# Oklahoma proposes anti-food bank bill \[Now in the BBQ Pit\] **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 6, 2026, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450 "2026-02-06T19:49:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/1 "2026-02-06T19:49:29Z")
In short, it would force food banks/pantries to check people to make sure they are U.S. citizens before giving them aid: [Proposed bill could force non-profits and churches to turn away people based their immigration status](https://kfor.com/news/local/proposed-bill-could-force-non-profits-and-churches-to-turn-away-people-based-their-immigration-status/) This is despicable and craven, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/2 "2026-02-06T19:54:44Z")
Yup, evil. Reading through that article, it sounds like they, ostensibly, want to stop NGOs _who receive funding from the government_ from doing work that benefits undocumented immigrants. However, the article also says, “The bill continues saying that any NGO member who provides aid could face a fine of up to $50,000 or a felony that carries up to five years in prison” – and it’s not clear if that’s regardless of whether or not they receive government funds: > [@](#): > > “There has to be some kind of something that holds these NGO’s from taking taxpayer dollars and spending it where it’s not appropriate. Now, that’s why it has reckless in there, ” Senator Grellner explained. > > “If NGO’s want to spend their own money doing those kind of things, that’s one thing. But they can’t use taxpayer dollars for it,” Grellner said. > > The bill doesn’t specifically state that NGO’s using non-state or local funding won’t be subject to the repercussions listed in the bill. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/3 "2026-02-06T19:59:38Z")
> There has to be some kind of something that holds these NGO’s from taking taxpayer dollars and spending it where it’s not appropriate. Now, that’s why it has reckless in there, ” Senator Grellner explained. Undocumented. Immigrants. Are. Taxpayers. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/4 "2026-02-06T20:00:43Z")
They. Don’t. Give. A. Flying. Fuck. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/5 "2026-02-06T20:05:56Z")
In my fantasy world, Christians will wake up one day and realize that the Republican party line of “private charities should handle the social safety net, not the government” is a lie, and that Republicans just want poor people to die. Alas… ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/6 "2026-02-06T20:13:35Z")
_“Give me your tired, your poor,_ _Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,_ _The wretched refuse of your teeming shore._ _Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,_ _I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”_ … and then incarcerate them, deny them their rights of humanity and send them back to whatever shithole country they came from. Merkinland for the merkinlanders. Foreigners out. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/7 "2026-02-06T23:57:09Z")
That sounds like something they would propose in Oklahoma. It’s disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/8 "2026-02-07T00:10:25Z")
This seems like it fits rather nicely here: _“You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”_ –Anne Lamott And my addition: I think the last decade +/- proved something to us: faith – the belief in things for which there simply is no evidence – is NOT benign (as the adherents would have us believe). It can be extremely harmful. It can tear a country apart. It can pave the way for an Authoritarian Head of State. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/9 "2026-02-07T00:10:32Z")
One might wonder what religion these fine folks are and if they ever read a single fucking thing that their god said, but that is the path to madness… ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/10 "2026-02-07T00:13:30Z")
One more: _"Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.”_ –Isaac Asimov ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/11 "2026-02-07T00:17:11Z")
There have been plenty of stories, some apocryphal, others probably not, about a pastor preaching from the Beatitudes and getting called “woke” after the service. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/12 "2026-02-07T00:19:30Z")
It may be relevant to mention that the federal government recently released a raft of grants to “combat human trafficking.” They want a means to effectively identify trafficked victims. I can’t imagine why. All the grants these days are laden with language about how recipients of funds have to cooperate with DHS regarding “removable aliens,” which for the kind of work I do is actually against the law. Then there are the Executive Orders declaring that any use of funds - whether they are government funds or not - to do what they call “illegal DEI” is now considered defrauding the US government. New funding priority? -Serving American Victims of Crime. Can’t imagine how you can apply to that priority without checking the immigration status of your clients, which, as I mentioned before _is illegal_. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/13 "2026-02-07T00:57:24Z")
The other day, the pope criticized the administration’s immigration policies by referencing the Bible, specifically Matthew 25:35. Now, I am the furthest thing from a Christian but I can Google and it says, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” So Speaker of the House Mike Johnson responds by saying that’s meant to apply to “individuals, not to the civil authorities.” (Aren’t he and the rest of the Republican leadership individuals? Plus I suspect the writers of that paragraph meant it to apply to society as a whole.) And then he mentions Romans 13. That one says, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.” First of all, that paragraph also refers to rulers, so I don’t think the writers ever imagined something called “democracy.” And then the very next paragraph includes the “Love your neighbor as yourself” bit. In short Mike Johnson and his ilk seem to believe in picking and choosing which Bible verse to justify their actions. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/14 "2026-02-07T00:58:06Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > This is despicable and craven, in my opinion. Have any of them actually read the bible? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/15 "2026-02-07T01:11:44Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > for there is no authority except that which God has established. So what Mike Johnson really meant was that trump is god’s chosen instrument to rule the USA with an iron, but brain dead, fist. Nice work Mike. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/16 "2026-02-07T01:13:44Z")
Moderating: This thread is rife with politics. Moving to P&E. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/17 "2026-02-07T02:22:06Z")
Here’s the text: > **[SB1554%20INT.PDF](https://www.oklegislature.gov/cf_pdf/2025-26%20INT/SB/SB1554%20INT.PDF)** > > 49.84 KB As I read it, every non-profit hospital in the state would have to close. Federal law (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) requires them to treat the undocumented in order to receive federal funds (Medicare). And the state would send hospital staff to prison for complying. For profit hospitals would still be allowed. I doubt this will pass. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/18 "2026-02-07T02:55:04Z")
And the hospitals would be sued to bankruptcy as the first part of triage would become establishing the citizenship of every non-white patient instead of giving them emergency care. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/19 "2026-02-07T03:49:15Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Federal law (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) requires them to treat the undocumented in order to receive federal funds (Medicare). And the state would send hospital staff to prison for complying. My agency is effectively in the same bind. We are subject to federal law that forbids us from demanding any identification information at all from victims of crime. But the Trump administration thinks every law including existing federal law should be secondary to immigration law. It’s wild. > [@PhillyGuy](#): > > For profit hospitals would still be allowed. Ah, the true motive is revealed. Yet another way to destroy government services and then complain that they don’t work. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450/20 "2026-02-07T03:52:58Z")
And how is someone supposed to know which hospitals are for-profit? Will they have a sign by the front door? Probably not. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oklahoma-proposes-anti-food-bank-bill-now-in-the-bbq-pit/1027450.md?page=2)