It's almost time for school to start up, which is an exciting time for our families, teachers, staff, and occasionally kids as they prepare for another school year. This weekend is Oklahoma's "Sales Tax Holiday" weekend for families making qualifying purchases to get ready for back-to-school and much more. This event provides an incentive to families to shop local and encourages commerce at Oklahoma businesses. CLICK HERE for a flyer with details provided by the State of Oklahoma on how to participate and which purchases qualify. I also encourage us to look for and give to local nonprofits that have programs to help families who need school supplies, coats, and more. (Yes, we will need coats soon).
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are in full swing in Paris with Americans, including Oklahoma and Yukon native, Vernon Turner, who is representing our state in the high jump, and Edmond native Micha Hancock, who was just added to the Women's Volleyball Olympic Team! Congratulations to these and all of our American athletes who train so hard for so many years to make it to this level.
US Secret Service Failures in Trump Assassination Attempt
The American people need to have confidence in the US Secret Service (USSS) as they keep our current and past presidents and their families safe. On July 13, there were multiple epic failures of the Secret Service as a 20-year old shooter came within a half inch of assassinating President Trump. A local volunteer firefighter, protecting his family, while attending a political rally—a very American thing to do—was murdered that day and several others were injured.
I have met multiple times with US Secret Service senior leadership and the FBI since the attempted assassination. I confronted and called for the then-current USSS Director, Kimberly Cheatle, to resign, until she did resign. This week, my committee held a hearing with the new leadership of Secret Service and the current leadership of the FBI to get more answers and outline a plan to make sure this never happens again. I will not stop pushing until we get total transparency and accountability. I still have many unanswered questions about the pre-planning, the failure to use a drone to observe the field, the failure of counter-drone technology, the failure to communicate to the agents near the President that a shooter was identified on the roof 30 seconds before the first shot, and ultimately why Secret Service failed to cover that rooftop at all. We have many dedicated and remarkable Secret Service agents across the country, including Oklahoma, but this type of failure is inexcusable.
CLICK HERE to watch my Q&A in the hearing to hold USSS accountable.
Preserving Our National Security
For the last seven months, we have worked to lay the groundwork for the National Defense Authorization Act, otherwise known as the defense bill. For the last 63 years, the defense bill has ensured we adequately fund our nation's defense to preserve the freedoms generations before us fought to secure. The proposed 64th annual defense bill bolsters our national defense, improves the important programs in Oklahoma, cares for our military families, deters our nation's adversaries, and directly counters the aggressive tactics of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
Here are some of the highlights from the defense bill currently being considered:
- Provides a 4.5% pay raise for military members and a 2% pay raise for Department of Defense (DOD) civilian employees
- Supports US-Israel cooperation and deters the Iranian regime as Israel fights against terrorism
- Requires a report on the military cooperation between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation, and the implications of such cooperation for US national security
- Requires a strategy for countering drone technologies, referring drone offenses for investigation and prosecution, and responding to drone incursions
- Extends congressional oversight over southwest border security
- Requires an assessment of DOD's chaotic implementation of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification 2.0 Authorizes DOD to identify poor-performing contractors and require approval for additional contracts
- Requires the Deputy Secretary of Defense to notify specific congressional committees when the Secretary is unable to perform the functions and duties of the Office of the Secretary of Defense
I'm working to include several priorities that will support Oklahoma installations and our service members. So far, the Senate version of the defense bill includes provisions that fully fund the capabilities maintained, flown, and manufactured at our Oklahoma installations, which include the B-21, T-7, T-1, and KC-46, munitions procurement across all service branches, including ammunition produced at McAlester, general purpose bombs, long-range precision fires, air and missile defense, and THAAD just to name a few.
Fort Sill
The defense bill supports counter-UAS measures that will enhance Fort Sill's ability to equip and lead all of the services in this area, and supports and directs DOD to find innovative ways to continue keeping America several steps ahead of our adversaries.
McAlester
McAlester Army Ammunition Plant (MCAAP) is one of the fortunate installations to possess natural gas reserves under their installation. As DOD seeks to make all installations energy resilient by 2030, DOD and the Department of Interior should capitalizes on these energy rich resources in order to bolster the security of the base. I have worked for years to make sure MCAAP has the authority to extract natural gas from the installation to provide the essential power for their operations.
Tinker
One of my provisions in the defense bill requires the Air Force to maintain 16 E-3s until the Air Force can bring more E-7s online to replace them. This provision seeks to correct a huge misstep on the Air Force's part to leave such a glaring capability gap without a plan on how or who will accomplish those missions.
I continue to fight for military retirees who currently have to wait six months to enter civilian employment at the DOD. The six-month delay has prevented many great veterans from serving their nation as a civilian because they cannot wait six months to start a new job after their military retirement. The delay also means our nation loses out on hiring many patriotic and skilled workers on our bases and posts. Our military deserves the best and brightest civilian workforce. We should immediately pass this nonpartisan solution for our service members, veterans, and their families.
The federal government is still too slow hiring the great workforce at our major installations. I am fighting for an extension of direct hire for our domestic defense industrial base facilities, Major Range and Test Facilities, and the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, which will greatly benefit Tinker as the headquarters of the Air Force Sustainment Center.
National Guard
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and DOD's collaboration at the southwest border has never been formalized and DOD's continued efforts at the southwest border continue to impact military readiness. It's DHS's responsibility to secure the wide open border, and it needs to have clear parameters for when it relies on DOD's assistance. My provision in the Senate defense bill calls on DOD to prioritize requests for support at the southwest border.
Oklahoma is far too familiar with the crisis at our southern border. While there are many critical provisions in the defense bill that enhance border security, unfortunately, threats at the southern border are not something that the current administration takes seriously. While my colleagues and I are investing and putting forth innovative ways to combat our adversaries overseas, the administration is ignoring those very same threats right in front us.
Continuing Work to Secure Our Southern Border
I have not stopped working to secure our border. With more criminals, drugs, and trafficking happening every day, I am committed to work with anyone who is willing to make the chaos stop right now. Recently, eight ISIS-K-linked individuals were apprehended weeks after they crossed our southern border. We cannot ignore the obvious risks and just hope everyone illegally crossing the border this year will not attack us. There are literally tens of thousands of "Special Interest Aliens" (individuals from areas in their home country with suspected links to terrorist groups) the Biden Administration is simply letting into country because we have no actual criminal record on them from their home country, just a suspicion of terror links. That is not good enough for me. We need to stop them before they enter the country, not arrest them months later.
Children are also being trafficked across our southern border. It's absolutely deplorable. Securing the southern border would stop the flow of money for the cartels to ship people here and then indenture them or sell them. I participated in a roundtable discussion about the failures of the Department of Health and Human Services' Unaccompanied Children Program, which has allowed thousands of vulnerable migrant children to be trafficked in the US.
CLICK HERE to watch my Q&A at this important roundtable discussion.
The southern border is wide open for individuals whose seek to carry out acts of terrorism on our soil and bring in illicit drugs—specifically fentanyl—that continue to kill Americans. I want to share this statement from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to underscore how serious of a threat fentanyl is: In calendar year 2023, DEA seized nationally more than 77 million fentanyl pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. This is the most fentanyl seized by DEA in a single year and amounts to more than 386 million deadly doses of fentanyl prevented from reaching consumers—enough to kill every American.
President Biden has failed to secure our border and protect our nation from the flood of illegal drugs.
CLICK HERE to watch my speech on the Senate floor against Biden's amnesty executive order.
CLICK HERE to read more about my demand for answers from the Department of Justice about their ridiculous lawsuit attempting to stop Oklahoma from enforcing the law.
Protecting Life in Our Nation
June 24 was the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision from the US Supreme Court that gave the decision about life back to the people's representatives, as it was for over a century before Roe v. Wade.
This summer, I called out Senate Democrats for pushing stunt legislation, the so-called Right to Contraception Act, which misleads the public on the accessibility of contraception and threatens the religious freedoms and parental rights of millions of Americans. Democrats tried to hide in their "Right to Contraception Act" overly broad definitions that would have left the door open for human cloning, gene editing, sex or disability-based discrimination against embryos, and even requiring every state to provide sex change operations for minors. For the first time ever, the bill even explicitly limited religious liberty protections in federal law. The bill was not about protecting the right to contraception and IVF, since no state is even considering limiting that access. It was a political stunt during an election year, designed to frighten people and promote false information.
CLICK HERE to read more about my strong stand for life and against fear tactics for moms.
Posts
