Oklahoma lawmaker defeats meddlesome federal regulation limiting size of church signs

OPINION:

A little-noticed but significant amendment to a spending bill has liberated churches from a certain pesky federal regulation.

Earlier this month, the House accepted an amendment by Rep. Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma Republican, that blocks the U.S. Department of Transportation from enforcing a long-standing federal regulation that limits the size of church signs to eight square feet; Oklahoma law allows such signs to be 32 square feet.

The Federal Highway Administration had pressured Oklahoma’s transportation authority to order churches to remove signs that did not conform to the size limit. Mr. Mullin’s church was among those which received a notice to comply with the rule within 90 days. His amendment now allows existing signs to remain in the state without risking the loss of federal highway funds; it was attached to the appropriations bill and signifies an initial victory for freedom of expression.

“My amendment would allow churches and civic organizations to keep their signs that are larger than 8 square feet,” Mr. Mullin said on the House floor. “This is a reasonable amendment. It would be beneficial to the safety of the traveling public and allow our federal government to focus its resources on more critical infrastructure uses. We need to be focusing on repairing our roads and bridges, not tearing down church signs.”

Mr. Mullin added: “Our churches and our civic organizations have better ways to spend their limited resources than tearing down signs. Our states would have more time on their hands to be looking at our roads and bridges if they didn’t have to go out and enforce a law that our state doesn’t even want.”