WASHINGTON, May 12 -- Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma, issued the following statement on May 11, 2023: * * * The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023. This legislation has two fundamental goals: secure the border and combat illegal immigration. H.R. 2 is a comprehensive plan which will restart construction of the border wall, hire more border patrol agents, deploy new and improved technology, strengthen the current law to combat human trafficking, and  more

WASHINGTON, May 12 -- Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, issued the following news release: Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04) released the following statement after the House Republicans advanced H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023. If signed into law, this legislation would provide for the resources and direction necessary to secure the border including resuming border wall construction, giving border patrol agents necessary resources, equipment and manpower, reforming fraud and abuse in the asylum p  more

WASHINGTON, May 12 -- Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, issued the following news release on May 11, 2023: Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04), member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, today congratulated the University of Oklahoma for being selected to receive a Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR) grant of up to $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Defense. The University of Oklahoma was one of 28 academic teams across the nation to be selected for thi  more

WASHINGTON, May 12 -- Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Oklahoma, issued the following news release: Congressman Josh Brecheen co-sponsored H.R.2814, the PRIME (Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption) Act. The bipartisan legislation, introduced by Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME), would make it easier for small farms and ranches to serve consumers and would give individual states the freedom to permit intrastate distribution of custom-slaughtered meat  more

WASHINGTON, May 12 -- Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Oklahoma, issued the following news release: Congressman Josh Brecheen and House Republicans passed the Secure the Border Act of 2023 (H.R.2) just hours before Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that is one of the last deterrents for migrants to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, expires. "While President Biden's policies usher in more chaos on the border, House Republicans passed the most conservative border bill ever proposed to restore law and  more

WASHINGTON, May 12 -- Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Oklahoma, issued the following statement on May 11, 2023: * * * Representative Kevin Hern (OK-01) released the following statement after voting in favor of HR 2, the Secure the Border Act. "Unlike our President, I've been to the Southern border to see the disastrous impact of his failure to address the border crisis," said Rep. Hern. "Today, we passed the strongest border security measure the House of Representatives has ever seen. It couldn't be more  more

WASHINGTON, May 11 -- The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies issued the following testimony by Brittany L. Hott, associate director of the Institute for Community and Society Transformation at the University of Oklahoma, at an oversight hearing on March 29, 2023, entitled "Addressing the Challenges of Rural America": * * * Good afternoon, Chairman Aderholt, Ranking Member DeLauro, and subcommittee members. Thank you for the op  more

WASHINGTON, May 12 -- Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, issued the following news release on May 11, 2023: Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today voted on a resolution to nullify a new regulatory definition of habitat within the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to provide clarity and transparency to landowners and businesses, which Lankford introduced with Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and their colleagues in March. "The completely unreasonable critical habitat rule gives the Biden Administration the   more

WASHINGTON, May 12 -- Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Oklahoma, issued the following news release on May 11, 2023: Congressman Frank Lucas (OK-03) released the following statement today after the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2- the Secure the Border Act. Lucas supported the legislation. "America has long been a land of immigrants. Today, however, America's immigration system is broken and the situation at our southern border can be described with one word: crisis. We face a humanitarian crisi  more

WASHINGTON, May 12 -- Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, issued the following news release on May 11, 2023: U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) introduced the Tribal Police Department Parity Act to eliminate burdensome regulation and streamline Tribal police department access to duty weapons. Under current law, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) places an undue burden on Indian Tribes while exempting state and local entities from the same bureaucracy. U.S. Congressm  more

WASHINGTON, May 12 -- Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, issued the following news release on May 11, 2023: The U.S. Senate passed Senator Markwayne Mullin's (R-OK) legislation to reverse a federal regulatory penalty on states and protect key Oklahoma infrastructure projects from runaway regulation. Mullin's legislation to strike down the Biden administration's listing of the northern long-eared bat (NLEB) as 'endangered' under the Endangered Species Act passed with bipartisan support. Listing  more