Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) held a press briefing.
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00:00good afternoon everybody good to see your smiling faces here in April in a beautiful day outside
00:16it's awesome well I just wanted to open with a couple comments number one it's important that
00:25Oklahomans think about this and understand it and so I just appreciate you guys covering these things
00:31and and letting Oklahomans understand I tell people all the time that as citizens if all four
00:37million Oklahomans could sit on the couch in my office and we could go through the issues it's a
00:43pretty it's a pretty common sense that's what I always use to make decisions and we're going to
00:48be fair with everybody we don't pick winners and losers nobody wants a government picking winners
00:53and losers and so you know I signed a compact with the Cherokees the Choctaws the Chickasaws
01:03on tobacco and on car tax and now the creeks the Muscogee creeks they're trying to get the legislature
01:12they're up in this building and they're meeting with legislatures members trying to intervene this
01:19compact process they want to do a two-year extension so that they can outlast Governor Stitt
01:26because they want a special deal so here's some important background for everybody to understand
01:31that the creeks compact expired on tobacco December 31st of 2024 so December 31st expired
01:40in good faith they came to us and oh we need more time to negotiate we said no problem
01:47so we gave them an extension until March 31st of this year to you know to negotiate to talk about
01:56the car tag compacts to talk about tobacco to give them time to go back to their tribal council as they
02:02were telling us they needed to do nothing they refused to negotiate they haven't been good faith
02:08partners and now they're trying to circumvent the governor of Oklahoma and go directly to the
02:14legislature to get a special deal this is what's really important for Oklahomans to understand
02:20you know they want a special deal they believe they should drive on the roads
02:25on the turnpike and not pay the tolls like everybody else and that's what's happening because
02:31the tags that they print that say Muscogee Creek Nation on it it's not inside our database so the tolls
02:38that we have don't have any way to build that license plate that's the problem no other state
02:45would deal with this you can't just go print license plates in any other state in America
02:50and drive on the roads and so the law enforcement doesn't know who that is it just makes no sense
02:56and as governor when I see this stuff I'm like this is this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard
03:01we're going to know who's driving our roads we're going to make sure that we have we know what the
03:05revenue that we collect that goes to pay for roads and bridges in the state of Oklahoma so I just
03:11want Oklahomans to hear it from me I'm not going to let you know I'm not going to let one race not
03:20pay a toll and then charge every other race right let's make tolls free for everybody let's get rid of
03:27the tolls completely before we do that right that's what we need to do so this deal is still on the
03:33table we've offered this to the creeps on tobacco and the tobacco and the car tag compact
03:39um so it's it's uh it's really disappointing and I think when Oklahomans sit down and really think
03:46about it uh they'll be like me they'll be frustrated when they see a car tag out there
03:50that's printed on uh that says Muskogee Creek Nation on it so with that I'll open it up to uh
03:55questions comments yes sir
03:57sir there's been reports that um some members of the state board of education regret that they support the new social studies standards and that they would prefer the legislature to determine that
04:13you know um well first off yeah the legislature it's in their court right now so the way that works those
04:26those are uh those are approved by a board and then they go to the legislature for uh final approval if
04:31they're in session so uh certainly the legislature uh needs to act on that um the the thing that concerned
04:39me was the mechanics how it was done so it's been showed to me from the board members that they were
04:45emailed a copy of those standards but then there was a different standard that was sitting on the desk
04:51that they actually voted on well that seems that's very very odd in a corporate board setting if a ceo
04:58came and sent the board a package and said we're voting on this policy but then they slid a different
05:05policy that they actually were voting on uh the board would be very very frustrated hold people
05:11accountable um you know the the problem right now is these boards are supposed to hold people
05:19accountable right uh but there's legislation that that a board member can't put something on the agenda
05:26that's being held up in the legislature right now I hope that gets across the finish line because it
05:31doesn't make sense for Oklahomans or to me or to anybody if we're supposed to hold the agencies
05:36accountable and a board member can't even re-pull something up to ask questions and can't get an
05:42agenda item on a board and I know we're kind of in the weeds and it's it uh but that that really
05:48doesn't make sense when you really stop and think about it so hopefully the legislature will get that
05:51get that across the finish line um and and let's have an honest conversation about what those social
05:57studies uh standards are I think ultimately um I'm not saying those are those are good or bad the
06:03legislature is going to have to make a decision on that but the mechanics of how it came about uh
06:09really just feels uh it feels like somebody needs to look into it and we're trying yes sir
06:16following that um there were discussions on administrative rules today earlier in this session
06:21uh you would talk about the citizenship document uh the state department of education the board of
06:27education put forward um house members today said that they kind of want to disapprove of that rule
06:33uh several reasons the statute for agents put through the legislature not yet in the rules process
06:39didn't know if you had an update on that have you talked about that with the legislature
06:43you know that that's the whole reason that we need to you need the board member to be able to put an
06:49agenda item on a uh uh to be voted on or be discussed even right um so i think this one bill would solve
06:59all this there was a joint press statement i think between the speaker and the pro tem saying this is a
07:04good thing i mean who doesn't think that's normal whether you're on a bank board or you're on walmart's
07:10board or or any board uh if if the board members cannot say hey let's talk about this subject
07:17that's really not a board right it's a dictatorship and so i think that's the really the question that
07:23we're asking ourselves and we find these things out and i'm i just push the legislature to say hey
07:28we need to fix this when you find these things out let's get this stuff fixed um the legislature
07:33can fix that but if we get if the board's able to fix it then the board would put something on there
07:37and they would say hey let's discuss this further maybe we shouldn't put kids on a list i've beat
07:43that dead horse a hundred times now i don't think that uh president trump's policies are talking
07:49about you know going after kids right he's talking about criminals he's talking about criminal activity
07:54he's talking about getting uh those folks out of our country securing our border knowing who's coming
07:58in we agree with all that uh i'm not going to start on picking on seven and eight year olds and
08:02putting them on a list it's not a public safety issue so i'm trying like a like like heck to make
08:07sure that uh we have some common sense here in oklahoma and i need some help from the legislature
08:13to be able to get that across the finish line yes sir good afternoon governor um both at oklahoma
08:20launch and kflr had stories this week about new people at the state farm education getting hired by
08:25ryan walters and big paychecks the backgrounds of your people on the political consultants uh
08:31communication side just wanted to get your thoughts on what uh taxpayer money is paying for
08:36what they answer right now with those good people yeah i mean great great conversation i mean i think
08:41you guys need to report on that kind of stuff and i've said this before i'll say it again uh i think
08:46that's why you know citizens we we hate politicians we get so frustrated with the political process
08:52because we can we're not dumb oklahomans are not dumb oklahomans see these people that are in these
08:58different political positions uh that are running for their next office and they're looking for uh press
09:03statements and they're trying to use state dollars to uh you know make political statements um so
09:11i don't know specifically who who they're hiring you know there's 30 000 employees and in the state of
09:17oklahoma and um i don't unfortunately you you know me the governor doesn't get to hire and fire all the
09:25different uh state agency heads um so those all report to different boards or commissions or they're separately
09:32elected um that's the way the system's set up and so it's up to us as citizens to understand what's
09:38happening and hold our elected officials accountable the more you know the more i'm in this office
09:44i try to explain everywhere i go around the state when i talk to different groups is is i first thank
09:48them for being there because the fact that you're watching this on tv or the fact that you're listening
09:53to this uh you want to be more informed in what's happening in in the state of oklahoma that's a good
09:58thing because when you understand these issues like you pointed out uh you start connecting the dots
10:05you start connecting the political dots with what's happening and and then you talk you look at the
10:09lobbyist and how everything is connected and uh instead of just doing the business of the people
10:14that we believe in lower taxes smaller government uh a lot of stuff gets uh um gets tied up in the
10:22politics and moving moving towards the next office and um super frustrating for me as an oklahoma that
10:28is going back to the private sector and it's going to be cheering on the next guy and and uh going to
10:33be trying to keep help my help my state grow yes sir thank you uh this is about the uh dilinois river
10:46poultry lawsuit uh 18 drummers said that uh one of the things that he hopes to see sort of plan that
10:53comes out or it's sort of southern water that comes out is um i guess barring um land application of
11:01poultry litter within the only river watershed is that something that you can get behind and why or why not
11:09so this thank you for asking that that's a that's a great great question because uh you know here's the
11:15deal we we can all play monday morning quarterback and we can all say you know um you know it's easy
11:22targets for big business right oh that's a real rich business let's go after them let's go sue them
11:28but here's the facts these businesses uh had permits they followed the law they did everything they were
11:35supposed to and so 20 years later you have attorney general at the time drew edmondson brought a lawsuit
11:42against the chicken industry and then out of nowhere you have ag drummond resurrect this lawsuit
11:50after it set dormant for 15 years i think maybe it was 13 years um and brought up and then actually had
11:57empowered uh you know attorney general uh edmondson to get back involved and try to you know get a pound
12:06of flesh out of these businesses so absolutely not i am for there there's no possible way that
12:12i would be for playing monday morning quarterback going to a business and saying well you've got deep
12:18pockets you can afford it um even though you followed all the rules and you had all the permits and and
12:25you did everything like we told you to do but now we don't like it and so we want you to give us a
12:30billion dollars that's basically what these trial attorneys are doing and again connect the dots
12:35attorney general drummond's running for governor and trying to win some political points with the trial
12:41attorneys and he's going after our agricultural industry um so really really frustrating uh i
12:48wouldn't be supportive of of that at all and i'll say this to everybody out there um if we think that
12:55the illinois river uh needs addressing and we think the application of fertilizer is not correct
13:03then we need to fix that and you fix that going forward right uh so i've talked to uh secretary blaine
13:10arthur they get all their standards from the epa when we implement those in the state of oklahoma
13:16and so we can have a great conversation about it we can run legislation the agency can actually fix that
13:23but to go back and punish companies uh is is just because of their balance sheet and you say oh they've
13:30got the resources they can afford it 100 against it and i think most oklahomans this would this will
13:37tear our state apart business wise the reason we're a pro business state and we've got so much momentum
13:42is that there's assurance and there's confidence that oklahoma doesn't treat companies like california
13:48does and if we go down this road uh it is going to be devastating for for new entries and new businesses
13:55they'll say hey it's just not worth it we'll go somewhere uh that really you know uh stands with the
14:01rule of law but that that's the way i see it uh i think it's uh really really clear i think most
14:06oklahomans agree with me on that you can't go back and punish a company uh for doing what they
14:11what they were supposed to do and what they had uh had their license and approvals to do yes sir
14:17and what's going on um i uh i know i hate to harp on this again the social studies standards again
14:26you've got actually last week they basically said they're going to go for monday's kind of the
14:31deadline to act on it i may hurt but monday's the real day to act on it hilbert kind of didn't have a
14:37problem with it um and then you've got a board member i don't even put on the spot that is here today
14:41at this press have you talked to the republican lawmakers and told them hey let's rethink this
14:47let's look back at it this seems pretty serious at this point and then a lot of people spoke out
14:53so about what about the social studies standards have you talked about the lawmakers to say hey
14:58look at that let's go back over this let's let's uh rethink it you know but you know back to your
15:04your first point um yeah the pro tem i i didn't know he said he would he would uh get that across the
15:10finish line yeah and i know that they originally made a great statement in the beginning and just
15:16said yeah it's pretty reasonable for a board member to be able to put stuff on an agenda item so hopefully
15:22that does go through hopefully politics doesn't get in the way and and the pro tem will get that done
15:26and the speaker and they'll get that to my desk um so on the social studies study standards again like
15:32i answered before um let's look at the mechanics of it let's dig in those let's make sure at least the
15:38board knows what they're voting on and y'all need to ask those questions you need to get that out and
15:42report on that if there were two different uh um if there were two different submissions to the board
15:47and they they didn't they didn't have an advance i think those are issues that we should all we should
15:53all be frustrated about right um and then you know the the standards themselves the legislature
15:59hopefully they'll they'll act on that and uh i don't know they they may punt it to me so we'll see
16:04that we'll see yes ma'am
16:09thank you governor i've got two questions on the doge okay report that identified 157 million dollars
16:15in federal health care grant funding as being unnecessary or unused my first question is that
16:21several of the grants that were identified seem to fall in line with funding that the top
16:26administration wanted to resend dealing with for the 19 era funding was that intentional on
16:32the other case part was a coincidence that some of the grants in the line with the federal planning
16:37that was going to be pulled back yeah i think that was just coincidence i'd need to know specifically
16:42but what the health department has told me is these are unused grants right it's stuff that uh we had
16:47sitting there uh that were never deployed we didn't have uh the need for them or there was a
16:54some kind of complication that we did not have the use of it so i don't think it had anything to do with
16:58um you know politics from the federal level i think we were just trying to look through
17:04and uh and find savings back to the federal government and obviously if you if you have a
17:09pile of money that you've never used uh that's a pretty easy savings to return back and 157 million
17:14dollars is more than a ham sandwich okay well and second question is next steps it sounds like we
17:20have that money and are we going to be returning it to the federal government is it money that they
17:25haven't given to us yet or it's not going to take it from them what does that look like next steps
17:30so uh this i think oklahoma's will find it i found it really really interesting whenever i talk to
17:34the doge folks uh there's no mechanism uh in the federal government to receive funds back
17:41and so uh i think we we've talked to our u.s senators and and said hey you need to run a
17:47run a bill that allows a state to actually return uh unused money from the states and so um it's still
17:56sitting it's my understanding it's still sitting here in the state of oklahoma because there is
18:00really no apparatus for the federal money federal government to uh to take money back and we're seeing
18:06that with with elon talking about that and this is a good good example i think most oklahomans understand
18:11this the only way that you guys don't have any questions here for me about state agencies or this
18:19or that is if we pay every invoice same thing that elon is finding up there the only time you're starting
18:24to hear rumblings is if you're moving someone's cheese right if somebody that's living off the
18:29government and you all of a sudden are starting to address that and you're asking questions and you're
18:34saying well how much is is this a non-profit how much is your ceo making how much is your coo making
18:39how are the dollars benefiting the mission that the legislature intended this to be you start asking
18:44those questions first thing they do is hire a lobbyist to come up here and start spreading
18:48misinformation and try to get the person fired or try to get uh uh try to get you know get you off
18:55off target and get you on something else and so i applaud my agency heads for asking these questions
19:01and really you guys in this room keep digging keep asking these questions keep exposing we're trying
19:06to shine a light uh on state government and make sure that that the state dollars are used effectively
19:14you're looking at a governor that believes in lower smaller government lower taxes flat budgets
19:20i want government to be more efficient and i think we've proven that over the last seven years
19:36i was curious regarding your region appointments both of these gentlemen i think have experience
19:48in capital or capital lending uh however you'd say how did they kind of go through the process what were
19:54you looking for and what are you hoping for them as they respectively look at you know ou and osu as
20:01institutions um osu having more recent headline uh making financial scenario yeah great great question so
20:12you know with oklahoma state university the the uh the problems that needs to be fixed quite frankly
20:19is uh the restrictions on how i pick board of regents ou has a much much better system uh the regions i pick
20:26at ou can be from anywhere in the united states right they can live anywhere they can be whatever
20:33acumen we need for that specific purpose we can go find the very best and brightest in the united states
20:39and we can put them on these boards i actually have two board members uh from from out of state i've got
20:44one in uh ohio stevenson and then i have a guy out of uh east texas ken waits on the ou board of regents
20:52these are super super sharp business people these are billion dollar in this these are billion dollar
20:59um corporations so to speak it's been a lot of money they hire a lot of people and you need you
21:05need some strong strong board members uh so rainy williams i mean uh the guy i just put on the ou's
21:11board of regents is just an amazing oklahoma super smart well respected oklahoma city uh person
21:18uh but great acumen when it comes to looking at finances looking at uh legal issues he's an attorney
21:26from the university of oklahoma i've been a very very successful uh business leader he served on the
21:33the ou health board and just done an amazing job there of riding that ship uh and so i think he's
21:39gonna be great and then the other board members i trust i trust them and i and they tell me hey here's
21:45what we need on these boards can you find this forest governor and then we go out and try to
21:49find the very best person so uh that's that tracy pool up in tulsa tulsa back to oklahoma state i had
21:56to choose from the tulsa area and this was an at large piece so the other the other problem with
22:01oklahoma state's board uh is it is you have to choose sometimes from certain geographic areas around
22:08the state and they have to have agricultural um in their uh you know they have to they have to be
22:14farmers or ranchers which is good right and on paper but then you're it just keeps shrinking the pool that
22:20you can pull from and instead of just saying hey if i need a business person or if i need an attorney or if
22:26i need someone that has health care uh uh you know uh you know expertise i can go get that person or
22:32the best person in the state um but tracy is uh is amazing same thing he's got similar similar
22:38background to uh to rainy williams he's an attorney worked for macabee and taft uh went to chicago and
22:44ran some uh private equity folks and then uh a great great family great uh um leader in the tulsa
22:52community and i think he'll bring a business acumen to the board and they need some some more fiscal
22:59uh discipline up there and uh and again when i talk to the other board members they kind of tell
23:04me where they're lacking and what they need help with back to rainy williams his expertise uh you
23:11know overseeing the ou health which is a big big part of what ou does um is is something that's going
23:17to be very very beneficial to the board i think so um but there's no exact science on it you just go
23:23try to find the very best people you interview them and and then i talk to the board members and ask
23:27them what they need and sometimes even talk to the administration and make sure that they're uh
23:33that they're that there's no red flags and we go through our process so thank you guys so much for
23:38thank you guys so much for being here
23:47thank you
23:49thank you