OKLAHOMA CITY – The state’s 57th Legislature met one of its first major milestones before the upcoming session.

Oklahoma’s lawmakers gather for two-year sessions, meaning that bills from the first can carry over into the next. During the first year, the legislation is fresh and newly drafted. Members file all of their bills before they convene on the first day of February.

The deadline for finished legislation was Thursday, and lawmakers filed more than 2,800 measures that could be considered in the coming months. Many of them are so-called shell bills, which lack substantive texts but hold the place of legislation to be pitched at a later date. However, many of the bills filed so far carry out the goals that the state’s highest-ranking members laid out in the weeks preceding the deadline.

Republican leaders have touted a few major policy goals for the year in press conferences, interviews and other public addresses. Like Gov. Kevin Stitt, Republican members committed to increasing agency oversight and accountability. Criminal justice reform issues continue to top priority lists. Several lawmakers, including education committee chairmen, pitched measures that would implement some of Stitt’s recommendations for teacher recruitment and retention, which mirror private-sector practices. And scores of marijuana bills would address issues that have arisen since Oklahomans passed State Question 788.

The first bill filed in the Oklahoma Senate would create the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency, or LOFT. Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat has worked on this policy for several months, starting in part with an interim study on how other states structure similar oversight offices. Staffers in the office would answer to a bicameral legislative committee, conduct performance reviews to assess agency effectiveness and collect extensive documentation to study agencies year-round. Several high-ranking Republicans signed on as co-authors, including House Speaker Charles McCall.

House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols and state Rep. Jason Dunnington, D-Oklahoma City, filed a bill that would implement one of the most widely sought criminal justice reform measures among the movement’s supporters. House Bill 1269 would make State Question 780 retroactive. Voters passed that measure in 2016, and it reclassified several low-level drug possession and property crimes as misdemeanors instead of felonies. The bill would require courts to resentence any residents who are currently in prison or other forms of state monitoring for crimes that were reclassified under that 2016 policy change.

House Education Committee Chairwoman Rhonda Baker filed several bills for the 2019 session, including House Bill 2645. It would create a one-time incentive bonus for certified teachers returning to public schools. School districts would be allowed to give up to $5,000 per teacher, and the State Department of Education would be required to match the contribution. To qualify, teachers would have be in good standing when they left their position, and they would have to be out of the field for two years or more.

Lawmakers filed more than 60 bills regarding marijuana policies for 2019. Some of those are shell bills with titles that mention marijuana but lack any real language within them. Sen. Greg McCortney, R-Ada, was a chairman on the Legislature’s bipartisan, bicameral committee on State Question 788 after its passage. He authored several bills that address concerns the health community raised during the question’s campaign. Senate Bill 756, for example, requires marijuana packaging to be child-resistant. Senate Bill 765 adds marijuana products to the state’s ban on smoking in public places.

State Sen. Casey Murdock, R-Felt, introduced a measure that would allow counties to opt out of allowing medical marijuana sales. Senate Bill 325 would require those counties to hold an election to prohibit marijuana dispensaries.