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It's that time of year again. The legislative session is fast approaching and activity at the Oklahoma State Capitol is gaining momentum.

House members spent January in many Appropriations & Budget subcommittees hearings to consider the budget requests from each of our agencies, boards and commissions that receive state funding. These budget hearings, although held before the legislative session begins, play a huge role in our budget process. Lawmakers are able to ask numerous questions about agencies' responsibilities and needs, as well as any upcoming issues that may affect their budget.

Last week, we heard from the "Big Six" state agencies: OK Dept. of Transportation, OK Management and Enterprise Serves, OK State Regents for Higher Education, OK State Dept. of Education, OK Dept. of Human Services and OK Health Care Authority. These six agencies receive the largest portion of our state budget, and, as such, they have several hours to present their budget to allow for more questions by lawmakers.

These meetings were particularly insightful for me this year because I was recently named vice chair of the House Appropriations & Budget Committee, which oversees the House's budget negotiations with the Senate and the governor.

As elected officials responsible for the oversight of your taxpayer funds, it's essential that we are meticulous with how those funds are used. Oklahoma taxpayers entrust us with these funds, and we must ensure that they are used efficiently.

I'm very optimistic about the opportunities we have this year to work with the Senate. Both the House and Senate have new leadership this year, which has resulted in consistent communication between chambers even before session began.

Speaker Kyle Hilbert is our new House speaker and recently introduced a new committee structure that gives more authority to the important role our legislative committees play in the lawmaking process.

House committees will now have a two-tiered structure with committees and oversight committees. The new setup will allow legislation to be more thoroughly vetted and deliberated at the committee level before bills reach the floor. We have had a similar process in place for appropriations, which had several subcommittees considering various policy topics before passing bills to the appropriations committee, so this process will be similar.

Our legislative session begins on Monday, February 3, with the governor's State of the State address. Gov. Stitt will share his policy priorities and submit his budget proposal for this session. I look forward to hearing his ideas and working with him throughout the next few months.

It is such an honor and privilege to represent you at the State Capitol. I want to encourage any constituent with questions or concerns regarding legislation to reach out to my office at (405) 557-7358 or at john.kane@okhouse.gov.

John Kane, a Republican, serves House District 11 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which covers Tulsa and Washington counties.