Lankford Secures Major Wins for Oklahoma Families, Energy Producers, and Small Businesses in One Big Beautiful Bill
US Senator James Lankford (R-OK), a member of the Senate Finance and Homeland Security Committees, released the following statement after the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, which delivers the largest tax cut in history for hardworking Americans, secures the border, strengthens Medicaid program integrity, and rebuilds the military, all while cutting out-of-control spending.
“This is a big, beautiful win for Oklahoma families, workers, seniors, and small businesses,” said Lankford. “This bill halts the largest tax increase in history, secures the border, and contains the most significant entitlement reform in years. I fought to make sure Oklahoma values were reflected in this package – protecting charitable giving, supporting energy jobs, and making it easier for businesses to grow and hire American workers.” Lankford secured key wins in the One Big Beautiful Bill to support Oklahoma families, job creators, and charitable giving. He secured the charitable deduction for non-itemizers, allowing couples to deduct up to $2,000 in donations. This will help more Americans support local churches, charities, and non-profits. Lankford also led the repeal of the Biden administration’s tax penalty on oil and gas producers by restoring key investment deductions. This will allow energy producers to reinvest, create jobs, and keep energy prices stable. He also worked to make full, immediate expensing permanent so businesses can deduct the full cost of equipment and technology up front. This will drive expansion, innovation, and job creation across Oklahoma.
Background Lankford has been outspoken on what it would have meant for Oklahomans if the One Big Beautiful Bill hadn’t passed the Senate and if President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts expire: A staggering 63,000 jobs were projected to be lost. The average Oklahoma family faced a $2,013 tax increase. Nearly 449,000 households would have seen their child tax credit reduced by 50%. Over 233,000 small business owners would have been hit with significant tax hikes. More than 1.5 million families would have had their standard deduction cut in half.
To read more about how this bill helps families, seniors, the vulnerable and disabled, farmers and ranchers, small businesses, as well as strengthens our national defenses, unleashes American energy, and secures the border, see below:
How this bill helps families
This bill delivers the largest tax cut in history, which will result in higher wages and higher take-home pay. This is also the most substantial entitlement reform in years, which will help our safety net programs stay viable for those in need. The average family will save about $5,000 in additional taxes next year. There will be no tax on tips, an increased standard deduction for seniors, no tax on overtime, and a tax break for those who buy new cars made in America. This bill will also give families $2,200 per child up to 16 years old every year. It will also create a savings account for every child born between 2025 and the end of 2028 – each account would start with a $1,000 deposit that parents can invest for their kids, giving kids a financial boost from birth.In Oklahoma, the long-run wage increase is projected to go from $4,800 to $9,100 according to the Council of Economic Advisers. In Oklahoma, the take-home pay increase for a family of four is projected to go from $6,500 to $10,800 according to the Council of Economic Advisers. This bill also expands the adoption tax credit and indexes it for inflation. It also allows for tribal governments to decide when a child qualifies as having special needs to extra help under the credit. When adoption can cause as much as $60,000, this tax credit will make it easier for families to welcome a child in need into their lives and homes. Police officers, firefighters, truckers, linemen, and others who work overtime will take home an average of more than $1,300 a year because of the no tax on overtime in this bill. Those who buy a new American-made car will be able to write off some of the interest from their car loan, which will help families and American manufacturing.
How this bill helps seniors
Seniors who make less than $75,000 as an individual or a couple who makes less than $150,000 will see a $6,000 increase in their standard deduction regardless of whether they are receiving Social Security yet or not.
How this bill helps vulnerable and disabled patients
This bill is good news for vulnerable and disabled patients because it protects the aged, blind, and disabled from changes to Medicaid. It also blocks Biden’s nursing home staffing mandate that threatened rural care facilities, it boosts physician payments to offset cuts that the Biden administration had implemented, and it ensures continued access to care and incentivizes innovation, especially for those with rare diseases or who need access to telehealth options. It also prohibits tax dollars from going to Planned Parenthood through Medicaid.
How this bill helps farmers and ranchers
This bill delivers wins for rural America by expanding the farm safety net, strengthening crop insurance, and supporting agricultural trade. The bill also restores accountability in nutrition programs and ensures food assistance serves Americans in need, not illegal immigrants. This bill would keep two million family farms safe from the death tax by making permanent death tax exemptions from the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. How this bill incentivizes giving to charitySen. Lankford was proud to lead on restoring a tax deduction for non-itemizers – up to $2,000 per couple – which will help more Americans support charities, houses of worship, and non-profits, especially those that serve the most vulnerable.
How this bill helps energy production
Sen. Lankford also led a repeal of the Biden administration’s unfair tax penalty on oil and gas producers by restoring key investment deductions, which will allow domestic energy producers to reinvest, create jobs, and keep energy costs stable.
How this bill helps businesses
Sen. Lankford worked to make full, immediate expensing permanent, so businesses can deduct investments like equipment and technology up front, which will help fuel job creation and business expansion. How this bill cracks down on illegal immigration. This bill devotes $160 billion to hire more Border Patrol Agents, more ICE officers, and to finish the border wall and invest in technology to secure the border.
How this bill helps our air traffic control systemThe bill invests $12.5 billion to modernize America’s air traffic control system, by replacing outdated equipment, upgrading safety infrastructure, and expanding controller training so we continue to have the safest skies in the world.
How this bill strengthens our national defense
This bill provides $150 billion to strengthen our military, rebuild our defense industrial base, and support border security missions. It also funds the Golden Dome initiative, boosts efforts to counter China, improves the quality of life for our servicemembers, invests in the tools needed to improve Pentagon accountability and delivers a clean audit.
Ranking Member Angie Craig Testifies Against “Big Ugly Bill” at Rules Committee Hearing
The more the American people learn about this “Big Ugly Bill” and its nearly $200 billion cut to food assistance, the less they like it.
A recent Fox News poll found 59 percent of voters oppose this bill. The American people are not buying what the Republicans are selling – even on Fox News.
The American people, like House Democrats, want to reduce waste, fraud and abuse. This bill does not reduce waste, fraud or abuse – it gives government sponsored tax breaks to the wealthiest among us and pay for it by taking food and health care away from seniors, children, veterans and people with disabilities. And it isn’t truly paid for. It adds nearly $4 trillion to the national debt. So much for fiscal responsibility.
The American people – including Minnesotans – know the cost of living is too high. This bill does not lower the cost of living – it makes meeting basic needs, like groceries and accessing medical care, more expensive.
The American people want efficient and effective governance. This bill does not improve good governance; it makes it worse by pushing billions in new expenses onto state and county governments – forcing our state and local governments into a position where they need to decide between taking food away from their friends and neighbors, slashing other local services or raising taxes to pay for these new bills Republican politicians in Washington, DC, are trying to pass along to them.
In Minnesota alone – where the burden for SNAP cuts will fall to the counties – the Association of Minnesota Counties projects they will have to raise property taxes by an average of more than 5 percent to pay for it. And by much more in some counties.
Republicans have managed to do the impossible. Miraculously, they’ve created a bill that takes food and health care away from millions of Americans in a way that does not save taxpayer dollars but instead adds trillions of dollars to the national debt. Minnesotans, and Americans in every corner of the country, are asking why and how is this possible. It’s simple. Republicans picked tax breaks for large corporations over hard-working American families.
Republicans are selling the American people down the river.
This bill sells out our farmers and the families they feed. It sells out the farm bill coalition that should be focused on passing a full, five-year farm bill with 12 bipartisan titles. It sells out the hopes and dreams of the 42 million Americans struggling to keep food on the table. It sells out more than 300 rural hospitals that are at risk of closing due to Medicaid cuts.
This bill cuts hundreds of billions of dollars from SNAP, our most effective anti-hunger program, by taking $6 a day out of the pockets of vulnerable seniors, veterans, children and people with disabilities – and putting that money into the pockets of billionaires.
Taking food away from the people who need it forces seniors to choose between having a meal and paying for medicine. It forces our nation’s children to go to bed hungry.
And let me tell you what else – this Republican bill takes food away from veterans struggling to reintegrate into civilian life in our country right now.
Many veterans suffer from behavioral or physical health issues connected to their service. One in three working-age veterans with disabilities isn’t sure where their next meal will come from. One in four working-age veterans who can’t find work is food insecure.
Our veterans can’t pay for meals with “Support the Troops” bumper stickers, and they can’t eat thoughts and prayers.
It doesn’t stop there.
This bill takes food away from former foster youth leaving the foster care system, who may not have the same level of support from families that many of us benefited from when we were just starting to make our way in the world as 18- or 19-year-olds. Where are your values?
The American people are right not to trust this bill. This bill does not save us a cent. It passed trillions in debt to our children and grandchildren and it’s a political loser. I honestly don’t understand what the hell my colleagues are doing. It does not make government work better. It makes people worse off. It does not lower costs for ordinary Americans. It makes life more expensive.
This bill was a disgrace when it left this chamber, and it is more of a disgrace now. I yield back.
Klobuchar Statement on Senate Passage of the Republican Reconciliation Bill–
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, released the following statement on the Senate passage of the Republican reconciliation bill:
“This bill is bad for families trying to put food on the table, for rural economies already dealing with the impact of tariffs, and for state and local governments working to make critical investments in the future.
“SNAP serves 42 million Americans – children, seniors, people with disabilities and veterans. This bill will terminate food assistance for nearly 3 million of them and will reduce benefits for millions more.
“These cuts also mean farmers, who are already operating on razor-thin margins, will see billions in lost revenue and rural, independent grocers will be in jeopardy.
“On top of that, the bill shifts massive costs to the states. State and local governments will be forced to choose: provide food assistance or reduce other critical services like law enforcement or health care. Even worse, the bill rewards states who have the highest error rates by delaying their SNAP cost-shift.
“The message to the country and the nation’s governors is this: raise your error rate and it delays your cuts for a year. Keep your error rate high for another year, you get no cuts again. Yet states with lower error rates must pay hundreds of millions of dollars.
Rather than shifting costs to states that they cannot pay for, what we should be doing is working together to bring down costs and to pass a bipartisan Farm Bill that will support all of rural America and make sure that families can put food on the table.”
