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The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022.

Review of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #12 of The Tap, which was published on April 18, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

Congress missed the April 15 deadline to pass a budget, which was set under the Congressional Budget Act. According to CBS News, “The budget fight has its roots in last year's bipartisan budget deal with President Barack Obama, which required Democratic votes to pass and added more than $100 billion over two years to agency coffers hit by automatic budget curbs known in Washington-speak as sequestration.” Congress can still pass a budget, but it seems unlikely that the proposed budget will have the support of tea party Republicans and most Democrats.
FILING DEADLINE: Oklahoma congressional filing deadline
- There are five U.S. House seats in Oklahoma. Currently, all are held by Republicans.
- The U.S. Senate seat currently held by James Lankford (R) will be up for election in 2016. Lankford is running for re-election and will face no primary opponent in June. Oklahoma’s U.S. Senate race is rated safely Republican.
- All five U.S. House incumbents are seeking re-election in 2016, and they will all face at least one primary opponent. All five seats are rated safely Republican in the general election.
- Ballotpedia will update our candidate lists early next week with the official lists from Friday's filing.

The Kentucky General Assembly adjourned its regular session. Sessions in even-numbered years can last no more than 60 legislative days and must be concluded by April 15. Kentucky is one of 20 states under divided government. Republicans control the governor’s office and the Senate by 16 seats, while Democrats control the House by six seats. The state House is the only state legislative chamber in the South currently controlled by the Democratic Party. The Kentucky House has been identified by Ballotpedia as one of 20 top legislature battlegrounds in 2016.

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam (R) vetoed a bill that would have established the Christian Bible as the state's official book. "This bill trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text," Haslam wrote in a letter to the speaker of the House explaining his decision. The bill had been approved by the Republican-led legislature earlier this month. Opponents have called the bill unconstitutional, while supporters point to the state's multimillion dollar Bible-publishing industry. Tennessee is one of 23 Republican trifectas.

The deadline to submit signatures for all initiative petitions in Utah passed. This means that proponents of the marijuana legalization initiative would have had to submit about 102,000 signatures by today to get their measure legalizing medical marijuana on the ballot. Two days earlier, however, the group behind the initiative announced that it would abandon its signature-gathering effort and focus on lobbying the Utah Legislature in 2017 to pass a medical marijuana bill. The state legislature considered two bills concerning medical marijuana in 2016, but, following opposition from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, neither was approved. Marijuana-related measures are certified for the ballot in Nevada and Florida and were proposed in over a dozen other states.

Filing deadline: Oklahoma
- State legislatures: There are 25 state Senate and 101 state House seats up for election. Both chambers are firmly held by Republicans. Oklahoma has a Republican governor, making it one of 23 states with a Republican trifecta.
- State executives: One seat on the Corporation Commission, the state's public service regulatory agency, is up for election in 2016. All three seats on the commission are currently held by Republicans.

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #11 of The Tap, which was published on April 11, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

FILING DEADLINE: Oklahoma congressional filing deadline
- There are five U.S. House seats in Oklahoma. Currently, all are held by Republicans.
- The U.S. Senate seat currently held by James Lankford (R) will be up for election in 2016.
- All six congressional seats up for election in Oklahoma are rated safely Republican.

FILING DEADLINE: Oklahoma
- State legislatures: There are 25 state Senate and 101 state House seats up for election. Both chambers are firmly held by Republicans. Oklahoma has a Republican governor, making it one of 23 states with a Republican trifecta.
- State executives: One seat is up for election on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the state’s public utilities regulatory board. Incumbent Dana Murphy (R) is seeking re-election to her third term.