Oklahoma’s congressional delegation split its votes on the border wall funding agreement that was passed in the U.S. Senate then in the House.
Sen. Jim Inhofe voted against the measure saying it failed to provide sufficient funding for border security.
“I’ve been saying this from the beginning—we need to seriously strengthen our border security to block the smuggling of illegal drugs and people. Real reforms must be made to our immigration process. This bill falls short of that goal. Instead of a real investment in the wall, it gives the President less than the original budget request and far less than Customs and Border Patrol agents say we need.”
However, Inhofe did support President Trump using an emergency declaration to address some of the shortfalls of the funding legislation to ensure border security:
“We need to secure the border and Democrats refuse to acknowledge an ongoing crisis, so I believe the President was left with no choice but to declare a national emergency. I want to make sure this declaration has minimal, if any, impact on our military and reimburse all the necessary accounts affected by the decision. As I heard in a hearing yesterday, military housing and all military installations are facing disrepair and poor conditions. We cannot afford to allow them to be further impacted.”
Sen. James Lankford supported the agreement and voted for it as the measure passed on an 83-16 vote in the Senate.
In the House, Oklahoma’s representatives split their votes. Reps. Kevin Hern and Markwayne Mullin were among those who opposed the bill which was passed on a 300-128 vote.
Reps. Tom Cole, Frank Lucas and Kendra Horn voted for it.
