Mark Lawson

Voted for Senate Bill 1344. It pays a drug maker to produce cheaper insulin. The act sets up a program at the State Department of Health. With money the Legislature provides, the department may help pay one or more drug makers. The drug they must work on is a fast-acting copy of an existing insulin. It has to be made in the United States. The maker must put up as much money as the state does. Before any money changes hands, the department has to sign a deal with the maker. In that deal the maker promises to sell the insulin at a low net price. The deal must also let the state take its money back if the maker does not deliver. Makers report to the department each year, and the department reports to the Governor and to legislative leaders. The Oklahoma House passed it 68-22. The Governor signed it.

April 29, 2026Supports Healthcare Affordability

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Served as the House principal author of the Barbara E. Hoover Act, which Governor Kevin Stitt signed into law to protect video monitoring for residents of assisted-living and continuum-of-care facilities.

May 19, 2020Supports Healthcare Affordability

Source: oksenate.gov · researched September 9, 2026

Voted for House Bill 3644. It sets rules for hospitals to spot and treat dangerous blood clots. The act is named the Blake Burgess Act. It deals with blood clots in a deep vein, usually in the leg or arm, which can travel to the lungs and kill. Every hospital with an emergency room, and every outpatient surgery center, must adopt policies based on best practice. The policies must cover how to judge a patient's risk with a recognized tool, and how to treat a clot once it is found. Clinical staff who do not hold a professional license must be trained on them every year. The State Department of Health must set up a statewide record of clot cases. From July 1, 2027, each hospital with an emergency room must report its cases to it every year. Assisted living centers must check new residents for signs of a clot and give them a leaflet on the warning signs. The Oklahoma House passed it 68-21. The Governor signed it.

May 5, 2026Supports Environment and Public Health

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted to override the Governor's veto of Senate Bill 713. It makes wind farms fit warning lights that stay off until a plane is near. Wind turbines carry red warning lights for aircraft, and these usually blink all night. The act calls for a system that keeps the lights off until it detects a plane nearby, where federal aviation and radio regulators approve one. From January 1, 2026, a new wind farm may not start running until it has applied for such a system. An existing wind farm must apply when it is rebuilt or signs a new long-term deal to sell its power. Once approval comes, the system must be fitted within two years. The wind farm pays for it. A county may issue bonds to help pay for systems on older wind farms. A power company whose rates are set by the state may ask to recover its costs from customers. Wind farms that sit wholly on land their owner holds outright are not covered. The Oklahoma House voted 68-17 to override the veto. The Senate had already done the same, so the bill became law.

May 30, 2025Supports Environment and Public Health

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 460. It makes natural gas the state's preferred fuel for new power plants. Oklahoma law already named natural gas the preferred choice for new fossil fuel power plants. That preference ran out at the start of 2020. The act brings it back with no end date. It also widens it. The preference now covers every new power plant, not only the ones that burn fossil fuel, and any added capacity at a plant already running. A company that picks another fuel may put evidence to the Corporation Commission, which sets electric rates, that its choice is better for customers. The act took effect as soon as it was signed. The Oklahoma House passed it 70-19. The Governor signed it.

April 23, 2025Opposes Environment and Public Health

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 2084. It caps what a state college may pay a professor to settle a state-law claim of being fired unlawfully. Claims under federal law are not capped. The cap is two years of the professor's pay on the day they were let go. It applies to colleges in the state system. It covers every way a claim can end. That means a deal the two sides agree, an arbitrator's award, or a court judgment. Back pay, damages and any other money awarded all count toward the cap. Some things sit outside it. Those are retirement money already earned, unpaid wages and unused leave. Staff who are not faculty are not covered. Nor is any written contract with such a worker. The cap starts on November 1, 2026. The Oklahoma House passed it 70-21. The Governor signed it.

May 6, 2026Opposes Labor Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1601. It lets school staff add their own sick days to paid maternity leave. Six weeks of paid maternity leave for school staff already existed in Oklahoma law, and the act does not change that. What it adds is the right to make the leave longer. A worker may use sick leave they have already earned to extend it, for recovery from the birth, for bonding with the baby, or to care for the baby. No extra approval from the school board or employer is needed. The extension is capped at six more weeks. A doctor may certify that more is needed on medical grounds, up to a combined twelve weeks under federal family leave law. The worker gives notice under that federal law, and the two run at the same time. The act is called the ARCHER Act. The Oklahoma House passed it 58-27. The Governor signed it.

March 17, 2025Supports Labor Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 1618. It makes a court use a risk report before setting release terms in a violent case. A public safety report is a risk assessment. A pretrial release program runs it. It predicts how likely a defendant is to miss court, or to be arrested again, while waiting for trial. The report may set out the person's past convictions, pending charges, past failures to turn up, any current supervision or bail, open warrants and any protective order against them. A court may use such a report when it sets the terms of release. Where the charge is a violent crime, the court must use one. The report may not be the only reason to grant or refuse release. Both sides get the results on request. The Oklahoma House passed it 62-23. The Governor signed it.

May 4, 2026Supports Public Safety and Crime Control

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 137. It bars one more group of inmates from serving time at home on an electronic monitor. The Department of Corrections may let some inmates serve part of a sentence at home, tracked by an ankle monitor. The program is only for crimes the law does not class as violent. The law already lists many inmates who may not take part, such as those convicted of domestic abuse or a sex offense. The act adds one more group. It covers people convicted of causing a crash that badly hurt someone else while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The rest of the act only tidies wording. The Oklahoma House passed it 72-18. It became law without the Governor's signature.

April 28, 2026Supports Public Safety and Crime Control

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted to override the Governor's veto of Senate Bill 631. It adds crimes to the list where most of the sentence must be served before parole. Oklahoma keeps a list of serious crimes for which a person must serve at least eighty-five percent of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole. The act adds firing a gun at or into a home, or into a building used for public or business purposes. It also extends the whole list to an attempt at any of those crimes, and to conspiring or soliciting someone to commit one. The rest of the act tidies the list: it renames child pornography as child sexual abuse material, corrects two wrong section numbers, and drops one cross-reference from the rape entry. The Oklahoma House voted 68-17 to override the veto. The Senate had already done the same, so the bill became law.

May 29, 2025Supports Public Safety and Crime Control

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted to override the Governor's veto of House Bill 2263. It bans holding a phone while driving through a school zone or a work zone. The ban is narrow. It applies only while the car is moving in a marked school zone with a lower speed limit in force, or in a road work zone. There a driver may not hold or use a hand-held phone. The driver may not type, send or read a text. Hands-free use is still allowed. So is calling for help in an emergency. The fine is up to one hundred dollars, and the state may not add points to the driver's record. Police may not take the phone or copy data from it without the driver's consent. They may do so with a warrant, or if they have good reason to think the phone was used in a crime. A town may pass the same rule but may not make it tougher. The Oklahoma House voted 68-21 to override the veto. The Senate did the same, so the bill became law.

May 29, 2025Supports Public Safety and Crime Control

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1003. It raises the age below which sex is always a crime, and sets a new close-in-age rule. Oklahoma's rape statute used to reach a victim under sixteen. The act raises that to under eighteen. A second section holds the line for people close in age. Before the act, sex with someone over fourteen who consented was not charged unless the older person was over eighteen. Now sex with someone sixteen or older who consented is not charged unless the older person is more than four years older. Put together, sex with anyone under sixteen is a crime whatever the ages. For a sixteen or seventeen year old it is a crime if the other person is more than four years older. The act also widens a separate rule on school staff, which now covers any student under twenty rather than students aged sixteen to nineteen. The Oklahoma House passed it 60-21. It became law without the Governor's signature.

May 15, 2025Supports Public Safety and Crime Control

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 743. It raises the penalty for disturbing a religious service and adds a buffer zone outside. Disturbing a religious meeting stays a misdemeanor. The act sets the penalty at a fine of up to $500, up to a year in county jail, or both. A second or later offense becomes a felony. That carries a fine of up to $1,000, up to two years in prison, or both. The act also changes what counts as disturbing a meeting. Knowingly blocking or hindering a person going in or out is now covered. So is coming within eight feet of someone, without their consent, to hand over a leaflet, show a sign or argue a point. That last rule applies on the public path within 100 feet of an entrance. Two old offenses drop out: putting on a show within a mile, and racing or gambling nearby. The act took effect on the day it was signed. The Oklahoma House passed it 73-21. The Governor signed it.

May 6, 2025Supports Public Safety and Crime Control

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for House Bill 4071. It sets up a one-time $250 state deposit into a child's federal Trump Account. A Trump Account is a savings account for children created by federal law. Under the act the State Treasurer may put $250 once into the account of an eligible child. The child must be under eighteen when the application is made, a United States citizen with a Social Security number, and living in Oklahoma. Payments go out in the order applications are checked, and only as money reaches a new state fund set up for the purpose. The act creates that fund but does not itself put money into it. No payment may break a federal limit. The Oklahoma House passed it 61-30. The Governor signed it.

April 14, 2026Supports Social Programs and Welfare

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1601. It lets school staff add their own sick days to paid maternity leave. Six weeks of paid maternity leave for school staff already existed in Oklahoma law, and the act does not change that. What it adds is the right to make the leave longer. A worker may use sick leave they have already earned to extend it, for recovery from the birth, for bonding with the baby, or to care for the baby. No extra approval from the school board or employer is needed. The extension is capped at six more weeks. A doctor may certify that more is needed on medical grounds, up to a combined twelve weeks under federal family leave law. The worker gives notice under that federal law, and the two run at the same time. The act is called the ARCHER Act. The Oklahoma House passed it 58-27. The Governor signed it.

March 17, 2025Supports Social Programs and Welfare

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for House Bill 3151. It raises the minimum number of school days for districts that count instruction in hours. Oklahoma districts may meet the school year rule by days or by hours. One of the hours options let a district run as few as one hundred sixty-six days as long as it reached one thousand eighty-six hours. From the 2027-2028 school year that floor rises to one hundred seventy-three days. The hours figure does not change. The act also says that where a district holds parent-teacher conferences during the school day and counts them as instruction time, it must offer parents and guardians the choice of meeting in person. None of this takes effect unless the Legislature gives the State Department of Education at least one hundred seventy-five million dollars more in the 2028 budget year than it did in 2026. If that happens, the act starts on July 1, 2027. If not, it never becomes law. The Oklahoma House passed it 62-28. The Governor signed it.

March 11, 2026Supports Public Education Quality

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 212. It sets up a two-year trial of new routes into teaching. The program is called TeachForwardOK. The Commission for Educational Quality and Accountability runs it. The commission hires outside experts to review teacher training at state colleges. A college program applies, and if it is approved it gets a grant to take part and to pay the reviewer. The review looks at how the program recruits trainees and how many finish, how well it prepares them, whether it meets the state's need for teachers, and how it might reach people who come by a less usual route. The program then has ninety days to say how it will act on what the review found. The act points to routes such as school aides training on the job to become teachers. One program is picked for $500,000 to carry out its plan, if the money is there. The commission reports to state leaders by the end of 2027. The Oklahoma House passed it 51-29. It became law without the Governor's signature.

May 22, 2025Supports Public Education Quality

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 758. It limits how many days of online lessons a school may count as class time. Oklahoma schools must hold 180 days of classroom instruction, or 1,080 hours. From the 2026-2027 school year, a day when school is shut and lessons go online no longer counts toward that total. One narrow exception is left. A district may count up to two such days, or twelve hours, but only if three things line up. The state superintendent must have approved the district's virtual plan. The Governor must have declared an emergency that bears on how schools run. And the local board must approve the closure. The plan must say how the district will teach students on a disability plan, feed students, and carry students to technology center courses. Full-time virtual schools are outside the rule. The state must report each year which districts shut and why. The Oklahoma House passed it 53-32. The Governor signed it.

April 29, 2025Supports Public Education Quality

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 139. It made every school district ban student phones for one school year. For the 2025-2026 school year, each school board had to adopt a policy. The policy had to stop students using phones and personal devices on campus from the first bell to the last bell. It also had to say how the rule would be enforced. For later school years the act only says a board may adopt such a policy. So the requirement lasted one year and then became a choice. Personal devices include smart watches, smart headphones, laptops, tablets and smart glasses. Devices the school hands out for class work do not count. A board may write in exceptions. The act names two: an emergency, and a student who uses a device to track a health problem. The Oklahoma House passed it 51-39. The Governor signed it.

April 29, 2025Supports Public Education Quality

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1393. It gives parents a signed say before a child in special education is moved to a different set of tests. Some students with a disability are tested against alternate standards rather than the standards their year group is taught to. The act makes the State Board of Education write a separate consent form for that choice. The form goes to the parent in the parent's own language. It has to explain the benefits, the risks and what the choice means in law. It has to say plainly that refusing means the child sits the regular district and state tests with help, and is taught to the general standards. It carries a consent box and a refusal box, each with a signature line. A district may not go ahead without consent unless it records real efforts to reach the parent and the parent does not answer, or unless it wins a due process hearing. If the district wants to change the child's plan on this point, it must hold a meeting with the parent and give five school days' notice. The Oklahoma House passed it 71-23. The Governor signed it.

March 26, 2025Supports Public Education Quality

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 1027. It adds rules for citizen petitions that put a new law or a change to the state constitution on the ballot. Each signature page carries a short summary of the measure. That summary must now use plain words. It may not use trade terms, code words or wording meant to mislead, and it may not argue for or against the measure. It must say whether the measure would cost the state money and where the money would come from. The Secretary of State checks each summary and may reject it. Anyone gathering signatures must be a registered Oklahoma voter. They must post a notice saying whether they are paid and by whom. They may not be paid by the signature. Only people and groups who live or do business in Oklahoma may pay for signature gathering. Those who spend money on it must report every week, and the state posts the reports online. A signature now counts as a promise that the signer read the summary in full or had it read to them. Signers may ask to have their names taken off. Signatures from any one county count only up to a limit. The limit is 11.5 percent of that county's votes for Governor for a new law, and 20.8 percent for a change to the constitution. So a petition needs signers spread across the state. The act took effect as soon as it was signed. The Oklahoma House passed it 69-23. The Governor signed it.

May 7, 2025Supports Election Integrity

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 11, 2026

Voted for House Bill 2764. It cuts the state income tax and sets a path to cut it again. The act rewrites the income tax table from the 2026 tax year. Six brackets become four. The top rate falls from 4.75 percent to 4.5 percent. The first $3,750 of taxable income is taxed at nothing, or $7,500 for a couple filing together. The act then sets a trigger for further cuts. Each February the State Board of Equalization weighs tax collections against a base year. If they have grown past a set threshold, every rate falls by another quarter of a percentage point. That can repeat until the rates reach zero. If the state declares a revenue failure, the cut waits for a later reading of the figures. The Oklahoma House passed it 74-19. The Governor signed it.

May 20, 2025Supports Personal Income Tax Reduction

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 504. It ends marriage before the age of eighteen. Before the act, someone under eighteen could marry if a parent or guardian agreed. Someone under sixteen could marry if a judge agreed. A judge could agree in two cases. One was to settle a court case over paternity. The other was where the girl was pregnant or had given birth. The act deletes all of that. From November 1, 2026, only a person who is at least eighteen may marry. The rule against marrying a close relative stays. The Oklahoma House passed it 51-36. It became law without the Governor's signature.

May 6, 2026Supports Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 658. It stops the state child welfare agency from ruling out foster or adoptive parents over their beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity. The act tells the Department of Human Services three things it may not do. Each turns on a parent's sincerely held religious or moral beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity. It may not make a parent affirm a government policy that conflicts with those beliefs. It may not refuse approval because of those beliefs. That holds even where the parent means to raise a child in line with them. And it may not rule such a parent out for a particular child on those grounds. The department may still weigh the beliefs of the child and of the child's own family. Every placement must still serve the child's best interest. The Oklahoma House passed it 68-19. The Governor signed it.

May 6, 2025Opposes Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 991. It adopts a set definition of anti-Semitism for the state to work from. The state adopts a working definition of anti-Semitism. It is the one agreed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2016, with the examples set out in it. The definition is not binding law on its own. It may be used only as a guide. The uses named are training, education, spotting hate crimes and bias, and tracking reports of anti-Semitic incidents. The act says it does not limit any right protected by the First Amendment or by the state constitution. The Oklahoma House passed it 62-24. The Governor signed it.

April 30, 2025Supports Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 942. It bars discrimination in schools and colleges and treats anti-Semitism as a form of it. The act bans discrimination in public schools and state colleges. It covers students and workers alike. The grounds listed are race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, disability, religion and marital status. Classes, guidance, counseling and financial help must be open to all students on the same terms. Teaching aimed at students learning English, gifted students or students with disabilities is not affected. Nor is any Indian education program. Schools and colleges must also put a set definition of anti-Semitism into their codes of conduct. It is the one agreed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. They must treat anti-Semitic harassment as they treat harassment based on race. The state school department and the college regents must each name a coordinator. The coordinator takes complaints, looks into them, and gives a school thirty days to put things right. If a school does not, the coordinator reports it to the federal government. The act says it does not limit free speech. The Oklahoma House passed it 56-29. The Governor signed it.

April 30, 2025Supports Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 364. It widens the ban on paddling students with disabilities. Corporal punishment means causing pain on purpose, such as hitting, paddling or spanking. The old law barred school staff from doing this to only some students. It covered students with the most severe thinking and learning disabilities. Even then, the student's yearly school plan could allow it. The act now covers any student who has a disability under federal special education law, and the school plan can no longer allow it. It also deletes a rule that let a parent sign a form allowing the punishment anyway. A yes vote was a vote to widen the ban and drop that parent form. The Oklahoma House passed it 63-25. It became law without the Governor's signature.

April 30, 2025Supports Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 1443. It tells health plans to take account of how sick a patient is when they pay for anesthesia. Anesthesia is the medicine that puts a patient to sleep or blocks pain for an operation. When a plan decides whether that care was needed and what to pay for it, the act makes it weigh two things. The first is the patient's physical condition, graded on a standard scale by the treating doctor. The second is how complex and how urgent the care was, again as the treating doctor judges it. The act then fixes what the sickest patients are worth in payment terms. A patient with severe disease adds one base unit, one whose disease is a constant threat to life adds two, and one not expected to survive without the operation adds three. Plans that cover Medicaid members under a separate state act are outside this rule. The Oklahoma House passed it 68-17. The Governor signed it.

May 5, 2026Supports Corporate Accountability

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 10, 2026