Dear Oklahoma friends and neighbors:
Happy Fourth of July! It’s America’s 249th birthday, and we have a lot to celebrate, especially ahead of our nation’s 250th birthday next year (start practicing the word, “semiquincentennial.”) We are always working to form a more perfect union, and taking a moment to celebrate the founding of our great nation with family, friends, and fireworks is a great way to teach the next generation that we should celebrate our freedom and all that’s good about our nation. I hope you area able to get out and safely honor and celebrate our nation.
Even several days later, I think you’ll agree it’s good to say, “Thunder Up!” We’re so proud of our Thunder Team and the hundreds of thousands of fans who turned up in the heat to celebrate last Tuesday at the championship parade. My friend, Senator Todd Young from Indiana, and I made a friendly wager on who would take home the NBA championship this year—the loser had to proudly put on the other team’s jersey.
CLICK HERE to see Senator Young pulling on the Thunder jersey and standing in the Capitol rotunda after our Thunder beat his Indianapolis Pacers in game seven.
UPDATE: One Big Beautiful Bill Act
Over the weekend and into today, the Senate worked nonstop to finalize President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The final product prevents a devastating tax hike at the end of this year, strengthens the southern border, reduces deficit spending, makes several government programs more efficient and modernizes our air traffic control system. This is one of the most significant bills in a generation. It is now headed to the House of Representatives for their approval.
Here are some of the great things the bill does:
- To help hardworking families, no federal tax on tips or overtime
- $2,200 per child, $1,000 baby savings accounts, and an expanded adoption tax credit
- $6,000 higher standard deduction for working seniors
- Freezes tax brackets for every American so no one sees the scheduled tax increase next year
- Gives a new tax credit to people who donate to charities, even if they don’t itemize their taxes
- Updates the farm programs that are long overdue
- Planned Parenthood is defunded for the next year
- Increases the efficiency of our social safety net programs
- Boosts domestic energy production for all base load power and it repeals Biden’s oil and gas tax penalty
- Allows small businesses to write off big equipment purchases in the same year they buy their new equipment which encourages more jobs and investment
- $160 billion to finish the wall, hire Border Patrol and ICE, and secure the border
- $12.5 billion to modernize air traffic control, which is critical for Oklahoma’s aviation workforce
I recorded a video after the bill’s passage in the Senate to highlight some of the big wins and to give some facts to all the fiction being spread on social media about the One Big Beautiful Bill. The bill is certainly not perfect, but it does make significant progress and is a great first step to the long road back to balance.
CLICK HERE to watch my video discussing the final bill and why I voted to support it.
CLICK HERE to read more about why I voted in favor of the bill.
CLICK HERE to read about some of the energy wins I helped secure in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Major US Supreme Court Decisions
Recently the US Supreme Court handed down several major decisions that positively impacts Oklahoma and the rest of the nation.
- The Supreme Court held that District Courts do not have the authority to issue nationwide injunctions—One local District Court judge can no longer make a decision for the entire country. As the Supreme Court wrote in its opinion, “When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power too.” Lower courts should only make decisions for the parties in front of them, not the whole nation.
- The Supreme Court stated the obvious that medically unnecessary hormone treatments and puberty blockers can irreversibly damage the bodies of young children—No one should have their life permanently surgically or chemically changed based on decisions made as a young child. Protecting our kids is one of the most important things we can do.
- Planned Parenthood can be excluded as a provider in state Medicaid programs—The Supreme Court rightly ruled in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic that the Medicaid statute does not create a federal right to choose a specific provider, and that South Carolina has the right to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid.
- The Supreme Court affirmed that parents, not the government, have the right to direct the religious upbringing of their children—The constitutional right to the free exercise of religion doesn’t end in the home but continues throughout everyday life, including at school. The decision was a decisive victory for religious liberty and parental rights.
- By upholding age verification laws for porn sites, the Supreme Court affirmed that states have a right to protect children online and ensure the internet isn’t a free-for-all at the expense of kids’ safety and wellbeing—The Court’s 6-3 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is a major win for parents, families, and common sense, and I was proud to join an amicus brief advocating for age-verification laws.
- The Supreme Court unanimously held that Americans who are victims of international terrorism are able to have access to justice in our court system—This is a case you might have missed, but it was a big win for our team. In 2019, I sponsored and passed the Protecting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act to create a way for families that have been victimized by terror groups like the PLO and Palestinian Authority to file suit and hold them accountable in American courts. Prior to my law, families that had lost loved ones to terrorism overseas could not file litigation against the entities that facilitated the attacks on their loved ones. This court victory was especially sweet because we lost the case in all the lower courts, but the Supreme Court ruled in our favor in a 9-0 decision. This means an opportunity for justice for victims of terrorism.
UPDATE: Iran Nuclear Weapons
Last month, I spent a week in the Middle East, meeting with all the senior leaders of Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel about the threats we all face and ways we can work together, even with our differences. The single greatest destabilizing force in the Middle East is the leadership of Iran. I remain grateful to our US military for their professionalism and capabilities to strike the strategic, non-civilian nuclear sites in Iran. For years, American leaders have said that the Iranian regime cannot have a nuclear weapon. President Trump just made sure Iran can’t fire the most lethal weapons in the world on America, Israel, or any of our allies. I don’t want any country to have nuclear weapons that chants “death to America.”
I have long supported heavy sanctions on the Iranian regime and their sponsorship of terrorism. In addition to Iran completely ending their support for terrorism, we need independent inspectors to verify the permanent end to their weapons program.
In the days after the successful destruction of Iran’s three largest nuclear weapon facilities, President Trump was able to secure an agreement from all our NATO allies (except Spain) to increase their defense spending.
CLICK HERE to watch my recent remarks with Stuart Varney on Fox Business about the work to end Iran’s nuclear weapons acquisition. |