Photo Gallery

The Dormer Family from Edmond came to Washington, DC, for a family vacation and stopped by my office as Kevin retired from the Air Force. Our nation is incredibly grateful for the men, women, and families that sacrifice so much for our nation.

I recently met with leadership from Tulsa’s Navistar manufacturing then had the opportunity to tour their facility this past week and see their operation in full swing. They are building the school buses our kids will safely ride on in the future.

Altus Public School leadership and other community leaders from Altus were in Washington, DC, as we worked together for a new building for Rivers Elementary on Altus Air force Base. Because it’s on a US Air Force installation, I secured available funding to renovate and update the old school facility, which is falling into serious disrepair. The new facility will be up to the quality standards our military families deserve.

Always great to see navy blue corduroy jackets around the US Capitol as the Future Farmers of America visit the Hill. They are some of the brightest and kindest young people we see at the Capitol each year.

I sat in the front left seat of a CymSTAR C-5 simulator to practice taking off and landing from the safety of Tulsa. CymSTAR is another reason Oklahoma is well known for our aviation innovation and manufacturing. This simulator saves the federal taxpayer millions of dollars each year and allows our Air Force pilots to safely sharpen their skills in multiple environments. No, I did not crash the simulator, but everyone present confirmed their belief that I am not a pilot.

My office and I have great respect for United Way and the amazing work they do as a nonprofit serving our communities. I was humbled to be recognized by United Way as a national leader for nonprofits. We continue to encourage people to give to nonprofits and protect their ability to serve.

I got to catch up with some of the great folks from Tulsa’s ABC contractors when they visited Washington, DC, recently. They have first-hand knowledge of the challenges of building and hiring in this economy. 

I joined leadership and workers at Phillips 66 in Tulsa to hear from them and answer their questions about the issues important to them in Washington, DC.

It's always great to visit with our firefighters and first responders, and the Tulsa Fire Department works hard to keep our community safe daily. Thank a firefighter when you see them. They're ready when we need them most.

Dear Oklahoma friends and neighbors:

The first week of summer is officially here, and I hope everyone is able to get out and enjoy our beautiful (but hot) state and nation. Our nation’s birthday, July 4, is right around the corner. As a nation, we have much to be grateful for. The freedom to enjoy time with our family, while our military, law enforcement and first responders keep us safe, is not something we should forget.

Unfortunately, Oklahomans are trying to figure out how to pay monthly bills, rather than just go out and have fun this July 4. Gas and grocery prices are way up after Biden’s “COVID relief free money” devastated our economy and created the inflation we are all suffering under. Biden continues to block energy investment in pipelines, refineries and drilling permits which is cutting oil and gas supplies and driving up prices. Inflation will remain out of control until our energy prices come down. Our team has worked for months pushing specific solutions to this energy crisis.

CLICK HERE to watch my speech on the Senate floor to give the Senate and the Biden Administration practical solutions for addressing inflation and high gas prices.

President Biden has tried every gimmick in the book to bring down energy prices, other than increasing the supply of oil and gas from the United States. He’s tried mandating more ethanol, reducing tariffs on foreign manufactured solar panels, releasing a million barrels of oil from our emergency Strategic Petroleum Reserve, begging Saudi Arabia for more oil production and now an 18-cent “gas tax holiday” for three months (which will add billions to our national debt). Gasoline is up more than $2 a gallon under his Administration. America needs more American energy supply to get the prices back to where it was just two years ago. We are Americans. We can produce energy cleaner and produce more energy than anywhere else on earth, if government will get out of the way. 

Supreme Court Decisions 

For the past several years, I have worked to confirm judges and justices that will just follow the Constitution and the law. This week, we saw the justices of the Supreme Court clearly speak out for our rights.

Today is a historic day for our nation and for life. After praying, speaking, and challenging our nation for years to see the value of every child.

Many Americans are celebrating the biggest win for life in a generation when the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey to allow decisions about abortions to return to elected representatives. In its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Court ruled that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and that the authority to protect life at all stages falls to the American people.

I am overwhelmed with joy for our nation and for the lives of unborn children who will have a chance to grow up because of the Supreme Court’s action and the stand of millions of Americans for life.

I will continue to ensure babies, moms, and parents are supported. I will continue to protect life at every stage, make adoption more affordable, expand the child tax credit to the unborn, provide food assistance and healthcare to needy families, fund maternal and infant health programs, and incentivize giving so that local nonprofits can more easily assist those in need.

In addition to their monumental decision in the Dobbs case, this week the Supreme Court affirmed religious liberty in America in Carson v. Makin. In America, we don’t just have freedom of worship; we have the freedom to live our faith at work, home, school, and in public. The Court affirmed that states cannot block parents from choosing faith-based education, if the state provides education assistance to parents. A state is not required to provide education assistance to parents, but if it does, the state cannot discriminate against families who choose faith based education. That is clear religious discrimination. In America, our government cannot establish a religion, but it also cannot exclude people of faith from government programs simply because they are religious. CLICK HERE to read more on the Court’s decision in Carson v. Makin.

The Court also made a 6-3 decision in the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen case in which the Supreme Court upheld the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to carry a firearm in public in the same way they can in private. The state of New York tried to require people to show “good cause” to have a firearm, in other words they required people to ask a government official for permission to carry a firearm. The Court reminded New York that we have constitutional rights that they cannot take away. CLICK HERE to read more on the decision and my perspective on it.

There are still several important cases we are waiting on, including a decision protecting a coach who prayed after football games and a decision on the immigration policy called “Remain in Mexico” that would significantly help end the chaos at the border. We are waiting for all these cases and more to come in the days ahead.

UPDATE: My Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act

Muhammad Ali once famously said, “The hands can’t hit what the eyes can’t see.” True in boxing and true in government waste. For years, I have worked to expose the waste, fraud, abuse, and duplication in federal spending, but the federal budget is massive and there are plenty of places to hide waste. So, I introduced a bill to fix that problem – the Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act. My bill became law in January 2021 after years of fighting Democrats, who would rather Americans not know where their hard-earned tax dollars go. The bill passed, but there is still work to do to get the law into reality.

In a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee hearing on government duplication recently, I asked Comptroller General and head of the US Government Accountability Office, Gene Dodaro, for a progress update on how federal agencies are changing to align with the new law. The obscure Office of Management and Budget is responsible for implementing the law, and I have stayed in close contact with their team to start getting the budget facts out there for everyone to see. I’m optimistic we can get the database up so all of us can see the waste, fraud, abuse, and duplication. When we can see it, we can hit it.

CLICK HERE to watch my Q&A to get a status update.

Gun-control Legislation

I was not one of the bipartisan school safety and mental health negotiators this week and did not support the final bill. Some portions of the bill will help our communities deal with juvenile and adult mental health. But there are also significant problems with several sections of the bill.

It is clear that something has changed culturally in our nation. Government cannot solve broken families and isolated young men, but we can encourage families and we can help facilitate more mental healthcare in our hurting nation. Social isolation, violent video games, drug use, and fatherlessness are prevalent with mass shooters. We should not underestimate the power that present and loving fathers can have in the lives of their sons. I think it is important to also see the link between violent crime and illegal drug use.

We have a moral responsibility as Americans to respond to this moment while not jeopardizing clear constitutional rights. Once the working group finalized the proposal, Senator Schumer immediately brought it to the floor for a vote. None of us had even had an opportunity to read it before the first procedural vote Tuesday night.

There are some positive steps in this bill including addressing school safety and mental health, increasing penalties for straw purchases of firearms, and increasing penalties for firearm trafficking. But the final bill pushed too far. The bill incentivizes states to adopt red flag laws, which often treat individuals as guilty until proven innocent. The bill actually prevents the use of some federal dollars to arm individuals for school safety and it continued to block schools from using any of the billions of dollars allocated for COVID relief from being used for school safety improvements. However, the bill does expand access to abortion services and abortion counseling on school campuses. The more than $13 billion price tag for the bill is paid for by cancelling a Medicare drug rebate program which was designed to decrease the cost of pharmaceuticals.

There were multiple amendments filed to improve the bill, including an amendment I filed to remove the abortion funding loophole. I also introduced the Safe Schools Act, which could allow schools to use unspent COVID relief dollars for security measures, including locks, panic buttons, individual room security systems, video surveillance, and hiring armed school resource officers. But no amendments were allowed during the 48 hours between when the bill was released and the bill was approved.

CLICK HERE to read more about my opposition to this bill.

CLICK HERE to read more about my bill.

UPDATE: Disinformation Governance Board

The Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board, which sounds like the Ministry of Truth from Orwell’s 1984, was a bad idea that the Biden Administration thought they could slip by us without being noticed. They were wrong. 

From documents we have now obtained, the Biden Administration was actively meeting with leadership at Twitter to silence opinions the Administration disagreed with. The leader of the Disinformation Governance Board was an outspoken promoter of the now-infamous Russian dossier hoax.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas met with our Committee a few weeks ago to answer questions about the Disinformation Board, but we now know multiple answers he gave us were not accurate. I have called for him to return to testify about his misleading testimony before the Committee.

CLICK HERE to read my letter to the Homeland Security Chairman demanding a hearing.

I grilled Secretary Mayorkas at that hearing and he admitted the Board’s rollout was “sub-optimal.” 

CLICK HERE to watch my Q&A on the Board.

Protecting Private Taxpayer Information

A year ago, the Internal Revenue Service had a massive data leak of 15 years’ worth of sensitive, private, personal tax information, which was then published online. Both the leak and the publication of the private information are felonies.

I questioned Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who has oversight of the IRS, in a Senate Finance Committee hearing about the leak and what has been done in the last year by the Department and the IRS to keep taxpayer information safe. Her answers were pretty vague despite insisting they are taking it seriously.

The IRS also has a tremendous backlog in processing tax returns. Oklahomans and all Americans deserve answers and action.

CLICK HERE to watch my Q&A with Secretary Yellen.

CLICK HERE to read my letter to Secretary Yellen prior to the hearing to demand answers and hold the IRS accountable.

Keeping You in the Loop

• Java with James is back! – The Capitol is finally open. Each Wednesday the Senate is in session, if you’re traveling to Washington, DC, come by my office for coffee and conversation. CLICK HERE to learn more.
• Honoring our fallen hero – The official new name for the US Post Office located at 1233 North Cedar St. in Owasso is now the “Technical Sergeant Marshal Roberts Post Office Building,” after my bill became law to rename it in honor of our fallen hero, T.Sgt. Marshal Roberts. He was one of two Americans killed in action in an overnight rocket attack in Iraq on March 11, 2020, during his service with the 219th Engineering Installation Squadron, a unit of the 138th Fighter Wing of the Oklahoma National Guard. It is right for us to honor TSgt. Roberts and his family after he gave the last full measure of devotion to our grateful nation. CLICK HERE to read more.
• Improving retirement and emergency savings opportunities – This week, the Senate Finance Committee voted on my bill that gives everyone new flexibility to access their own retirement funds in case of an emergency. Four in 10 Americans are not able to come up with $1,000 in an emergency. My bill changes the federal savings law to allow any American saving for retirement to access up to $1,000 from their retirement savings without penalty in case of an emergency. My bill is now part of a larger retirement package called the Enhancing American Retirement Now (EARN) Act, which passed unanimously out of committee on Wednesday. CLICK HERE to read more.
• Helping veterans maintain quality health care – Oklahoma veterans continue to share their frustration with the length of time it takes for the VA to get through its paperwork and care backlog to offer their quality services to our veterans. I recently voted against a bill that would add even more wait times for our veterans to receive quality care by increasing care requirements for complications that may not be service-connected. The bill does not increase community care for veterans or increase beneficial information from community care. We cannot simply expand eligibility without also increasing capacity. CLICK HERE to read more about why I opposed this bill.
• Holding Big Tech Accountable – I introduced a bill to make it illegal for Big Tech to automatically send emails to spam based upon a political preference and require tech companies to publicly disclose spam tactics that censor people based on their political preferences. My bill would hold Big Tech platforms accountable for using biased algorithms that take control away from consumers and alter the way users are able to see emails. CLICK HERE to read more about my straight-forward bill to hold Big Tech accountable.
• Reducing the cost of prescription drugs – I am keeping the pressure on the Federal Trade Commission to encourage their ongoing investigation into the practices of drug-pricing middlemen known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), whose price-hike gimmicks lead to uncertainty for local, family-owned pharmacies and drive up the costs of prescription drugs. These artificial price hikes are driving up prescription costs for Oklahoma seniors and are hurting local, family-owned pharmacies. This has to stop. CLICK HERE to learn more about my work to stop it.
• Cooperating for counter-drone training and preparedness – Drones are the war-machines of the present and future. I introduced the Strengthening Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations (C-UAS) Partnerships Act, which will authorize the Secretary of Defense to bolster our work with our allies and increase training capacity in counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) with partners like Israel who also lead in this area. This is especially important for Ft. Sill since they continue to be a hub for counter drone training for the United States.
• Fighting overregulation of farmers and ranchers – President Biden is trying to bring even more reporting requirements to farms and ranches. I pushed back on a proposed rule from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that would place unworkable climate disclosure regulations on farmers, ranchers and agriculture producers. The rule would impose extensive complex, and burdensome greenhouse gas reporting requirements on all entities within a company’s value chain, including farmers and ranchers who fall outside of the SEC’s congressionally-provided authority.
• Protecting pro-life groups from violence – I called on the Department of Justice to investigate and work to prevent violence against pro-life organizations. After a draft opinion in the Supreme Court case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, was leaked to the media, pro-life and religious organizations have been increasingly vandalized and damaged. With threats to the lives of the conservative Justices on the Court as well, it’s clear the Department of Justice needs to step up security and investigations to bring those responsible to justice. CLICK HERE to read more about my letter to the DOJ.
• Oversight of state “COVID relief” dollars – I asked the Government and Accountability Office to provide a detailed accounting of the $350 billion of COVID relief funds appropriated to states, localities, territories, and tribes under the American Rescue Plan Act. The CARES Act had solid, nonpartisan oversight mechanisms in place, but Biden’s American Rescue Plan did not. Wherever there’s free government money, there’s also potential for fraud if there is not real oversight. CLICK HERE to read more about my work to see where your federal tax dollars are going in our states.
• Sooner softball brings home another big win – Senator Inhofe and I authored a resolution in the Senate recognizing the University of Oklahoma softball team for once again winning the World Series. These tremendous athletes continue to show the nation how it’s done. Great job, ladies. You represented our state well on the national stage. Now, it is time for the OU baseball team to follow your lead this weekend in the College World Series. Boomer Sooner!

In God We Trust,

James Lankford
United States Senator for Oklahoma

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If you would like more information on these topics or any other legislation currently before the US Senate, please do not hesitate to call my DC office at (202) 224-5754. My Oklahoma City office can be reached at (405) 231-4941 and my Tulsa office at (918) 581-7651. You can also follow me on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram for updates on my work in Congress.
     
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