Timing?

I assume there's some significance in the post-election timing of all this?

Just guessing, but I expect someone (maybe Buster Robertson, possibly Willis Overby, probably both) convinced Eugene to hold off on this until after the primary. Ernest "It's for the cheeldrun" Lankford voted for the move and he was supposedly in trouble with voters over it. That's just another illustration of how teflon-coated Ernest is.