Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome. We have a Senator James Lankford on with us today, and Merry Christmas to you, sir, Gay.
Merry Christmas as well. It's nice at December time period and we are officially in the Christmas season.
Well, I got to tell you it is really something else to have you on board here today. We got a couple of things. First of all, the Defense Bill. How's that coming along?
It is best case scenario next week now. We have been pushing this. It actually came through committee on a five part of the basis last summer, so it's been sitting out there and Chuck Schumer has held it now for five months and not allowed it to be able to come to the floor. So we're hoping that actually gets to the floor. But that is right now in Chuck Schumer's hands. There's a lot of negotiations on the final pieces of it. But I have worked a lot
on this bill on getting Smokeklahoma priorities into it. Obviously, we are a military state, very very grateful for our military service and the number Vestans that live in our state, so it is very important we actually get this bill.
Done Senator, we got another thing that you do kind of every year, kind of goes along with a waste in my golly, where does all that money to you? Kind of identify some of the bottomless pits. You got that report ready to roll.
We have done for years. Will we call several fumbles to be able to outline areas of waste inefficiency to government and things that we could do better to be able to save taxpayer dollars. We have done that year after year. We send it up to committee members, we sent a staff, We release it publicly for people that want to be able to go through it. But our goal is to get everyone's attention and to say there are areas where we could save significant amount of taxpayer dollars.
I am grateful now that Elon Musk confusing Ramaswami had been assigned by President Trump to be able to step up and coordinate all of that work to move it from we're talking about it to actually doing it. This has been my press for years to say everybody's got to stop saying we're inefficient to start actually fixing it. So a meeting later today with Vi Ramaswami and Elon Musk, and we're going through a lot of those ideas to be able to lay it out, try to figure out, Okay,
which ones first, which one are we going to take on? Second? How do we actually get this stuff implemented. So grateful to be able to have the additional support on it, but we need to get something fixed. We're tired of talking about gooty grants like our federal tax dollars paying for drag shows and Ecuador and studying the secret language
of butchers in Paris and Russian studies on COVID. It's just amazing to meet the amount of waste that we have in the government, the grants and things that are done that are inefficient. We've got to be able to get on top of this. And I'm grateful now that President Trump saying let's do it well.
This is great. Now with the holiday season about, you got a lot of work to wrap up in Washington, DC. You're talking about the Defense bill coming home for a little bit, aren't.
You well, And when we get our work done, I'll come home a week because of the bill to be able to get done. We also have twelve appropriation bills. We have a farm bill extension that needs to be done, we have disasser rate for North Carolina. There's a lot that still needs to be done in the next two weeks. And again, unfortunately Chuck Schumer continues to be able to drag his speedes. He's trying to be able to press judges rather than doing the key essential legislative work that
we've got to get done. So we're going to press to be able to get that done and that will just stay until it's finished.
Well. President Trump has wasted no time, a lot different than the last time around, and trying to get his cabinet picks out and ready to roll. Have you met with several of his picks already.
I've met with a few of them. They've just really started this week on it. And it's based on the committee's of jurisdiction that draw the different meetings that we've had so serve of the Finance Committee, which will handle all the tax issues. We'll meet with Congressional Budget Office leadership. I'll meet with RFK Junior deal with Medicare Medicaid. We'll meet with the new Treasury Secretary nominee. We'll go through the Homeland security issues. That's Christy Nome that has been
nominated we'll meet soon. So there's a lot of those folks. I met yesterday with Elie Staphonic, who has a wanted to be the UN ambassador for US. So there's a lot of key positions that we've just started getting a chance to connect with on it. Grateful to do that. President has the right to be able to pick their staff, just like I have the right to pick my staff. President has the right to do that with one thing that there is a constitutional obligation as well for what's
called advice and consent to the Senate. That's why all these different folks are coming by to be able to visit with senators because we are a part of that process. But the President always gets first pick on that.
Very good watch this as a layman, you know, I'm not an internal guy by any stretch of the imagination, but I notice a lot of these picks from the President have been coming from Congress. Is that something that has anybody a little concerned?
You know what's interesting is actually a couple of three of them have come from the House or representative. One of them has come from the Senate. That's Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, which you do a terrific job. He's got great experience there. So only actually a handful of those have actually Congress, and most of them he's brought in their business leader, a lot of investment folks, a lot of folks that are entrepreneurs that started companies
or run large companies. He's looking for people that's quite frankly like him, that have business experience and background and want to be able to seek greater efficiency in government and operation. So that'll be interesting to be able to walk through learning the bureaucracy of government. Does take a little bit of time, but it can be done. So just because someone has no government experience, that doesn't mean
they can't actually step in and do it. I had no government experience when I was first elected, and I can step in and be able to do the job. So it's just a matter of somebody that's committed to doing it and has the perspective they're going to make a difference.
All Right, we're hanging into Christmas and New Years. A word to the everyone who is listening today at Glory is yours well.
I am grateful for the Christmas season. The Christmas season is one of my favorite times of the year as it is for a lot of people on it only for a couple of things. One is, people start turning and trying to figure out how they're going to serve their neighbor and how they're going to give to each other. And it changes our hearts be able to focus less
on us and more on others. That's a good gift, but quite frankly, for me as a follower of Jesus, this is a great time of celebration to remember that God did not forget us and leave us alone. He came to us to be able to show us who he is, and the Christmas season reminds us again that we are not forgotten by God, that he loves us, cares for us, and is willing to come pursue us. So I hope everybody gets a chance to be able to enjoy the scenes and find us a family