Weekly Columns

Vladimir Putin’s catastrophic assault against the independent country of Ukraine is a truly heinous act that jeopardizes the stability of Europe and peace across the globe. It has been heartbreaking to witness the humanitarian disaster that Russia’s unwarranted invasion has caused on innocent civilians in a sovereign, prosperous nation.

Before President Biden took office, our country was energy independent. In 2019, we became a net total energy exporter for the first time since 1952. The United States was not reliant on foreign adversaries for our energy needs. Instead, we were producing clean, affordable, and secure energy to fuel our nation. We were a stronger America.

An unimaginable amount of fentanyl is pouring over our southern border, causing every town in the United States to feel the devastating effects of Democrats’ weak border policies. This deadly drug is coming predominantly from China and is being smuggled into the United States through Mexico. Now, we are in the midst of a crisis that has led to the highest number of drug overdoses in the history of the opioid epidemic.

The fate of one of our allies is at the discretion of Vladimir Putin. There are at least 130,000 Russian troops stationed on Ukraine’s border and the waters off the country’s shore have been blocked, leading to potential economic harm for Ukraine. The threat of an invasion is imminent. The trajectory of Putin’s geopolitical goals is clear, and what we’ve seen from President Biden is a lack of seriousness and urgency around this dire situation.

Under Democratic control of the White House and Congress, our nation has broken records -- for the worse. Most recently, through irresponsible and unsustainable government spending, the U.S. national debt exceeded $30 trillion for the first time. Unfortunately, Democrats are kicking the can down the road and not addressing the biggest contributors to this crisis. Instead of reining in spending, they are continuing to rack up our nation’s debt that Americans will pay off for generations to come.

Last week was the start of tax filing season with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This can be a difficult process, especially since the pandemic has posed unique challenges, but I wanted to provide you with some tips to speed tax return processing and refund delivery.

If you drove across our state of Oklahoma, you would see nearly half a million wells that have been drilled into open fields. While they support hundreds of thousands of jobs and contribute to producing clean American energy when active, abandoned wells and legacy sites have become a major problem for landowners. These sites cause environmental hazards and are extremely costly, which is why my colleague Representative Conor Lamb (PA-17) and I crafted H.R. 4270, the Abandoned Well Remediation Research and Development Act.

Last week was an example of yet another power-grab attempt and legislative gimmick forced upon Congress by Democrats. Late Wednesday night, House Democrats gutted H.R. 5746, a bill relating solely to NASA, and dropped in voting rights legislation that includes provisions from the “John Lewis Voting Rights Act” (H.R. 4) and “For the People Act” (H.R. 1). Both of these bills had little support from American citizens because they undermine the rights of states to determine their own election laws.