Photo Gallery

Cindy and I headed to Shawnee this morning to pray with families and emergency responders and help clean up after Wednesday's severe weather.

Thank you to our Oklahoma National Guardsmen of the 1-179 Infantry, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, who are deploying overseas to protect America’s values. We’ll continue to fight on our knees on your behalf, support your families, and look forward to welcoming you safely home early next year.

Atoka’s favorite daughter and fellow redhead, Reba McEntire, opened Reba’s Place last year. Everyone should check it out. Highly recommend their shortbread cookies!

In Durant, America, I toured one of the area’s largest employers, BrucePac, to meet the hard-working people who are providing quality food to our nation. Thanks for the hospitality!

Was proud to be at the grand opening of Lawton-Ft. Sill’s FISTA Innovation Park, where science, tech, engineering, and defense come together to support our warfighters.

Spent an hour with students at Tulsa Community College to answer questions and talk about the future of our state and nation. These bright young leaders are already engaging in their community.

Had a productive conversation over a delicious lunch in the Stockyards with some of Oklahoma’s ag leaders. Thank you for your input on how we can make sure the upcoming Farm Bill addresses the issues important to Oklahoma producers.

Learned about some of the innovative life-saving and life-changing cancer treatments happening in Claremore.

At MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor Creek, I had the opportunity to challenge our state to be ready for new manufacturing opportunities in Oklahoma.

Breakfast at the Miami Braum’s with the Inter Tribal Chiefs and leadership was a great way to start the day and learn more about the issues facing Oklahoma’s Tribal citizens in northeast OK.

Dear Oklahoma friends and neighbors:

Many families and neighbors are still cleaning up the damage to their homes and communities from the severe weather in Central Oklahoma Wednesday night. We will be there with them through this as Oklahomans always are. Cindy and I are praying for and working alongside the families and businesses impacted, as they walk this incredibly hard journey. I encourage you to report any damage you have experienced through the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security by clicking HERE. My team and I will remain engaged with state and local authorities to make sure they have what they need to serve Oklahomans during this time.

Over the Easter break, I traveled around Oklahoma to visit Atoka, Bartlesville, Claremore, Durant, Lawton, Miami, Oklahoma City, Pawhuska, Tulsa, and more. I heard people’s concerns about our debt and deficit and the upcoming debt ceiling debate in Washington, DC; the needs in our upcoming Farm Bill; the national security threat posed from our wide open southern border; the Department of Justice targeting individuals, particularly their targeting of Catholics and parents at school board meetings; and more. Now that we’re back in Washington, DC, I will keep pressing for answers on these and others issues Oklahomans are concerned about. 

Last week, Cindy and I stood with the families of the 45th Infantry as they deployed once again. I was able to pray for them, encourage them, and wish them Godspeed in their mission at a deployment ceremony at the Paycom Center. If you know some of the family members left behind, I encourage you to take great care of them as their loved one serves our nation halfway across the Earth in the Horn of Africa. It was yet another reminder that the global war on terrorism continues, but Oklahomans remain vigilant.

Please continue to pray for our women and men in uniform.

Federal Fumbles, Vol. 7 Is Coming, And Not a Moment Too Soon!

Here’s an exclusive first look at the cover of Federal Fumbles: Ways the Government Dropped the Ball, Volume 7, which will be out soon!

Washington, DC, is talking about what to do about the debt and deficit as part of a debt ceiling, or debt limit, conversation—my annual Fumbles book focuses our team and every person concerned about our debt every year on this essential subject. We cannot raise the debt ceiling without doing something about our accelerating debt. Keep an eye out for more on the latest Federal Fumbles or check out the classic volumes 1-6 HERE. 

The SOIL Act to Stop Foreign Ag Land Purchases 

Last month, our state overwhelming rejected “legalizing” recreational marijuana. We have seen firsthand since 2018 how foreign criminal organizations have exploited vulnerabilities and loopholes in our law to destroy our families and communities for their profit.

Oklahomans are rightly concerned about our land, particularly as entities and individuals affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party are buying up farmland and properties in Oklahoma and around the country. They’re not buying our land because they love America.

Our loose oversight has allowed transnational criminal organizations to partner with Chinese nationals to buy land and businesses throughout Oklahoma and around the nation. This is a national security issue and a human rights issue. We need to know who is buying our land, how they are using it, and if any criminal activity is occurring. That’s the right thing to do to protect our state and our nation.

Oklahoma has more than 7,000 licensed marijuana grows. The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics believes about 2,000 of those farms have a Chinese connection. The marijuana market in Oklahoma has ushered in other serious crimes like human trafficking, forced labor, and money laundering.

That’s why I introduced my Security and Oversight of International Landholdings (SOIL) Act, which requires the same federal review process for foreign purchases of our agriculture land that exist for most other foreign land purchases, which is known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review process. I am working to get this language into the Farm Bill when it comes up for a vote later this year. 

CLICK HERE to read more about my SOIL Act.

CLICK HERE to watch my warning to the Senate about the national security threat posed by foreign entities buying up our farmland.

UPDATE: Standing Up for Life

Last week while in Durant, I weighed in on Facebook Live after a Fifth Circuit Court ruling came out that would protect the health and safety of women and girls by halting a Food & Drug Administration (FDA) rule that allowed dangerous chemical abortion pills to be mailed to women without the supervision of a doctor, without any prior medical checks and without any reporting requirements, when a woman is hospitalized with major complications after taking the drug. 

CLICK HERE to watch my Facebook Live about the decision in the Fifth Circuit and what’s next.

President Biden is obsessed with increasing abortion on demand, no matter what it takes. The FDA’s approval of dangerous DIY abortions was not only a violation of the FDA’s drug approval process but it broke federal law. I was glad to join my colleagues in a friend of the court brief to ask the Fifth Circuit to uphold this decision. I encourage anyone to read the friend of the court brief to learn more about the facts of this drug and the FDA actions. This case is not about judges deciding drug approvals; it is about following the law. 

CLICK HERE to read my friend of the court brief in support of women’s health and the rule of law.

This week, the Senate also held a vote to require the Administration to follow the law and not divert funding from veteran healthcare to abortions. Service members are heroes and should get the care they need and deserve from the VA. It’s appalling that the Biden Administration has taken VA healthcare funding from veteran care to instead use it for abortions, in violation of Federal law. The vote failed, but we are not giving up.

CLICK HERE to read more on why I supported ending this abortion-on-demand rule for the VA.

UPDATE: Changes to the Broken Asylum Process Are Desperately Needed 

In a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing this week with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, I confronted Secretary Mayorkas about the abuse of our asylum process. He admitted to me, “Senator, yes, the asylum system is broken, and our entire immigration system is broken.”

Currently, if a migrant leaves their home country, they can travel through as many countries as they desire to reach the Mexican cartels so they can transport them the final mile to our southern border. Many of those migrants claim they are seeking “asylum,” though they do not meet any of the qualifications of asylum. They are really seeking economic opportunity, not asylum. But if they claim asylum, the current backlog to get a first hearing on their case is 10 years in the future. And that’s just the first hearing. The other parts of the process can currently take another eight years possibly, so that migrant can be in our country for almost 20 years before they ever have to go to court to make a final claim for asylum.

That is unacceptable and an invitation for fraud. 

Asylum in many western countries is not allowed if you have not already been turned down for asylum in all the other countries you traveled to before you arrived. For instance, in Canada, if you cross the border and claim asylum, they will immediately ask if you requested asylum in the United States before you entered. If you did not, they will turn you around within days. That keeps the focus on legal immigration and prevents cartels from trafficking people across the border. The Biden Administration is doing exactly the opposite. Even Secretary Mayorkas agreed that the asylum process is being abused; it is broken. 

I have directly pushed to fix this process for years, and I’m not stopping. We need a safe and secure border and a responsible immigration policy that follows our laws and puts American safety first.

CLICK HERE to watch my Q&A with Secretary Mayorkas this week about our broken asylum process. 

UPDATE: Lowering the Cost of Rx Drugs

I remain a long-time advocate for practical solutions that bring down the cost of prescription drugs. One of the areas where I’m working to make real change is how the drug-price middlemen, known as “pharmacy benefit managers” (PBMs) are driving up the cost of Rx drugs and how the process of selecting a price tier for generic and name-brand drugs is being manipulated.

I directly asked Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra what is being done about PBMs as they continue to push to keep their status as middlemen in the drug pricing scheme, which is forcing higher prices at the pharmacy counter for Oklahomans.

At a recent Finance Committee hearing with leading researchers of prescription drugs and price transparency, I pressed for answers about drug prices and why rebates for certain drugs don’t always make it back to patients at the pharmacy counter. 

My team and I are working on direct solutions to these issues so we can simplify the drug price structure and make it as transparent as possible. Oklahomans are tired of paying more and more for their prescriptions. We’re getting to the bottom of this and how to solve it. The cost of insulin is going down as a direct result of our team’s efforts five years ago to address the way drugs are priced and approved. Families need to see results.

CLICK HERE to watch my Q&A with Secretary Becerra on drug-price middlemen.

CLICK HERE to watch my exchange with prescription drug research experts on drug “tiering” and price transparency as well as more on PBMs.

Keeping You in the Loop

• Preserving Sports for Women and Girls – I reintroduced the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act to preserve Title IX protections for female athletes and ensure fair, safe competition in women’s sports across the country. The bill would counter the Biden Administration’s plans to finalize rules that will force institutions to allow biological males to share private spaces with females and compete in women’s sports, starting in elementary school. The Biden Administration stated last week that they were willing to have some flexibility with transgender athletes competing in secondary and college sports, but they would remove all federal funds from any elementary school that prevents boys from participating in girls sports. CLICK HERE for more on how we’re putting a stop to this.
• Preventing Sanctuary Cities - Sanctuary cities by definition make our nation less safe. They undermine efforts to secure the border and foster an environment for criminals to do more crime. It is unthinkable that the same cities that choose to break the law by harboring illegal immigrants have the benefit of receiving taxpayer-funded grants from the federal government to deter crime. I introduced the Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act to restore law and order in cities across America. CLICK HERE to read more about the bill.
• Helping Oklahoma Job Creators - The 2017 tax law encouraged more economic activity from our US manufacturers by allowing them to depreciate their capital and equipment during the tax year it was purchased instead of over years and years of future tax returns. Unfortunately, that provision started phasing out at the end of 2022. I’m glad to put forward the ALIGN Act as a solution to allow businesses to invest in their employees and business future. In one moment, we cannot say that manufacturing business should move back from China, but in the next moment, tax business investment more if they do. Let’s encourage our vital US manufacturing sector and other US industries continue to create high-paying jobs CLICK HERE to learn more about my bill to help US job creators.
• Ending the Waters of the US Rule - The Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule is not about clean water; it’s all about federal control of almost every inch of Oklahoma. All of us want clean water and clean air. But this rule is not about rational environmental action. It is federal control of private property and climate extremism. That’s why I voted along with the majority in the Senate to affirm that this needs to stop. CLICK HERE to read more about our push back against federal control of all water in the US, including the water on your land.
• Protecting Religious Liberty on College Campuses – I introduced the Equal Campus Access Act to ensure religious student organizations will not face discrimination on college campuses, where freedom of expression remains under attack. We must ensure that our nation’s public colleges and universities are truly neutral toward all religious student organizations. CLICK HERE to read more about the Biden Administration’s efforts to eliminate guarantees for religious liberty on college campuses and what I’m doing to put a stop to the president’s interference.
• Aligning US trade and national security interests – As a member of the Senate Finance Committee with jurisdiction over trade and a co-founder of the Senate Abraham Accords Caucus, I introduced the American Economic Diplomacy Act that ensures the Annual Trade Agenda aligns with, reflects, and advances American foreign policy and national security objectives. Our trade policy should focus on opening up new markets for American agriculture and businesses, reducing our reliance on China for critical supply chains, and building on the positive national security and diplomatic gains from the Abraham Accords, while promoting the unalienable right of religious freedom worldwide. CLICK HERE to read more about my bill.
• Questioning Data Issues for Biden’s Energy Permitting - Recently, the Bureau of Land Management updated its number of unused Approved Permits to Drill for energy in the US, lowering it from 9,000 to 6,600 approved permits. They said this substantial 26 percent decrease is due to a “reporting discrepancy” after they moved to a new database in mid-2022, in the middle of the pandemic. Considering how much the Biden Administration likes to waive their “approved permits that no one in the energy industry is using” around and try to blame energy shortages on everyone else, I’d say we need answers to what happened here. CLICK HERE for more information on what we’re doing about it.
• Connecting with Oklahomans while I’m in Washington, DC – This week we held a live telephone town hall from my office in Washington, DC, to connect with thousands of Oklahomans across the state by phone so they could get a quick update on what’s happening in our nation’s capital and ask me questions in real time. If you didn’t get called, please contact my office and ask to be added to our list to be called each time we hold a telephone town hall. Be sure you give my staff the number you want to be called and that you add my office numbers to your contacts so you don’t miss the call. CLICK HERE for contact information to my office or check the bottom of this page.

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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