The Legislative Digest is your weekly look at the happenings of Oklahoma’s state legislature and the bills and politics you need to know

As we edge into the 2019 legislative session, there have already been a few bills passed. Those bills were recognitions of certain days as important, and the passage of the House rules. None have been vetoed or engrossed as of yet, although it’s still early.

SB861: This bill, which has been referred to the Health and Human Services Committee, would amend a section of child abuse law to clarify that delaying or opting to not vaccinate a child does not count as child abuse. Which is an important distinction to make, since vaccination is an increasingly controversial topic. On the one hand, is it child abuse in the traditional sense? No, I suppose not. On the other hand: parents are risking their children’s lives and, worse, the lives of every immunosuppressed child who can’t get a vaccination who comes into contact with their children. Surely that has to be in violation of some kind of law, right?

SB809: Senate Bill 809 would add cryptocurrency to the campaign contributions law. Cryptocurrency would count as a campaign contribution and its value converted to U.S. dollars. The Ethics Committee would create or amend rules to deal with this expansion to the definition of campaign contributions. Government is reactionary — it can only follow trends, not make rules in advance of the things that the U.S. will come up with next. In view of that, this is a good time to include other kinds of currency in our laws regarding campaigning. The second reading of the bill was referred to the Rules Committee on Feb. 7.