A thought-intensive process that started in August and mobilized seven task forces that met a total of 21 times culminated Thursday at the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s OneVoice Regional Legislative Summit. 

Before about 225 people at Venue 918, collaborators and partners representing the OneVoice advocacy initiative settled on 30 legislative priorities for 2025. 

“As a small-business person for 35 years leading up to my time in Congress, I can tell you that you don’t have time as an individual to go around lobbying for issues that matter to you,” U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern told summit attendees. “That’s why it’s important to have strong chambers to create this thing we call OneVoice. So, it’s really good to have everybody here working together (Thursday).” 

As it does every year, OneVoice selected its priorities through the collaboration ofmore than 500 people representing hundreds of businesses and more than 75 chambers of commerce, municipalities, counties and economic development organizations. 

Task forces met throughout the fall to generate policy positions on key issues,picking seven to target at both the state and federal levels. 

Attendees at Thursday’s summit selected a total of 16 more priorities to add to the 14 already on the OneVoice Agenda, which will guide Chamber advocacythroughout 2025. 

Joining Hern as a speaker was Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell, who played up Oklahoma strengths, such as affordability, high quality of life and net migration growth, which ranks ninth nationally. 

“That’s a real flex for us as a state,” Pinnell said. “The migration to the middle of the country is real, ladies and gentlemen. It is happening. There are people leaving anti-business states. They want to go find America again and are showing up in Oklahoma. 

“…They are showing up here. That doesn’t mean they stay here if they don’t like what they get. We have to deliver once they show up because if we don’t deliver, they are going to Bentonville, Arkansas. They are going to Des Moines, Iowa. They are going to Lincoln, Nebraska.” 

State priorities on the 2025 OneVoice Agenda are the advanced mobility cluster; implementing policies to expedite deployment of critical energy infrastructure; modernizing the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act to authorize remote participation of voting members without requiring every member to be in a location physically accessible to the public; health care workforce expansion; increasing the Oklahoma Department of Tourism’s promotional fund; supporting critically needed transportation and K-12 funding and governance; supporting legislation to create a governing board for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce; modernizing state housing laws; addressing children’s mental health; supporting Oklahoma’s film and music industries; modernizing, connecting and broadening the region’s industrial and logistics ecosystem to drive economic growth; supporting dedicated funding for addressing high-priority structurally deficient off-system bridges; creating a sustainable future for workforce development and higher education; and expanding supports for working families. 

Pinnell said lawmakers need to use some of Oklahoma’s $4 billion surplus for infrastructure and education, adding that is too much money to leave “sitting on the sideline. 

“You’ve got all the tools; Tulsa’s got all the tools that we need to be a world-class city. We already are. Let’s tell the positive stories while fixing things down at 23rdand Lincoln (address of the state Capitol in Oklahoma City), and your OneVoice Agenda is going to help us do that.”

Federal priorities on the 2025 OneVoice Agenda are supporting reauthorization of the Economic Development Administration (EDA) and Program Funding to accelerate permitting of energy and infrastructure projects; supporting businesses under new federal cybersecurity provisions; protecting and strengthening the health care workforce; designating Route 66 as a national historic trail; supporting timely implementation of improvements to U.S. 412 to meet interstate standards; expanding the availability of quality, affordable childcare; supporting and expanding federal place-based initiatives; encouraging the renewal of the American Indian Lands Tax Credit; encouraging more affordable housing; supporting federal historic tax credits; supporting funding for the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System; reforming federal financial aid; supporting federal immigration reform; and pursuing funding to address infrastructure needs and supporting federal reauthorization of surface transportation.

“We’re in a capitalist marketplace,” Hern said. “Entrepreneurs have the opportunity to chase the American Dream. I’d give anybody a hundred bucks if you’ve ever heard the statement the Chinese Dream, the Ukrainian Dream, the Croatian Dream, the German Dream.

“It’s about the American Dream. That’s why people come from all over the world because they know folks like yourself with an idea and a thousand bucks can start a job, can create a company. You can create jobs for others. That’s why it’s so important that we come together, network like we’re doing here.. ”