{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-lankford-discusses-federal-fumbles-on-the-senate-floor-", "Senator Lankford Discusses Federal Fumbles on the Senate Floor", "2017-11-28", "2017", "2017-11", "Republican", "House", "OK", "James Lankford", "L000575", "www.lankford.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "11.28.17\n\t\t\t Senator Lankford Discusses Federal Fumbles on the Senate Floor  \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t Lankford: \u201cDeficit and growing debt affects every single American.\u201d\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t CLICK HERE to view the video\u00a0\r\nWASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today spoke on the Senate floor about the third volume of Federal Fumbles: 100 ways the government dropped the ball. Lankford\u2019s annual government waste and solutions report list $473.6 billion in wasteful and inefficient federal spending, but also lists solutions to each of the examples of government waste. Lankford released the report on Monday during a press conference. CLICK HERE to access the report.\r\nThe current United States federal debt is $20.49 trillion. The one-year deficit for Fiscal Year 2017 was $666 billion.\r\nExcerpts:\r\nOn the need to address the federal deficit:\r\nI\u00a0want to be able to address this\u00a0body to talk about an issue that\u00a0we don't talk about enough, the\u00a0deficit.\u00a0It's an issue for whatever\u00a0reason we've stopped talking\u00a0about in Washington, DC.\u00a0We're talking about tax policy,\u00a0as we should.\u00a0We're talking about disaster\u00a0relief areas, which we should.\u00a0Talking about healthcare policies,\u00a0which we should.\u00a0A lot of other things.\u00a0We have stopped talking about\u00a0debt and deficit.\u00a0I think that's a mistake for us.\u00a0See, as the trend has moved,\u00a0since 2011, at a high point when\u00a0the deficit spending that year\u00a0was $1.3 trillion in\u00a0overspending in a single year.\u00a0Since that point, deficits have\u00a0gone down a little bit each year\u00a0until 2015.\u00a0In 2016, our deficit number,\u00a0that's a single year\u00a0overspending, started going\u00a0back up.\u00a0It went up in 2016.\u00a0It went up again in 2017.\u00a0[We are] turning the wrong direction.\u00a0As you will recall and as many\u00a0people in this body would\u00a0recall, deficits were a major\u00a0topic for us starting in 2010.\u00a0And each year, Congress was\u00a0trying to find ways to be able\u00a0to reduce the deficit.\u00a0That doesn't seem to be the\u00a0issue anymore.\u00a0\r\nOn the need to reform the budget process:\r\nThere is no problem in this\u00a0country that can't be solved,\u00a0and certainly, our deficit is an\u00a0issue that can't be solved.\u00a0It's going to have a\u00a0decision made by each of us that\u00a0this is actually important and\u00a0we're going to try to resolve\u00a0this and try to get us back\u00a0toward balance.\u00a0\u2026.\u00a0If we're going to actually deal\u00a0with some of the budget issues,\u00a0we're going to have to actually\u00a0deal with the budget process.\u00a0We're not going to get a better\u00a0product until we get a better\u00a0process.\u00a0Since 1974, the Budget Act has\u00a0only worked four times.\u00a0Four times.\u00a0And every year, the American\u00a0people say over and over again\u00a0what just happened? How come\u00a0we're back in this budget fight?\u00a0How come it's at the end of the\u00a0year? How come it's not\u00a0resolved?\u00a0Because we have a bad process,\u00a0that's why.\u00a0Our process is not\u00a0constitutional.\u00a0It's the product of the law that\u00a0was put in the Budget Act.\u00a0We need to be able to change\u00a0that.\u00a0I think there are some basic\u00a0ways to be able to resolve that.\u00a0I like to do budgeting and\u00a0appropriations every two years.\u00a0That would give us more time to\u00a0be able to do more oversight.\u00a0That would give us more time to\u00a0do floor debate on it to walk\u00a0through this.\u00a0There are multiple areas that\u00a0need to be resolved, like aligning our committees.\u00a0 There are things that need to be done if\u00a0we're actually going to get\u00a0budget work done.\u00a0\r\nOn Lankford\u2019s transparency bill, Taxpayers Right to Know Act:\r\nWe have got to work on\u00a0transparency.\u00a0I'm ashamed to say for six years\u00a0I have pushed on a very simple\u00a0bill called the Taxpayers Right\u00a0to Know [Act].\u00a0It has passed unanimously in the\u00a0House two different years.\u00a0It comes over to the Senate, and\u00a0it gets tied up.\u00a0The Taxpayers Right to Know [Act] is\u00a0very simple.\u00a0It asks every agency to list\u00a0everything they do.\u00a0What a shocking thing that would\u00a0be, to actually know everything\u00a0that every agency does.\u00a0To be able to see what they do,\u00a0what they spend on it, how many\u00a0employees they allocate to it,\u00a0and how many people they serve.\u00a0Every business in America can\u00a0give you a list of everything\u00a0that they do except for the\u00a0federal government.\u00a0We cannot.\u00a0We should.\u00a0It would give the opportunity\u00a0for agency heads to find out\u00a0before they start a program to\u00a0know if someone else already\u00a0does it in the federal\u00a0government.\u00a0I've talked to multiple agency\u00a0individuals now under two\u00a0different presidents that had\u00a0said they started a program, got\u00a0it developed, committed people\u00a0to it, and then a couple of\u00a0months or years later determined\u00a0somebody else is already doing\u00a0it.\u00a0Even our agency folks don't know\u00a0what the other agencies are\u00a0doing.\u00a0This should be a simple,\u00a0straightforward solution to be\u00a0able to help our agencies and to\u00a0be able to help all of us do\u00a0greater supervision over the\u00a0budget.\u00a0\r\nExamples of waste in the report:\r\nThe National Science Foundation\u00a0did a grant this past year to\u00a0study the effect and how things\u00a0are going for refugees in\u00a0Iceland.\u00a0Now, I'm sure the country of\u00a0Iceland would like to know how\u00a0it's going for their refugees\u00a0and maybe even the UN would like to know, but I'm a little\u00a0stunned that the National\u00a0Science Foundation used American\u00a0tax dollars to study refugees in\u00a0Iceland.\u00a0\r\nThe National Endowment for the\u00a0Arts did a grant this past year\u00a0to help pay for a local\u00a0community theater in New\u00a0Hampshire and their performance\u00a0of \"Doggie Hamlet.\"\u00a0\u201cDoggie Hamlet\u201d is an outdoor presentation\u00a0where a group of people are\u00a0yelling and singing around a\u00a0group of sheep and sheepdogs in\u00a0an outdoor performance.\u00a0Now, I have watched the\u00a0performance.\u00a0I look at the performance and\u00a0think that's fine if the folks\u00a0of New Hampshire want to do that\u00a0performance.\u00a0I'm not sure why the people of\u00a0Oklahoma are forced, through\u00a0their federal tax dollars, to pay\u00a0for the production of \"Doggie\u00a0Hamlet.\"\u00a0\r\nThe Department of Defense, last\u00a0year, moved some equipment into\u00a0Kuwait to be able to give to the\u00a0Iraqi army, a billion dollars\u2019 worth of equipment into Kuwait\u00a0to give to the Iraqi army\u2014Humvees, small arms, mortars.\u00a0All that's fine. We are\u00a0helping equip the Iraqi army to\u00a0allow them to be able to defend\u00a0themselves.\u00a0The problem becomes we lost\u00a0track of them somewhere between\u00a0Kuwait and Iraq.\u00a0And the DOD doesn't know what\u00a0happened to a billion dollars of\u00a0equipment after it was delivered\u00a0to Kuwait.\u00a0\r\nThe IRS has had multiple\u00a0issues that we tried to identify\u00a0in different segments of this.\u00a0One is several years ago, we\u00a0noticed that the IRS was\u00a0rehiring employees that they had\u00a0fired, employees that weren't\u00a0paying their income tax but were\u00a0working for the IRS or\u00a0employees that were using their\u00a0position to spy on other\u00a0Americans and pull up their tax\u00a0information just because of\u00a0their own interests.\u00a0Well, it's a fireable offense of\u00a0the IRS, and it should be, to\u00a0be able to violate some\u00a0Americans' privacy, but the\u00a0problem is the IRS has\u00a0started rehiring those same\u00a0people right back. I don't know of many companies\u00a0that fire somebody, then later\u00a0decide they will change their\u00a0mind and rehire them, but\u00a0apparently, the IRS has become\u00a0proficient at that.\u00a0We identified it several years\u00a0ago.\u00a0The IRS said they would stop\u00a0it.\u00a0We checked on that last year.\u00a0Guess what?\u00a0The IRS is still doing it,\u00a0rehiring employees they have\u00a0fired, some of them even with\u00a0their file stamped do not hire.\u00a0Hired them anyway.\u00a0We have got to be able to stop\u00a0that.\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-lankford-discusses-federal-fumbles-on-the-senate-floor-"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4327990356832743, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}