Spending invoice: Oklahoma’s all-Republican House delegation joined the remainder of their GOP colleagues current and accounted for in voting towards final week’s “minibus” of six appropriations payments rolled into one.
Republicans complained the invoice spends an excessive amount of on domestic applications, not sufficient on protection and comprises provisions they’ll’t go together with.
“While I am always encouraged to see the appropriations process moving, the fiscal year 2023 package of bills passed in the House today is a nonstarter,” mentioned 4th District Congressman Tom Cole, rating Republican on one of many 12 Appropriations subcommittees.
“As Democrats are well aware, a final deal on full-year appropriations will not be possible until partisan policy riders are removed, longstanding bipartisan pro-life provisions are restored and defense spending is increased.”
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First District Congressman Kevin Hern known as the invoice “bloated;” 2nd District Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Markwayne Mullin agreed.
“The priorities in this bill exemplify just how out of touch the Democrats remain with the current struggles that face Americans.” Mullin mentioned. “This out-of-control spending bill will only make matters worse.”
Borderline: U.S. Sen. James Lankford, who typically appears to have arrange residence on the U.S.-Mexico border, mentioned officers instructed him Mexican cartels within the Rio Grande Valley are taking in $153 million per week via human trafficking and different unlawful actions.
Lankford mentioned Mexican and Chinese nationals have teamed as much as management the methamphetamine market in Oklahoma.
Stock ticker: Hern came under some scrutiny final week after it was reported that he and his spouse had purchased as a lot as $30,000 in protection contractor shares at about the identical time he was calling for more protection spending.
The Hern household belief additionally purchased a number of power shares whereas he was pushing for more oil and fuel drilling. The investments included Devon Energy, Williams and Exxon Mobile. The belief additionally purchased inventory within the wind energy firm NextEra.
Hern, a former McDonald’s franchisee with pursuits in a number of companies together with banking and manufacturing, is taken into account one of many House’s wealthiest members. Through the belief that holds most of his household’s property, he’s additionally the Oklahoma delegation’s most lively inventory dealer.
Look out: Lankford instructed Newsmax that China is shopping for up American farmland as a part of a plan for “world domination.”
“They’re not here for our benefit,” Lankford mentioned. “They’re not here just so people can make a profit. They’re throwing money around because they’re gaining influence, and they’re getting access to land, into our military bases, to be able to look in and to be able to spy.”
According to the USDA, via the tip of 2020 Chinese pursuits owned comparatively little agricultural land on this nation. By far the most important supply of international possession is Canada.
Those figures are thought-about not totally dependable, although, and reviews have abounded, particularly in Oklahoma, of Chinese nationals shopping for up agricultural land for rising marijuana.
Nagging situation: Federal regulation of horse racing went into impact this month and the trade, and Mullin isn’t blissful about it.
Mullin despatched a prolonged question to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and President and CEO of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Lisa Lazarus final week, asking concerning the implementation of the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act and complaining about its assumption of duties traditionally dealt with by the states.
Oklahoma is amongst a number of states combating the measure.
The HRIS has two elements — racetrack security and doping and medicine management. Both are underneath the umbrella of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, headed by Lazarus, an legal professional with a background in equine legislation and as a National Football League government.
Supporters say the act is critical for uniform requirements and enforcement throughout the nation, whereas many within the trade complain the authority’s laws are too difficult, unrealistic and require an excessive amount of information from homeowners, jockeys and trainers.
The monitor security portion of the legislation went into impact July 1. Enforcement of the doping portion begins early subsequent 12 months.
“The Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission has been successfully regulating Commission-licensed horse racing and gambling for decades,” Mullin mentioned in his letter. “There is no need … to reinvent the wheel. … Unfortunately, from the get-go, the Authority neglected to consult with relevant stakeholders when drafting the rules.”
Stand down: The U.S. navy ought to not spend time or cash investigating or combating extremism inside its ranks, a report hooked up to the $847 billion James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 says.
The report was added by the Senate Armed Services Committee with impartial Angus King of Maine becoming a member of Republican members on a slim vote.
The invoice, named for Oklahoma’s retiring senior senator, was formally filed final week.
According to Roll Call, Inhofe mentioned extremists “have no place in our military” however that, “We need to balance the size of the problem with the investment we make in dealing with it.”
Inhofe is the senior Republican on the committee.
Reports say extremism within the navy is pretty uncommon however can have an outsized have an effect on. The Defense Department spent about $500,000 final 12 months addressing the difficulty, which included about two hours of coaching for personnel.
Book membership: Tom Cole has a Ph.D. in historical past, and now and again, he recommends books he’s studying to constituents via his e mail e-newsletter.
Latest on his listing: “Ends of War” by Caroline E. Janney.
“The post Civil War South was shaped by the confusing, chaotic and complex process by which the soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia and the rest of the Confederacy surrendered and were reabsorbed into the body politic. As Caroline Janney points out in this brilliant study, the Union was preserved, but so, too, was much of the culture and power structure of the antebellum South.”
Dots and dashes: Lankford is amongst 11 U.S. senators talking this week on the America First Policy Institute Summit, a gathering of former Trump administration officers and supporters the place Trump himself is the keynote speaker. … Inhofe mentioned he’ll oppose any transfer to scale back the U.S. navy forces dedicated to Africa. …Chad Zamarin, senior vice chairman for company strategic growth with Williams, testified earlier than a Senate committee on pipeline oversight and allowing. … Morning Consult’s newest polling pegs President Joe Biden’s approval ranking in Oklahoma at -41, making it one of many lowest within the nation. … All 5 Oklahoma House members voted towards guaranteeing the precise to contraception. … Lankford and Inhofe opposed using “social cost” metrics in figuring out greenhouse fuel coverage. … The Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which incorporates Lankford, has scheduled a Wednesday listening to on the Five Tribes’ freedmen. … Inhofe mentioned Biden was fallacious to go to Saudi Arabia after which made a hash of it by “settling on a fist bump over a handshake, as if it would make a diplomatic or epidemiological difference.” … Lankford and fellow Republican Fred Upton of Michigan known as for a House investigation of what they known as Biden’s “mismanagement” of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. … Fifth District Congresswoman Stephanie Bice was a featured speaker this weekend at MavCon, which is described as a community for conservative younger professionals.
— Randy Krehbiel, Tulsa World
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