What James Lankford said, and what was done

“Mr. President, I rise today to honor the retirement announcement of Rich Brierre as the executive director of the Indian Nations Council of Governments (INCOG) in Tulsa, OK.”

“Rich was appointed Executive Director of INCOG in January 2008, replacing long-time director Jerry Lasker. Rich assumed leadership of the region's principal planning organization, serving approximately 50 local governments across the five-county Tulsa metropolitan area.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I actually brought a bill tonight to be able to protect the conscience rights of individual healthcare workers. It doesn't change the number of abortions in America.”

“Mr. President, I have come to this floor many times to be able to talk about a lot of serious policy issues, to be able to walk through all different kinds of tax policy, energy policy, immigration policy.”

“So if you want to see the Nation stronger, dads engage. That is what is going to make the Nation stronger. Every child needs a guide, a role model.”

“Mr. President, there are many days that I come to this floor to talk about a lot of different policy issues and things we need to get done--and there are a lot of things needing to get done.”

“Mr. President, I don't know if you remember 1977. But since 1977, this body has passed the 12 appropriation bills on time 4 times since 1977. By the way, this year is not one of them.”

“Mr. President, my colleagues that are here, we voted as a body to be able to get those funds to California. We agree this is an issue that needs to be funded, that needs to be taken care of--whether it is North Carolina or whether it is California or whether it is flooding or tornadoes that have happened across the Midwest.”

“Mr. President, 2 hours ago, Markwayne Mullin was sworn in as the Secretary of Homeland Security. I am grateful that he is there and is taking on that role.”

“Mr. President, in just a few moments, this body will vote for the next Secretary of Homeland Security. It happens to be a friend of mine. His name is Markwayne Mullin.”

“Mr. President, we are talking again about the SAVE Act. This is a simple piece of legislation that focuses on two key ideas: that if you are an American citizen, which is required by law, you just show it.”

“Now, as far as the negotiation process, my colleague from Hawaii is correct. There have been some letters that have been exchanged. Part of my frustration, and I have shared it with him before, is that the offer he was dictating was actually made, and there was no response that came back for 18 days.”

“Mr. President, my friend from Hawaii is actually correct on the color of money issue. There shouldn't be a difference. Those are taxpayer dollars, all of them, so the taxpayers should have accountability in that, and there shouldn't be a limitation on that.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to recognize Dr. Joe Leverett of Altus, OK, whose lifelong commitment to community service and support for our Nation's military has left a lasting impact on southwest Oklahoma, the men and women who serve at Altus Air Force Base, and our U.S.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I do thank my colleague for coming to the floor to be able to talk about this today. He and I are both on airplanes a lot.”

“I appreciate my friend Raphael Warnock coming to the floor, the Senator from Georgia, and being able to talk about these issues. The challenge of this is that the request has been made to say: Let's reform ICE.”

“Mr. President, 250 years ago--actually, 250 years ago this summer--we wrote a letter to good King George III, and in that letter we now call the Declaration of Independence, we complained about foreign intervention into the activities of Americans, the colonists.”

“Mr. President, I appreciate the colloquy and the dialogue here on this issue because this is an important issue. We have to break through this logjam. We have people across the country that are TSA, that are Coast Guard, that are cyber security professionals, that are FEMA professionals, that are, yes, ICE professionals, that are Homeland Security customs professionals that are doing a job they need to get paid for.”

“But can I remind my colleagues and anyone else who wants to hear it: What they are blocking funding for currently right now is more than just deportations.”

“Biden administration was focused on having more abortions in America. They weren't just pro-choice; they were pro-abortion, trying to increase the number of abortions in America, but to do that, they did not take into account the health and life of the mom because they were so eager to increase the number of abortions.”

“Mr. President, we are getting ready to turn the page into 2026, which is hard to process in some ways because so much has happened in 2025. I have a habit when I approach the end of the year to look back and also take a quick look forward where things might be going.”

“Literally, every economist has said that it is one of the most significant parts of the bill as far as economic activity across the country because it incentivizes more people to buy another piece of equipment to be able to use.”

“Anti-Semitism has no place in our Nation. Now, I understand you have a First Amendment right to be able to say any dumb thing that you want to say, but I also have the right to call it out for what it is.”

“Mr. President, the Senate is talking a lot about healthcare right now for good reason. There are major cost increases going up on insurance all across the country but especially for some folks that are in ObamaCare Marketplace plans.”

“And his frustration was pretty clear. He is just looking for a plan that he can afford. He is just looking for an option. He is not asking for something unrealistic.”

“There is an issue that I have worked on with several of the folks in this room, and that deals with pharmacy benefit managers. We have got to be able to actually land this.”

“Mr. President, I would love to introduce the Senate to a couple that I know: husband, wife. Both work for the Federal Government--young couple, expecting their first child.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to honor the retirement announcement of Joe Castiglione or ``Joe C'' as Sooner fans like to call him. Under his watch, Oklahoma has won 26 national championships and 117 conference championships in a span of 27 years.”

“Mr. President, today is October 7, 2025. It has been 731 days--2 years--that the war has been raging in Israel. On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists stormed through a fence line separating Gaza and Israel, and early that morning, they brutally slaughtered over 1,200 people--men, women, children, moms and dads, grandparents.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, as you know, the CISA reauthorization is also included in the clean CR that we are also trying to be able to pass, this continuing resolution.”

“As fun as it is to me, students that are gathering this year are the children of the first generation that gathered 35 years ago to start a movement to be able to pray.”

“Mr. President, the Senate is stuck. We have had an enormous number of nominations that have tried to be able to work through this body. Quite frankly, it is the same number that we have every time when it is the first term for a new President to be able to work its way through the body.”

“Mr. President, I want to bring a unanimous consent request, but I would say I represent--every single Republican is in agreement to this. Every single Republican was ready today to be able to move on what was an agreed-upon bipartisan agreement--not by all; understanding that.”

“Mr. President, I want to tell you a story about Tina Pierce. Tina grew up on a farm in Idaho. She was the first in her family to earn a college degree.”

“Mr. President, I want to compliment my colleague from Alabama Senator Britt. I can't begin to tell you how hard she has worked through the August time period.”

“There is this sense of we are just trying to be able to ram this solution through the Senate. She spent hours on the phone talking to different Democratic Senators--as I did, as multiple other members of our group did--to try to be able to find a pathway to be able to resolve this because that has always been the way it has been resolved.”

“Mr. President, when my girls were little--and they are not little anymore; they are adults now. When they were little, I can remember, at times, I would be working from the house, in our little office space in the house, and one of the girls would crawl up in my lap.”

“Amazingly, we had to do that year after year. It was always a challenge. We started dealing with fentanyl in the serious manner that it needed to be dealt with.”

“Mr. President, I do rise to be able to speak in opposition to this motion to recommit. It would kill the entire bill. I understand that is the intent of it, and I can appreciate that.”

“Mr. President, I wanted to just give a quick update on a project I was working on last week to my fellow Senators. I spent the last week, during Memorial Day week, in the Middle East.”

“There are a lot of things that we can continue to be able to talk about as we talk about multiple regions around the world, but as we focus on so many areas around the world, we cannot lose focus on the Middle East--the opportunities and the promise that are there but also the threats that still remain.”

“Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the provisions of S. Res. 255. There being no objection, under the previous order and pursuant to S.”

“Mr. President, a second issue. This body for the last week has had a conversation about CRAs, and most Americans would just flip the dial and go ``I don't even know what that is.'' Well, a Congressional Review Act is a CRA.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about two separate issues that seem to be confusing in our current climate at this point. The first of those is something called nationwide injunctions.”

“More and more individual district courts decided: I have an opinion, and I am not going to decide about the case in front of me; I am going to decide about the entire country.”

“Mr. President, I want to make a comment on the lands bill, my frustration of where things have gone today on things. I do want to just pause for a moment and recognize that two staff members of the Israeli Embassy were murdered last night here in Washington, DC, simply because they were Jewish.”

“Mr. President, I rise as chairman of the Select Committee on Ethics and on behalf of the members of the committee and its staff to pay tribute to Danny Remington, the committee's director of IT and operations, as he retires after 30 years of Senate service and almost 29 of those years with the committee.”

“Ryan and Reece coaching volleyball and enjoying some well-deserved time on the beach in Ocean City, MD. On behalf of the members and staff of the Select Committee on Ethics, I thank Danny for his decades of service and commitment to the U.S.”

“Mr. President, I flew back to Washington, DC, from the glorious State of Oklahoma on Monday. It was a normal flight for me to be able to fly in on a Monday morning.”

“Kristi, we still hear you, 3 years later, and we are still grateful for the sacrifice you and your family have made and for other families like yours.”

“Mr. President, I spent last weekend along our southern border, again, as I have done many weekends, to be able to get down to the border in different areas.”

“Literally, right there at the port of entry, they discovered a tunnel being dug directly under the port of entry to be able to smuggle drugs and people in.”

“Mr. President, I look forward to working on a larger proposal in the days ahead, but that larger proposal is not going to move in the House in the next month or 2 months.”

“Mr. President, I do appreciate so much my colleagues coming to the floor just to be able to talk about the scourge of fentanyl and what it is really doing in our communities.”

“Mr. President, President Biden liked to be able to say over and over again that we are producing record amounts of oil and gas. Some of my Democratic colleagues have even come to this floor in the last couple of days and have said: We don't have an energy emergency.”

“Mr. President, in Oklahoma, if you were to go to any house anywhere in the State right now and ask them how their money should be spent, they would probably smile at you and say: I would like to decide that, not somebody else.”

“Mr. President, over the last several weeks, we have worked at record pace here in the Senate on nominations. This has been one of those tasks that happen literally every time there is a new President that comes in, but the pace we have moved on nominations has been epic based on the last two terms of different Presidents.”

“The Trump administration, I am confident, will speak out with sanctions against the International Criminal Court. They did during the first Trump Presidency. I am confident they will again.”

“Mr. President, in accordance with rule XXVI, paragraph 2 of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I ask unanimous consent, for myself as chairman of the Select Committee on Ethics and for Senator Coons, vice chairman of the committee, that the rules of procedure of the Select Committee on Ethics, which were adopted February 23, 1978, and revised November 1999, be printed in the Congressional Record for the 119th Congress.”

“The transcript with these certifications shall be filed with the chief clerk of the Committee, and the witness shall be furnished with access to a copy at the Committee's offices for review.”

“Rule 9: Broadcasting and News Coverage of Committee Proceedings (a) Whenever any hearing or meeting of the Committee is open to the public, the Committee shall permit that hearing or meeting to be covered in whole or in part, by television broadcast, radio broadcast, still photography, or by any other methods of coverage, unless the Committee decides by recorded vote of not less than four members of the Committee that such coverage is not appropriate at a particular hearing or meeting. (b) Any witness served with a subpoena by the Committee may request not to be photographed at any hearing or to give evidence or testimony while the broadcasting, reproduction, or coverage of that hearing, by radio, television, still photography, or other methods is occurring.”

“Mr. President, for the past 45 minutes or so, my colleagues have come to this floor to be able to talk about a bill that is coming soon that we will actually vote on at the bottom of this hour.”

“Mr. President, in just a few moments, this body will vote on a bill that actually doesn't limit abortion at all. It doesn't slow down one abortion. It doesn't stop one woman from choosing to have an abortion.”

“Mr. President, you will see for the next hour a whole group of Republicans coming to the floor to be able to talk about one issue: our need for border security and safer communities.”

“Mr. President, I don't even know how many times I have come to the floor of this Senate to be able to talk about government efficiency. It is not a shock for me to be able to come back here again today and to say: Let's talk about this.”

“I am especially grateful for all the work you have done. Mr. President, I would like to introduce a fellow colleague, Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa. She is the founder of the DOGE Caucus and has been the one who has been very passionate about trying to find the waste in government.”

“Mr. President, as this body knows well, for the past hour, we have had multiple colleagues who have come to this floor to be able to talk about how do we make the government more efficient.”