At the Washington Watch in D.C., Farm Director KC Sheperd welcomed a conversation with a fellow Oklahoman when she met up with Senator James Lankford and accompanied him and other members of the media on an evening tour of the Capitol.
“It’s good to see a friendly face here, too,” he said. “I don’t get to see Oklahomans in town all the time, so it is good to have some Oklahoma family here.”
Lankford has only been home in Oklahoma for three weeks of 2025, and it is now the fifth month of the year, but it’s all been for a good cause. “We’ve done a record number of confirmations; more than any Senate in the last forty years,” he said. “We also have a lot of tax policy to do. We’ve got a farm bill. We’ve got twelve appropriation bills. We’ve got the national defense authorization. There is still a lot to do.”
H-21 Workers and Immigration
Sheperd asked for clarification between H-2A workers and immigrants. The key difference is that H-2A workers are temporary, agricultural workers who are allowed to enter the U.S. to perform seasonal agricultural labor. Immigrants, on the other hand, are individuals who come to a country to live there permanently and can potentially become citizens.
Having not heard from the President himself on the matter, Senator Lankford, reading between the lines, speculated on his understanding of the matter. “Once the border is actually secure, and we’ve had the maximum number of people that self-deport and leave or criminal aliens that have left, I think the President turns more towards, how we prevent more illegal immigration but allow for more legal immigration,” he said.
Noting the number of resorts and country clubs owned by President Trump, Senator Lankford understands that he is pro-immigration. “He already does what is called the Gold Card,” he explained. “It is for tech businesses and others that want to be able to buy a position in. He’s dipping his toe into some of those things already, and I would expect in the next couple of years he’ll turn to Congress and say, ‘let’s work on the actual legal immigration system.’”
USDA Cuts
Turning to DOGE cuts to USDA, Sen. Lankford clarified that it is a resizing, not a downsizing. Secretary Rollins has expressed understanding of the concerns of producers in Oklahoma and other states and assured Lankford that she is protecting as many people as she can; however, some people are “in the wrong seat on the bus.”
“I’m very pleased that we have now moved from the DOGE moments at the very beginning of the administration to now, where we have Cabinet Secretaries that are in place and say, ‘Let’s be strategic in how we do this,’” Lankford explained. “We do need to have a smaller government, but we need to be strategic in how we do it.”
Tariffs
He compared the tariff debacle to remodeling a kitchen. When the work begins, it is a mess, but it will become something better. President Trump wants to reopen markets that have previously been blocked, such as India, Korea, Japan, and Australia.
“There are some of those trade barriers we’ve got to tear down to be able to open up new markets globally,” he detailed. “The President has got to get leverage to be able to do that with tariffs. That is already in process, and he’s about to announce several deals on this.”
Unfortunately, Senator Lankford wasn’t so positive when asked about the proximity of a farm bill. “Ugh, we’re not that close,” he said. “We’re in a much better position now. John Boozman, the Chairman, has worked on this now for 2.5 years. He feels very resolved about it. Some of the aspects of the farm bill, we are going to try to get done in our reconciliation bill. That should be in July, but I think the rest of the farm bill is more like October–November.”
