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John

Fall is definitely here! I spent three weeks traveling Oklahoma in August to hear the issues and solutions so many people wanted to share. I’m grateful to serve a state that cares about the future of our nation and thinks about ways to serve our neighbors.

This week, the Senate was back in session and working on two major efforts: the annual Defense bill and getting President Trump’s nominees confirmed. Thankfully, we made some progress on the Defense Bill this week. The preliminary votes all passed, and we are moving through the amendments next week. I have dozens of amendments already included in the bill for Oklahoma military installations and Oklahoma defense priorities. Next week, I have at least two more amendments to pass.

Unfortunately, the confirmation process is NOT going as smoothly. Democrats in the Senate have blocked the typical voice votes for nominees that everyone knows will pass, which means, every one must pass by a roll call vote, which takes three hours each. The President has 1,200 nominees to confirm, do the math at three hours for each of them! No President has ever had their nominees blocked like this before.

Typically, once we get past the cabinet-level nominees, only a few “sub-cabinet” officials and judges require the full three hours. Usually, 90% or more of the nominees pass by a quick voice vote or one vote in a “block of nominees” once they have been voted out of committee. But, not this time. So, I am working to fix the nomination process permanently.

I am leading a group of Republicans Senators to reform the Senate's confirmation process. Democrats have destroyed the nomination process and we must get it back to working, no matter who is President. The Senate has a constitutional role of “Advice and Consent” for all nominees, but the American people have spoken and a President should not be prohibited from hiring his team. Each nominee should get a full hearing in committee and a vote on the Senate floor, but we should be able to combine the vote on the senate floor to move nominees through in blocks, rather than one at a time to save time. That was actually a bipartisan proposal in the past. Stay tuned for the next couple of weeks as we work to get this resolved.

In three weeks, we will hit another government funding deadline - more drama. The cable news channels will start running their countdown clocks to “doomsday” and people will start digging in on their demands - I believe, most Oklahomans don’t want the drama; they just want the spending down and the budget balanced. In other words, they want Congress to do its job. Instead of having a government shutdown, we should stay in session seven days a week and keep arguing until we solve the problem. No shutdowns, no drama, just work getting done.

I have a bill called the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act. It simply extends current-year funding at the end of each budget year, if we have not passed all the appropriations bills, and it requires Members of Congress to stay in Washington, DC, and work everyday on the budget if we do not get the budget work done on time. In the words of my teacher Mom, if you haven’t finished your classwork, you have to stay after school and finish it. I am going to keep pushing to solve the government shutdown and budget chaos.

I am having dinner with the President tonight in the Rose Garden where I’m sure we will talk through several of these issues. I will keep you updated. Please keep praying for the nation.

In God We Trust,
James Lankford
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