If you’re anything like my bride, Cindy, you are ready for warmer weather, sunny skies, and porch sitting. I hope you will use this time to get outside and enjoy our state’s beautiful parks and recreation areas and also use the extra hours of sunlight to volunteer with nonprofits in your community. As temperatures heat up, please be sure to check on vulnerable senior adults and neighbors to make sure they have ways to stay cool.
This Memorial Day weekend, take time to remember the heroes we’ve lost who gave their last full measure of devotion to their nation to protect our freedom, sometimes halfway around the world from their family and friends. This is a time to remember their sacrifice and find practical ways to serve their families and our nation.
Hearing Ag Priorities from Oklahomans Last Friday, I brought my friend, Senator John Boozman of Arkansas, who is the lead Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, to Oklahoma for a discussion with leaders in the Oklahoma ag community to talk about Oklahoma priorities for the Farm Bill. Oklahomans sure have a lot “at steak” in this conversation.
When the Farm Bill is written this fall, we want to make sure Oklahoma concerns are addressed. We met with Oklahoma farmers, ranchers, and nutrition specialists to hear their ideas on crop insurance, credit programs, crop & livestock risk mitigation programs, trade priorities, food & nutrition, drought prevention & conservation, and much more. We joined faculty and staff at Langston University to get first-hand knowledge of the University’s world-renowned goatbreeding program, and we visited Oklahoma State University in Stillwater to interact with some of the cutting-edge dairy and agronomy research leaders.
We also met with Oklahoma law enforcement to discuss the risks facing Oklahoma agriculture and national security from both illegal marijuana operations and the Chinese land ownership and influence in our state. I continue to press for my SOIL Act, which provides oversight and transparency for foreign purchases of U.S. ag land that could threaten national security. If governments in Russia, China, and other adversaries are trying to buy U.S. land, it’s not because they love America. We need rigorous oversight to make sure hostile nations are not purchasing our land for illegal activities or threats to our national security Clear Skies for the FAA Reauthorization Oklahoma has a rich aviation history. We have a unique relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration through the important work done at Oklahoma City’s Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center which is an essential part of a safe and efficient national air space, coordinated by the FAA. The Aeronautical Center is home to the only FAA Academy which provides the initial training for air traffic controllers with centralized, standardized and efficient training to about 20,000 students each year. The Academy is also home to the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute that provides medical certification, research, education and occupational health for the FAA.
This year’s FAA reauthorization bill, which I supported, directs the FAA to expand the air traffic control training in Oklahoma at MMAC, which will improve the safety of our national airspace by increasing the number of well-trained air traffic controllers in towers across the country. This bill leads us into the future of aviation, and I was proud to support it.
Continuing to Clean Up after Storms The warmer weather and Oklahoma spring has brought severe weather, including tornadoes, damaging winds, hail, flooding, and more, to Oklahomans around our state. I know my family is ready for severe weather threats to end, but we are grateful for the rain in droughtstricken areas of the state. As I continue to work with FEMA and the Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to be sure our counties have the resources they need, please make sure the folks you know in affected areas visit Damage.OK.Gov to report damage to the OEM. Volunteers are still needed for cleanup and recovery efforts, so please remain engaged to help our friends and neighbors clean up and get up and running again. Don’t forget to keep watching the skies. We have more storms coming this weekend in many parts of the state.