When Oklahomans asked me to represent them in Washington DC, I knew that I would not win every fight on every policy, but I understood many issues are worth the fight and the stand, even if you do not win. But I can honestly say, I never dreamed I would have to fight with the President and other members of the Senate over the future of the Internet. In case you have not heard, on October 1, President Obama inexplicably gave away American stewardship of one of the greatest technological advancements in the history of the world, the Internet.

The internet was created in the U.S., which is why the Department of Commerce had oversight of the naming functions. As a medium for communication and commerce and a product and forum for our First Amendment right of free speech, jurisdiction over the management of the naming functions is important to protect the free and open platform which guided the platform from its creation.

Unfortunately, last Saturday, the President gave away the control of the future of the Internet to an international body with no promise of protection for free speech. The internet’s domain name system, like .com and .org, addresses, was completely handed over from the Department of Commerce and day-to-day oversight from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to a global nonprofit organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.

ICANN is an organization made up of technical experts, representatives of businesses and more than a hundred foreign governments, which includes oppressive regimes such as China, Russia, Vietnam and Iran. President Obama has advocated giving away America’s protection of free speech on the Internet for years, even though many Americans, including myself, raised serious concerns about its impact on the future of the Internet.

Because of the Administration’s obsession to give away the future of the Internet, in the funding bill for Fiscal Year 2016, we included clear language to prohibit the Department of Commerce from transitioning the functions to an outside entity. Some of us, in Congress, have fought this on multiple fronts. Earlier this year, myself, and Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee challenged ICANN CEO’s involvement with the World Internet Conference and his commitment to free speech. In May and June, we also exposed the NTIA’s apparent violation of federal law in using federal funds to transfer internet authority to ICANN. In June, I joined Cruz and Lee again in introducing the Protecting Internet Freedom Act (S. 3034), a bill to prevent the Obama administration from transferring internet authority to ICANN.

Despite multiple letters to the President, legislation, multiple hearings and senate floor speeches, the President allowed our existing oversight contract to expire, which for all practical purposes, transferred the Internet completely to ICANN. While this was an incredibly disappointing move by the Administration, we at least protected the administrative authority over certain public website domain names, such as the .mil, .gov, .edu and .us domains.

No one can explain why the President and Senate Democrats were so obsessed with transitioning control of the Internet to a global body. We passed legislation to block the transfer, held hearings, wrote letters and pushed national media to take notice; but in the end, he still gave it away. The damage to free speech will not be felt for a few years, but there is no question that the Internet, as we know, is changing…. and now China, Russia and Iran have the same voice on its future as the United States of America.

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While I can criticize both the process and part of the content of the omnibus bill, I want to point out 10 victories that the public needs to be aware of.

First, it’s important to note that for the first time in six years, the Senate, under a new Republican majority, and the House passed all 12 annual appropriations out of their committees. When it came time for Senate floor consideration, Democrats blocked the appropriations and forced an omnibus spending bill.

As I said on the Senate floor last week, we can fix this problem by changing Senate rules so that appropriations bills can be considered with a simple majority instead of the current 60-vote threshold. Until this change happens or there is a new administration, Republicans have to use the omnibus to force the president to sign into law the following 10 conservative provisions:

1. The bill repeals the crude oil export ban and the president can’t reverse that. Oklahoma has lost 20,000 jobs in the last year because of an inability to trade oil. This provision will help us create jobs again and help our allies who have been left turning to Russia and Iran for energy.

Read the complete story on tulsaworld.com

by SCOTT PRUITT September 29, 2015 3:27 PM

As we choose our next president, Americans will doubtless turn their attention to the crucial issues of economic opportunity, national security, family, and faith.

Underlying all of these issues, however, is another that shouldn’t be overlooked: our frustration with how the federal government has invaded nearly every aspect of American life, while consistently failing to accomplish the few basic tasks the Constitution actually requires of it.

The Obama presidency has made this reality clearer than ever, with the federal government’s choosing to put regulators on the ground in our heartland to fight farmers and power plants instead of boots on the ground to fight ISIS, choosing to seize control of our health care instead of securing control of our borders, and choosing to bind economic growth and innovation at home while recklessly loosening economic sanctions with state sponsors of terrorism in Iran.

Read the full article at National Review. 

#ObamaInOk Tweets

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is planning a two-day trip to Oklahoma next week to talk to the Choctaw Nation and visit the federal prison in El Reno, the White House announced Friday.

“On Wednesday, July 15th, the President will travel to Durant, Oklahoma, where he will visit the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and deliver remarks on expanding economic opportunity,” White House spokesman Keith Maley said.

“He will remain overnight in Oklahoma. On Thursday, July 16th, the President will visit the El Reno Correctional Institution outside of Oklahoma City, marking the first visit by a sitting President to a federal prison.

“While there, he will meet with law enforcement officials and inmates and conduct an interview for a Vice documentary that will air in the fall about the realities of our criminal justice system.”

Read the complete story on NewsOK.com

President Obama said it was “disturbing” that the chair of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee had tossed a snowball on the Senate floor last month in a bid to disprove the reality of climate change.

In an interview with VICE News founder Shane Smith released Monday, Obama discussed how politics have made climate change one of “the hardest problems to solve.”

Smith pointed to the stunt from the Oklahoma Republican, which was meant to show how unseasonably cold it was in February despite coming after the warmest year on record.

“Throwing a snowball would be funny if it weren’t the fact that he’s chairman of the Senate Committee on the Environment,” Smith said.

“That’s disturbing,” Obama fired back.

Read the complete story on nationaljournal.com

OKLAHOMA CITY — Scott Pruitt enjoyed owning a Class AAA baseball team here, but he is having as much fun as Oklahoma’s attorney general — and as one of the Obama administration’s most tenacious tormentors. The second existential challenge to the Affordable Care Act began here.

George F. Will writes a twice-weekly column on politics and domestic and foreign affairs. He began his column with The Post in 1974, and he received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977. He is also a contributor to FOX News’ daytime and primetime programming.

In the first, decided in June 2012, the Supreme Court saved the ACA by reading it imaginatively. The court held that although Congress could not, in the name of regulating commerce, penalize people for not engaging in commerce (buying insurance), the penalty linked to the individual mandate actually could be considered — although Congress did not so consider it — an exercise of Congress’s enumerated power to tax.

That same year, Pruitt lit another fuse, this one involving statutory rather than constitutional construction. He filed a suit that in June may contribute to the most seismic domestic development of 2015.

The suit asks the court to read the ACA unimaginatively, as meaning what it plainly says: Subsidies, in the form of tax credits, are available only to people who purchase insurance through exchanges “established by the state.” Thirty-seven states have refused or failed to establish their own exchanges. The justices may be disinclined to use the ACA’s legislative history, or the candor of loquacious MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, to inform their deliberations. If, however, the justices do, they will see that Gruber, an ACA architect, says it was written to “squeeze the states” into establishing exchanges: “If you’re a state and you don’t set up an exchange, that means your citizens don’t get their tax credits.”

Read the complete story on washingtonpost.com

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt announced Tuesday that Oklahoma is suing the president over his unconstitutional executive actions on immigration.

“The president’s executive actions on immigration are unlawful and unconstitutional. The constitution doesn’t give the president the power or authority to rewrite our nation’s immigration laws but that is exactly what the president is trying to do through his executive actions – even though he’s said numerous times he doesn’t have any such authority. It takes two branches of government to pass a law.

The president has a constitutional responsibility to faithfully execute the laws as passed by Congress and he is not. Oklahoma will work to hold the president accountable and stop his unconstitutional executive actions on immigration,” Attorney General Pruitt said.

Oklahoma on Tuesday joined the multistate lawsuit filed in federal district court in Texas. The states that are a part of the lawsuit are seeking a temporary injunction to halt the executive actions the president announced in November.

“Attorneys general from across the nation recognize the president’s actions violate the constitution and are joining together in this lawsuit to seek an immediate end to his unconstitutional action,” Attorney General Pruitt said.

The states argue the president’s unilateral executive action violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law by bypassing Congress in order to rewrite U.S. immigration laws.

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President Obama has taken numerous actions that “clearly” violate the U.S. Constitution and constitute an “unfaithful” execution of the law, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt declared Sunday in a radio interview.

“As far as taking actions that would constitute an unfaithful execution of the law, I think that’s clear,” Pruitt said. “I think he has acted in a way that is entirely inconsistent with his obligation under the Constitution to faithfully execute the laws. And as such it has prompted much litigation – many pieces of litigation that Oklahoma has led, and we will continue to do so.”

Pruitt added: “What that means to the politicians in D.C. is up to them to decide, but I can tell you from a legal perspective he has acted clearly in an unlawful way.”

Pruitt was speaking on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s 970 AM The Answer.

Klein had asked the Oklahoma attorney general for his legal opinion about whether Obama could face impeachment over Obamacare, executive amnesty or other alleged offenses, including the president’s failure to inform Congress before releasing five Gitmo detainees in exchange for captured U.S. soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl.

Read the  complete story on WND.com

Rep. Ritze Says Federal Government Checking Oklahoma Hospitals’ Readiness to Accept Ebola Patients

OKLAHOMA CITY –State Rep. Mike Ritze said today that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has recently contacted the Oklahoma Department of Health to inquire about the readiness of state hospitals to accept patients who may have the Ebola virus. Ritze said he plans on looking into the specifics of the inquiry and has contacted Oklahoma Commissioner of Health Terry Cline for more information.

Ritze said he knows that New Mexico and several other states have also been contacted by HHS.

“This may just be a routine inquiry, but it strikes me as curious given the recent outbreak of Ebola cases in West Africa,” said Ritze, R-Broken Arrow. “At this point, there is no need to panic, but it would be helpful to get some accurate information from our state and federal health organizations so we know how severe the threat may be.”

Ritze, who serves as a ranking member of the House Public Health Committee, is a board certified physician and surgeon with a master’s degree in forensic science administration.

-30-

Problems in Iraq and on Texas’ border with Mexico are the fault of President Barack Obama, and he’s also partly responsible for conflict in eastern Europe, First District Congressman Jim Bridenstine said Tuesday.

“The American public is waking up,” said Bridenstine. “What I will tell you, what a lot of folks in this room have been waiting for, is that the American public is looking at what the Democrat Party and this president have done on the southern border and they are not approving of it.”

“His foreign policy has been an utter failure. His domestic policy has been an utter failure.”

Speaking to the Republican Women’s Club of Tulsa County, Bridenstine said the U.S. must find a way to balance the federal budget while spending more on defense and becoming more of a presence in places such as Iraq and Latin America.

Read the complete story on tulsaworld.com

By Rep. Jim Bridenstine | July 30, 2014

President Obama easily motivated young people across the nation to vote in 2012. He captured roughly 67 percent of the youth vote, according to the Center for Research and Information on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. Yet a recent study from Harvard reported that millennials only trust the government to do the right thing 20 percent of the time.

To understand the frustration of the “unemployed generation,” just look at where millennials are right now compared to where they were two years ago. Since the 2012 election, young people have been disillusioned by questionable government agency data collection programs, the failed implementation of Obamacare, continually rising unemployment, the rising cost of living, and of course, student debt. Many college students who voted for Obama in 2008 have graduated and are now stuck in a stagnant economy. Too many of them have had to move back in with their parents. They are making less money than expected, and this is affecting life decisions, including marriage and children.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds in June of 2014 was 35.2 percent. This unemployed generation is competing with more experienced, older workers for entry level jobs. BLS figures do not take into account under-employment, where a millennial is overqualified for their job. A Pew Research Survey indicated that one third of the 26-33 demographic have college degrees, constituting one of the most educated generations in American history.
Our sputtering recovery and crippled economy are directly linked to the failed policies of this administration. The employer mandate of the Affordable Care Act has incentivized employers to avoid hiring more employees and to move their employees to part time. The Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing policy, an attempt to print our way to prosperity, is out of control, artificially driving up the prices of groceries and other essentials. If the economy ever heats up, inflation will skyrocket. Our over-subsidized higher education system is causing the costs of a college education to explode, adding more and more debt.

Thankfully, the mindset of America’s youth is changing. A recent survey from Wells Fargo showed that millennials have a rather conservative view on saving. They are less likely to rack up personal credit card debt, and they see the pitfalls of not having a long term savings plan. These financial trends are spilling into their changing worldview on the role government should play in intervening in the market. They understand, perhaps better than anyone else, that a nation 17 trillion dollars in debt is negatively affecting the America they are inheriting.

Read the full article at RedAlertPolitics.com

INHOFE: AFTER AMPLE WARNING, THE PRESIDENT IS DOING TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE IN IRAQ

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), released the following statement after President Obama addressed the White House press corps on Iraq and after a closed-door SASC committee hearing on Iraq this afternoon:

“On Oct. 29, 2013, I sent a letter with Sens. Levin, McCain, Menendez, Corker, and Graham urging the President to increase intelligence sharing, security assistance, and counterterrorism support for Iraq. In January, Prime Minister Maliki asked for additional intelligence and airpower. Now today, nearly a week after ISIL took control of Mosul and Tikrit, President Obama finally decided he is ready to provide some of these means to Iraq, but once again, the President is doing too little, too late. The chaos we are seeing today is a result of the President’s failure to secure a Status of Forces Agreement in 2011 that would have enabled us to close the capability gaps of the Iraqi Security Forces that we see ISIL exploiting. Not surprisingly, the President’s speech today was light on leadership and failed to present a coherent strategy for Iraq and the broader Middle East that will address the chaos unfolding on his watch.

“The President also shared his plans to send up to 300 troops to “assess” how we should support Iraqi security forces. We already know what the Iraqi security forces need. Our Embassy in Baghdad is the largest in the world, and I have to ask what have they been doing all this time besides assessments? We have a three-star general on the ground who has been assessing what the Iraqis need. Either President Obama hasn’t been listening or he doesn’t trust his people on the ground. President Obama for some reason didn’t trust General Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, when the President released the five of the worst Taliban leaders into Gen. Austin’s area of responsibility without consulting him in advance. President Obama ignored the advice of his commanders when he prematurely withdrew U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011. Why should we believe the President now that he is genuinely interested in the military’s assessment of the best way forward in Iraq?

“Further, the President’s belief that Iran can play a constructive role in Iraq is naïve at best and dangerous at worst. Iran is the largest state sponsor of terror in the region and remains committed to undermining U.S. national security. The longer President Obama fails to lead and his Administration’s policy of paralysis in the Middle East persists, the stronger Iran’s influence will become.”

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INHOFE: OBAMA THINKS HE’S ‘ABOVE THE LAW’

President Obama feels he is “above the law” and has made a “habit” of violating the Constitution and U.S. law, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., charged in a radio interview Sunday.

Inhofe made those accusations during a conversation about the Bergdahl prisoner exchange in which Obama has been accused of violating the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA. The law stipulates the president “shall notify” Congress “not later than 30 days before the transfer or release” of any inmate from Guantanamo Bay.

“We have a law that he blatantly violated, and any other citizen would have to pay for such an evasion,” said Inhofe, speaking on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s AM 970 The Answer radio station.

The senator continued: “However, every time he does something that is against the Constitution or violates a law, if you accuse him of that, then of course all the attorneys will start up, they will start setting hearing dates and it will be 10 years before you’d be getting around to it.”

Read more on WND.com