bills on the topic of abortion have already been introduced by House lawmakers for this session, but Hilbert said he isn’t sure what more can be done to legislate this subject.

“When there’s not any reported abortions, I don’t know how you further reduce from zero,” he said. “… We’ve done a great job of standing up for unborn children in Oklahoma and so I feel confident I know where our laws are.”

And, when it comes to raising the minimum wage, Hilbert said he prefers to wait and let voters decide at the ballot box in 2026.

“It’s incredibly problematic and would, in my opinion, lead to businesses leaving the state and people losing jobs,” he said. “And it is an absolute job killer. So we’ll see. It’ll go on the ballot, the voters will speak in 2026, and we’ll see where it goes from there.”

Better relationships

Improving communication and working through disagreements are important to Hilbert’s leadership style.

A few House members have called for investigations into state Superintendent Ryan Walters. While Hilbert said they have this right, he has a different approach to handling conflicts.

He said while he shares some of the frustrations that other lawmakers have with Walters, he opts to communicate those directly with the superintendent.

Before making statements to the media about Walters, Hilbert said he reached out to the superintendent to tell him about it rather than letting him “read it in the papers.”

“It’s about relationships,” he said. “I think it’s really easy to just throw bombs, and that’s not something that I want to do at the end of the day.”

When it comes to working with Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, new leader of the Senate, or Gov. Kevin Stitt, he said they have well-established working relationships.

“There will undoubtedly be times as we come down the pipe that we’re going to disagree on items. That’s normal and frankly, good government,” Hilbert said. “It would be bad government if we didn’t disagree from time to time.”

Hilbert said he and Paxton have taken “unprecedented steps” in demonstrating that both chambers have the common goal of improving Oklahoma, despite any differences that will come up during session. Both leaders invited the other to speak at their chamber’s respective caucus retreat, something Hilbert said he does not think has happened before.

When the inevitable disagreements do occur, he said he wants to work them out with face-to-face meetings rather than over a phone call or text messages.

The 60th session of the Oklahoma Legislature begins Feb. 3 and must end no later than May 30.