Despite Biden’s Disastrous First Year, Lankford Highlights Wins for Oklahomans

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today recognized that, in spite of President Biden’s disastrous first year in office, his Republican colleagues and he were able to secure numerous successes for Oklahomans and the nation in 2021. 

“In spite of President Biden’s disastrous first year as president, I’ve worked all year to secure a number of successes for Oklahomans and the nation,” said Lankford. “One year ago today, President Biden started our nation on a roller coaster year that many Oklahomans and I saw as a disastrous 365 days for our economy, for COVID-19 recovery, for protecting life, for securing our southern border, for withdrawing from Afghanistan, and much more. Congressional Democrats and Biden spent the year trying to keep Americans’ attention on red herring after red herring while Oklahomans saw it as avoiding the obvious struggles our families have faced.

“Instead, I pushed Biden to finally finish the southern border wall, stop settlement payments to migrants, and keep a migrant ‘surge facility’ out of Oklahoma. Biden’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wanted to try to close Harmon Memorial Hospital in Hollis, and I helped keep it open and keep its 100 jobs in rural southwest Oklahoma. I worked to stop every part of Biden’s vaccine mandates, disastrous bills like ‘Build Back Broke’ and the Equality Act. We stood up for all American energy while Biden begged for oil and natural gas from OPEC+. Work remains, but 2021 was another year for our fight for more freedom, smaller government, and hopefully a better economic outlook in the days ahead.”

In 2021, Lankford authored 23 bills and 97 amendments. Lankford also coauthored another 214 bills and 85 amendments. Below are some of the many “wins” Lankford secured for Oklahomans in 2021:

Fighting Biden’s vaccine mandates 

Despite Democrats’ push for a more progressive agenda, Lankford introduced legislation to stop every part of Biden’s vaccine mandates—but Democrats blocked it—and successfully pushed the resolution of disapproval on the mandate for companies with 100 or more workers. Lankford sent a brief to the US Supreme Court to outline the constitutional issues with the mandate and urge them to block it, which the Supreme Court agreed with. 

Securing the southern border

When the Biden Administration blocked the media from visiting the southern border, Lankford flew there and released videos to expose the unfinished border wall in Arizona and Texas. Lankford exposed billions in federal waste paid to contractors to babysit wall materials while the Biden Administration “studied” it. After he called them out, they finally restarted construction on the border wall and ended their proposed $450,000 settlement payments to illegal migrants separated at the border under President Trump. 

Within hours of hearing a rumor about it, Lankford stopped Biden’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office from trying to open a “surge overflow temporary facility” in Hinton. 

Protecting Oklahomans’ access to health care 

When Harmon Memorial Hospital in Hollis was on the verge of closing, Lankford worked to ensure the community hospital remained open to save jobs and maintain healthcare for SW Oklahoma. After hearing from an Oklahoma veteran, Lankford helped push CVS to rejoin the TRICARE network for prescriptions to make processing claims simpler and more efficient for veterans.  

Standing up for American energy producers

Lankford stood up for American energy producers against Biden’s progressive and irresponsible activism that raised our prices of energy and sought to “cancel” traditional energy. I stood up for all forms of America energy.

Protecting life 

Lankford stood up against the Biden Administration when they’ve tried to force Americans to pay for abortions through their tax dollars and force health providers to participate in abortions against their conscience and religious beliefs with his Conscience Protection Act gaining momentum. In a very close vote, Lankford’s amendment passed to save the vital Hyde Amendment protections for taxpayers from being forced to pay for abortions.

Blocking Biden’s radical, progressive agenda

Lankford helped stop Democrats’ attempts to federalize our elections and stopped disastrous bills like the Equality Actfrom becoming law, which would take away protections for Americans to live their faith in their workplace, and stopped “Build Back Broke” that would make inflation worse and add to our national debt. Lankford and Senate Republicans pushed in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to stop the requirement for women to register for the draft and block a requirement for service members to receive controversial critical race theory or “extremism” training.

Holding Biden accountable for the botched Afghanistan withdrawal 

After Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal, in the NDAA Lankford prevented the closure of the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and prevented moving any detainees to the US or giving money to the Taliban. 

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