In a DC Spotlight feature with the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, Oklahoma Senator James Lankford had the opportunity to share his insights into the recent election, as well as expectations on the policy focus in Washington D.C., at a consequential time for our nation. Farm Director KC Sheperd had the chance to talk with Senator Lankford to get the details.
Lankford is excited about the development of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to hopefully streamline and reduce the imprint of the federal government. “We haven’t done this in decades,” he said. “To be able to have a serious look at how we structure what we do, the tax policy changes, and the opportunity to be in the majority in the Senate.”
Lankford attended a DOGE meeting yesterday and enjoyed visiting with the department heads, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. “I have worked on this issue for ten years, but we’ve never had a White House that has really been focused on this,” Lankford said. “Everybody sees the inefficiency in government. It isn’t a partisan thing. We are wasting money. We are spending it on things we shouldn’t. Our employment is off as far as how we are investing in different agencies and entities. We haven’t settled how we are going to do telework. It has just morphed and happened and no one has asked the hard questions of, ‘Is it the right way to do it? Is it the right position to be able to do it?’ It is a good moment to look at solving these issues so we can be made more efficient.”
Tax issues will be paramount in the coming discussions. “Every single tax rate expires at the end of 2025,” Lankford explained. “If we don’t do a tax bill, literally everyone in America’s taxes will go up on a standard deduction and will be cut in half for every individual. It will be radically different. Small businesses that do QBI – that all goes away along with bonus depreciation, research and development tax credits. The estate tax and more will skyrocket if we don’t do something by the end of this coming year.”
Along with the Tax Bill, Senator Lankford understands the need to complete a Farm Bill as does the incoming Chairman of Agriculture John Boozman; however, for the lame duck session, Lankford predicts an extension of the current policy, possibly with some additions to the Farm Disaster rates.
As Senator Lankford has been meeting with incoming appointees, he described the timeline as the prelims because none of the individuals have yet been confirmed, much less officially nominated. The new Congress will be sworn in on January 3rd and can begin hearings, but their hands are tied until President-elect Trump takes office on January 20, when, as a standing President, he can nominate his Cabinet.
“We are doing as much work as we can right now to get ready for that, so we can get as many people confirmed as fast as we can, so he can get his team in place,” he stated.
He described media noise on many of the intended nominees but said it is hard to tell whether any of them might be more or less challenging to confirm. He said that the full stories will come from the hearings with the individuals.
“We get the opportunity to actually meet them, talk through the process, read all of the background information, and do a public hearing,” He said. “The hearings will all be public, There will be tens of people watching in on C-SPAN who can make their own judgments on what they say and from the evidence that comes back to them on it. The key thing is that there is no perfect person. Jesus has not been nominated for any of these positions. We want to know what their competence level is, and the direction they want to go. Everybody wants to see these agencies get fixed, so the goals of the individuals are very important.”
About immigration, which Lankford has been boldly outspoken about, he expects a reconciliation bill in early 2025 which will include funding, but not policy.
“It will focus on what we will be doing to increase the border wall itself and the infrastructure around the border wall, along with increasing agents, deportation flights, and detention space,” Lankford described. “It will also increase what no one is talking about, but what we call the National Vetting Center. That is who screens these folks, and it has a very small staff. The Biden administration has kept it very, very small. We must increase that number to be able to know who is this person in the process and what background can we gain on them.”
The added funding will help the Trump administration do a better job of enforcing the border; however, Lankford believes that there are still policy issues to deal with, namely, fixing the Asylum Loophole.
“I was trying to finish fixing that it last February when we were trying to be able to work through the immigration laws,” he said. “We can’t fix that in a budget thing. We have to sit down and find sixty people who can agree in the Senate on how we are going to fix that loophole. That is one of the things that former President Trump tried to get fixed in 2019, but we weren’t able to.”
Lankford said that the reconciliation bill and future policy changes shouldn’t affect farm workers so long as they don’t have criminal records or an existing court order to leave.
“Those people need to go,” he said. “That is about a million people who are in the country right now who have been told by a federal court to leave. If they haven’t left, they have not only violated our laws, they have also violated a federal court order, and need to be removed,” he firmly stated. “President Trump, very early on the morning after the election, said that we are going to clamp down on immigration, but we are also going to do more for legal immigration. That is more work visas and such. That is a better way to do this than unchecked, unvetted illegal immigration.”
Lankford said that his Christmas list centers on his own family, Oklahoma, and finding ways to ease some of the turmoil in the world, namely the conflicts in Syria and North Korea and republican Korea.
“There are a lot of thing in the world that really need more attention, and I’m looking forward to a new Trump administration stepping in and saying ‘We are going to pay attention to some things that have not had attention paid to them.’ Because we don’t want an unstable region that affects, quite frankly, all of us.”
