A childcare law championed by Oklahoma legislator Suzanne Schreiber owes its origins to the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s annual OneVoice Regional Legislative Summit, she told attendees.

“…Childcare is a huge issue for families and businesses,” she said Wednesday at the Summit at Discovery Lab. “That surfaced right at these tables and got put on the Tulsa Chamber (OneVoice Regional Legislative Summit) agenda.”

Schreiber, a Democrat from Tulsa, detailed the value of the Summit before about 200 fellow event participants. Providing a national overview while speaking virtually was Ashlee Rich Stephenson, a senior political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

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

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

Wednesday’s Summit attendees added 16 new priorities to the 14 already on the OneVoice Agenda, which will guide Chamber advocacy throughout 2026.

The childcare bill originally written by Schreiber seeks to recruit and retain quality early childhood teachers by providing early childhood educators with no-cost childcare. The bill became law earlier this year after the legislature overrode Gov. Kevin Stitt’s veto.

“What elevating it through the business community has done is allow us to establish that it is part of a vibrant economy,” Schreiber said of the legislation. “It is part of the economic growth, stability. It is not just something that is over here and the family side that people will figure out.

“Childcare is workforce infrastructure. Period, full stop. This room and the folks here, coming to the Capitol, having these conversations, advocating for that, saying that from a business perspective, completely changed the conversation.”

Stephenson said she’s often asked when politics are going to get back to normal nationally.

“Normal, as we know it, is far, far in the rear-view mirror,” she said. “In 11 of the last 13 federal election cycles, from 2000-24, there has been a change in terms of who’s in charge of the White House, the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House of Representatives. So, the political pendulum is swinging aggressively back and forth.”

The strategist added, however, that it would be a mistake for voters to withdraw from the goings-on in Washington D.C.

“The way that we see the world is that politics absolutely equals policy,” Stephenson said. “So, more than ever, we have to continue to lean in.

“Thanks to all that you do from an advocacy perspective to encourage the right types of candidates to run, to support those who will be good for business.”

State priorities on the 2026 OneVoice Agenda are: continue to foster healthy partnerships among the 38 federally recognized tribes and the State of Oklahoma; implement policies to expedite deployment of critical energy infrastructure; expand healthcare workforce opportunities; expand support for working families; support Oklahoma’s film and music industries; continue and increase investment in site readiness; support critically needed transportation funding; create a dedicated funding stream for economic development; strengthen accessible and workforce housing; ensure adequate funding for municipalities; address mental health and homelessness funding modification; increase appropriations to the trauma care assistance revolving fund; increase the Oklahoma Department of Tourism’s promotional fund; create a sustainable future for workforce development and higher education in Oklahoma and support strategic investments in public education.

Federal priorities on the 2026 OneVoice Agenda are: support critically needed transportation funding; pursue Congressionally directed spending requests; accelerate permitting of energy and infrastructure projects; support the permanent extension of the ACA’s current premium tax credits; expand availability of quality, affordable childcare; preserve and expand federal historic tax credits; increase the supply of accessible and workforce housing; support timely improvements to U.S. 412 to bring the corridor up to interstate standards; encourage renewal of the American Indian Lands Tax Credit; support downtown revitalization efforts to address the housing shortage; increase funding for hospitals and healthcare entities; protect and strengthen the healthcare workforce; support the Tulsa Space Center; reform federal financial aid; modernize federal immigration policy to attract and retain global talent and pursue all funding to address infrastructure needs and support federal reauthorization of surface transportation.

Both state and federal priorities are pending approval by the Chamber’s Board of Directors.