Oklahoma’s legislative process has a number of built-in brakes to stop good bills and bad.

The first and most effective killer of legislation is the committee process. Bills are routinely assigned to committees and, under the normal rules, need the committee’s endorsement to move forward. That means a committee chairman can kill a proposal simply by never giving it a hearing. Or it can get a hearing and be voted down.

In 2011, I analyzed a year’s worth of introduced legislation and found that in the state House, 78.7% of bills that didn’t make it into law either didn’t get a hearing in committee or were rejected in committee. In the Senate, 74.7% of unsuccessful bills didn’t get past the initial committee process. Those numbers will vary from year to year, but every year, a lot of legislation gets left at the starting line.

While the biggest test for most legislation is the first one, the most critical moment in the legislative process comes later: As in right now.

The House has passed all the bills written by representatives — House bills — that it’s going to consider this year, and the Senate has passed all the Senate bills. All those House bills have traveled across the Capitol rotunda to the Senate to start over in another committee. Same thing, opposite direction for the Senate bills. Both chambers must approve the exact same language for a bill to proceed.

A few years ago, at about this moment in the process, a top legislative leader told a Tulsa Regional Chamber breakfast that it’s time for the House leadership to kill all the bad ideas sent over by the Senate, and the Senate to kill all the bad ideas sent over by the House.

It was a moment of honesty that reflected what happens almost every year.

There are a lot of bills that are still live rounds that most legislators and probably the leadership know wouldn’t be good for the state, although they may have voted for some of them.

The bills survived because the leadership couldn’t afford politically to be against them or needed the author’s support on some other issue. They’re counting on those bad-idea bills to disappear into the dark recess of the opposite chamber.

There are a lot of bad ideas out there.

House Bill 2504 would strip Tulsa and Oklahoma county health departments of much of their independence but still expect Tulsa and Oklahoma county taxpayers to foot the bill. It’s a bad bill, but it made it through the House. It’s time for the Senate to lose it.

Passing the buck to the other chamber is a dangerous game. Bad ideas sometimes become bad laws.

That’s where ordinary citizens can make a huge difference.

When I first wrote about HB 2504 I got several emails from readers who wanted to know what they could do.

It may sound trite, but the answer is: Call your legislators. Email them, too.

You can find out who your legislator is by using a tool at the bottom of the state House home page: okhouse.gov. The site will link you to telephone numbers and email addresses.

Call the Capitol. Know what you’re going to say before you dial the phone. Ask to speak to the legislator, but be willing to leave your message with the legislative assistant. Part of that person’s job is to report on constituent calls. Be brief, friendly and honest. Say that you are a voting constituent. Let them know that you are paying attention to this issue, and what you think should be done. If the legislative assistant offers to have your legislator return the call, accept it.

Then email the same message.

Then tell your friends to do the same.

I’ve been told by Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate that five genuine contacts from constituents on a single bill is a groundswell of interest. Ten is an overwhelming groundswell. They pay attention.

Two Tulsa County senators, Dave Rader of Tulsa and John Haste of Broken Arrow, could make a big difference on the health department bill. They’re both reasonable Republicans who Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat needs to listen to. Haste is on the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. HB 2504 hasn’t been assigned, but that committee seems like a likely landing spot.

Sen. Jo Anna Dossett of Tulsa is on that committee, too, although as a Democrat she doesn’t have the clout of a Rader or a Haste. If you live in her district, tell her what you think.

If you have friends in Oklahoma City, get them to contact Treat. He’s a reasonable guy, and the Oklahoma County Health Department’s independence is at risk, too.

The chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee is Greg McCortney of Ada. I always caution people against calling legislators from other districts. Nonconstituent phone calls are discounted heavily. But if you know people from Ada, get them to call McCortney. Have them mention that the state Health Department has more money to spend in Pontotoc County because the Tulsa and Oklahoma County departments are essentially self-supporting.

This isn’t the only time to kill HB 2504, but it’s the most opportune time, because it can be done quietly by a few people. The longer a bad idea hangs around, the more likely it is to become a bad law.

Word of the day: realpolitik — a word that rose from 19th-century Germany to describe governmental and diplomatic moves based on realistic pragmatism rather than ideals. Otto von Bismarck and Lyndon Johnson have been described as masters of the craft by admirers and critics.

Tulsa-area state legislators and how to contact them