U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, the Tulsa Republican whose nomination to lead NASA has hung in the balance for seven months, narrowly overcame a major procedural hurdle in the Senate on Wednesday, setting the stage for a final confirmation vote later this week.

The Senate voted 50-48 along party lines. A final vote is expected Thursday afternoon.

Wednesday’s vote carried some unexpected drama after Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, initially voted against Bridenstine’s nomination, threatening to doom it. Senate leaders kept the vote open for an hour and Flake later changed his vote.

Bridenstine was first nominated for the position last September and nominated again in January, but Senate Republicans have struggled to find the votes needed to confirm him. He has faced unanimous opposition from Senate Democrats, as well as from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, of Florida.

Read the complete story on NewsOK.com

While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

MARCH 17, 2018

WASHINGTON — The headline speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference’s annual showcase, the Ronald Reagan Dinner, have historically been rising stars in the Republican Party — firebrand pundits, prominent activists, future presidential candidates.

Last month, it was Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

In the past year, Mr. Pruitt has emerged as a hero to President Trump’s supporters for his hand in rolling back environmental rules at an agency long disliked by farmers, the fossil fuel industry and the far right. And he has occasionally shocked his employees by criticizing the very agency he heads.

“It was an agency that was weaponized against certain sectors of the economy,” Mr. Pruitt said to applause at the Reagan dinner.

Now, people close to Mr. Pruitt say he is using his perch as Mr. Trump’s deregulatory czar to position himself for further political prominence — starting with a run for office in his home state of Oklahoma. He is widely viewed as a future candidate for senator or governor there, and Mr. Pruitt has made it known that if the president replaces his beleaguered attorney general, Jeff Sessions, he would be ready to step into the job.

Read the complete story on nytimes.com

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – The Americans for Prosperity-Oklahoma (AFP-OK) and Oklahoma Senator Paul Rosino (R) are applauding Governor Fallin’s executive order she signed Tuesday which includes work requirements to Oklahoma’s Medicaid program.

“I applaud the Governor for directing the action on her work requirements for eligible state Medicaid recipients,” said Sen. Rosino. “In February, my weekly column stated that we should follow the lead of the Trump administration and implement in Oklahoma the stated work requirements that the Governor has just championed. Since I have been elected, personal responsibility and work requirements for able-bodied adults 19 to 64 has been one of my top priorities. I will continue my efforts to push and support any legislation that will make work requirements a reality in Oklahoma.”

“We applaud Governor Fallin for her forethought and leadership, which we believe will go a long way to help the state’s medically needy populations,” said AFP-OK State Director John Tidwell. “These efforts, along with necessary Medicaid audits will ensure that Oklahoma is a model for reducing dependency and fraud while expanding opportunities for everyone in our state.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Fallin issued Executive Order 2018-05, which instructs the OK Health Care Authority to file the necessary waivers and state plan amendments to incorporate a work requirement in the Medicaid program.

Read the complete story on kfor.com

Excavation of West Lake Landfill is not necessary. The state of Missouri and the federal government have deemed the site safe. Moving the process any further down the road is not a responsible use of Environmental Protection Agency resources.

With the low concentrations of Uranium-238, Thorium-230, and Thorium-226 in the buffer zone of the West Lake landfill there is no need for the EPA to remove the radiological waste since the concentrations were found to be at or slightly above background levels.

Environmentalists have long known that picketing, chanting and generally causing a ruckus is more than enough to help get their way at the EPA. Fear mongering should not be how we set policy.

The West Lake Landfill does not need to be moved. There are plenty of other sites across the United States that would be a better use of EPA resources.

I hope that Administrator Pruitt resists the urge to take the politically expedient path. The EPA should listen to its scientists on this one.

FWD.US OKLAHOMA COALITION TO HOLD TELE-ROUNDTABLE ON CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON DACA, WILL RELEASE LETTER TO OKLAHOMA REPRESENTATIVES URGING ACTION

OKLAHOMA CITY – The FWD.us Oklahoma Coalition will host a tele-roundtable on congressional action on DACA on Thursday, November 30 at 10:30 AM CT. Coalition members will provide an update on the current state of play and the urgent need for congressional action to protect approximately 800,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recipients, who are currently living and working in the United States but face the imminent threat of deportation if Congress does not pass a permanent legislative solution.

The tele-roundtable comes as nearly 20 FWD.us Oklahoma Coalition members released a joint letter to Oklahoma lawmakers urging for the passage of a permanent legislative solution for Dreamers this year, and highlighting the tremendous impact it could have on Oklahoman communities and the local economy.

Time is running out for Congress to respond to the Trump Administration’s Sept. 5, 2017 decision to rescind the DACA program, and the threat is growing for nearly 6,800 Oklahoma Dreamers who have lost or will lose their DACA status in the coming months. If Members of Congress do not pass a permanent legislative solution by March 5, every single day between March 6 and November 6, approximately 1,700 DACA recipients will lose their protections from deportation, and could be ripped out of the workforce, separated from their families, and deported to countries they may not even remember.

The tele-roundtable will include a state-of-play update from event participants, including their opinion and expertise on what needs to be done to protect Dreamers and to urge Congress to act this year. The update will be followed by a brief Q&A, providing coalition and community members the chance to ask for an expert opinion on the role they can plan in passing a long-term legislative solution for Dreamers.

WHAT: Tele-roundtable event on the current state of play of DACA in Congress

WHO: Peter Boogaard, Communications Director, FWD.us
Erika Lucas, CEO, StitchCrew
Carlos Rubio, DACA recipient and student at the University of Oklahoma
Robert Ruiz, President, Scissortail Community Development Organization

WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 30 at 10:30 AM CT
WHERE: Conference Line: 605-475-3235 Access Code: 776992#

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About FWD.us: FWD.us is a bipartisan organization started by key leaders in the tech and business community to promote policies to keep the United States competitive in a global economy, starting with commonsense immigration reform and criminal justice reform.

War on the EPA | FRONTLINE | PBS

FRONTLINE investigates how Scott Pruitt went from fighting the EPA to running the agency.

U.S. Sen. James Lankford will co-sponsor legislation to protect from deportation young people brought to America by undocumented immigrants.

Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, told CNN on Thursday that he has worked for weeks with U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., on a legislative alternative to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an executive order by former President Barack Obama that was rescinded by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Sept. 5.

“These individuals are literally in limbo, people without a country. We have to be able to resolve this,” Lankford said.

The senator declined to give details of the Tillis-Lankford bill. There are about 7,500 DACA beneficiaries in Oklahoma.

Read the complete story on NewsOK.com

U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine has been nominated to be the next administrator of NASA, the White House announced Friday night.

Bridenstine, a 42-year-old Tulsa Republican, had taken the unusual approach of making clear his interest in the job. Bridenstine’s nomination will now head to the Senate for confirmation.

“I am pleased President Trump has announced his intent to name Jim Bridenstine as NASA Administrator today,” said U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa. “As the former administrator of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium, Jim Bridenstine’s lifelong passion for space, combined with his work in Congress on modernizing our nation’s space program will serve him well at NASA.”

If confirmed, Bridenstine would be the first former member of Congress to head a space agency traditionally seen as apolitical. Most past administrators have been scientists.

Read the complete story on NewsOK.com

Critics and supporters of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt have found common ground in their shared belief that the former Oklahoma attorney general is operating with an efficiency and zeal beyond that of his predecessors.

“There’s a tremendous amount of attention and a tremendous amount of focus that’s going into our agenda and the president has given us that charge,” Pruitt said during an interview Thursday.

In February, Pruitt took over a federal agency that had, in his words, “lost its moorings.” He has compared disdain of the EPA to that directed at the Internal Revenue Service and told a conservative gathering that critics of the agency were justified in their scorn.

“What people are justified feeling is the oppressiveness and the paternalism and the use of regulatory power to pick winners and losers,” Pruitt said Thursday.

Read the complete story on NewsOK.com

One morning in the early months of President Donald Trump’s presidency, chief of staff Reince Priebus stood before a meeting at the West Wing. Gripping two news articles in his hand, he motioned toward chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.

“Hey, Steve, it says here I want to stab you in the back,” Priebus said.

Bannon, holding two news articles of his own, responded in kind.

“Hey, Reince, it says here I want to club you like a baby seal,” he said.

Seated between them and laughing heartily was a self-described “good ol’ boy from Oklahoma,” a fast-talking politico whose stream-of-consciousness spiels still harbor a slight Sooner State twang.

Three decades in Washington have not cost deputy White House chief of staff Rick Dearborn his folksiness. “Heck” and “doggoned” pepper his sentences. His mother is still “Momma.” The White House budget director is “ol’ Mick Mulvaney.”

Read the complete story on NewsOK.com

The final weeks of a legislative session are usually busy, sometimes frantic. With Oklahoma’s state government facing a budget shortfall and strong disagreements about how to deal with it, this session was set to be challenging right from the beginning. Yet with less than a week to go, three legislators decided to spend a long weekend in San Francisco.

The purpose of the junket is to scheme about nullifying the Electoral College, which is despised by many liberals who blame the constitutional process for Hilary Clinton’s loss and the election of Donald Trump. According to a report by NonDoc.com:

House Minority Leader Scott Inman (D-Del City) said today that Rep. Eric Proctor (D-Tulsa), Rep. Cory Williams (D-Stillwater) and Rep. Shane Stone (D-OKC) told him they would not be at the Oklahoma State Capitol this weekend, but he said he did not know they were out of state. …

Proctor, Williams and Stone spoke to NonDoc together by speaker phone. The three said they are attending an Institute for Research on Presidential Elections conference.

Inman said “they were” at the Capitol on Friday, but the trio said they left Oklahoma about 6 a.m. Friday. …

The members’ absence means that, this weekend, Inman could not deliver the 26 floor votes he has promised for a 5 percent gross production tax deal even if it were agreed to and moved through committee today by Republicans.

Apparently, for these three legislators, meeting with liberal donors in San Francisco to talk about manipulating future presidential elections is more important than balancing the state budget.

Editor’s Note: For more about the importance of preserving the Electoral College, Mr. England wrote about the topic both before and after the election.

Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating was interviewed Wednesday by President Donald Trump for the FBI’s top job but said he does not expect to be chosen.

“If they wanted me, I certainly would be honored, but I really don’t think that’s going to happen,” Keating, 73, told The Oklahoman after his interview at the White House.

Keating, a Republican, was identified as one of four candidates being interviewed Wednesday for the position of FBI director.

Trump last week fired James Comey, who had been FBI director since 2013. The abrupt dismissal triggered harsh criticism of the decision, since it came in the midst of an FBI investigation of Russia’s meddling into last year’s presidential election.

Read the complete story on the oklahoman.com

WASHINGTON — By most accounts, the Trump administration is running behind many of its predecessors in filling out its ranks. Under secretaries still need confirmation, staff members need to be hired and advisers named.

And yet, across the federal government, the middle tiers of the executive branch’s agencies, departments and White House offices — the people who will ultimately shape President Trump’s agenda — are beginning to come to life.

Here are a few of the less-than-boldface names among them who are likely to play an outsize role in accomplishing Mr. Trump’s highest-priority items.

Ryan T. Jackson, Chief of staff to the Environmental Protection Agency administrator

Since he started in politics at 18, Ryan T. Jackson had more or less worked for one man: James M. Inhofe, the powerful Oklahoma Republican who is one of the Senate’s most ardent skeptics of climate change.

Read the complete story on nytimes.com

Posted by on March 22, 2017

The vote on the American Healthcare Act is a very tough decision. As the Representative of the First District of Oklahoma, my philosophy has been to fight for the most conservative option possible, and I often vote “No” to get to a “better Yes”. Today, I decided the American Healthcare Act is the best “Yes” that the House is able to accomplish legislatively at this time. Conservatives worked very hard to improve this bill, and while we hoped for a better bill, this is a dramatic improvement over Obamacare.

Obamacare is collapsing on itself with massive increases in premiums and deductibles so high that some families are effectively uninsured. Many states have lost health insurance providers where companies cannot afford to offer Obamacare-compliant policies. A third of all counties, including every county in Oklahoma, have only one provider on the exchanges this year and another third have only two. Seven years ago, Obamacare took over nearly 20 percent of the U.S. economy, and unwinding that tangled system is extremely complex.

This bill effectively repeals the individual and employer mandates, cuts $1 trillion in taxes, and reduces the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars over ten years. The bill fundamentally transforms Medicaid from an open-ended and unsustainable entitlement to a State-centered system which caps the Federal contribution and maximizes flexibility for the States. The Medicaid reforms alone will save trillions over the long-term, help move millions of people onto private insurance, and preserve the safety net for the most vulnerable.

Most important to me, this bill prohibits funds from going to the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, and redirects federal funding to Community Health Centers. This provision alone merits support even though the bill falls short of what conservatives wanted to accomplish.

I am disappointed that this legislation did not include provisions to repeal the Obamacare health insurance regulations which are the root cause of skyrocketing premiums and employers dropping coverage. Fortunately, Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services, will exercise his authority under the law to remove costly Obamacare regulations. I also have great reservations about the bill’s refundable tax credit scheme, which is essentially a different version of the Obamacare subsidy program.

In my judgment though, this is the opening legislative salvo of the Trump Presidency, and we cannot let it fail when we do not have a shot at a better option. Therefore, I will vote “Yes”.