Q&A with Oklahoma Delegation on passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill

The Republican-led 119th Congress last week passed H,R,1, The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, getting it to President Trump's desk by the deadline he had given GOP leaders: July 4. Even though the budget reconciliation bill needed only simple majorities in both chambers for passage, there was no shortage of drama: Vice President Vance had to cast a tiebreaking vote in the Senate and the vote in the House was 218-214. What's more, there was last-minute negotiating with unhappy members on both sides of the Capitol just to get the bill onto the floor. Oklahoma's members all voted in favor of the legislation, although Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK2) was among a small ground of House members who held up the bill for several hours until they were able to get certain assurances from the administration and from leadership that their concerns would be addressed in the future.

Interviews with four of Oklahoma's seven members over the course of the week provided some insight into how they were handling the situation.

Monday, June 30

Five hours into what would be a 26-hour vote-a-rama, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) was confident the Senate would pass the bill and then addressed the question of whether the Senate's changes might jeopardize its passage in the House:

"I think they're going to they're going to pass it. It's not going to be easy for them to do this. We never claimed this to be a perfect bill, we just--we've claimed this to be the best bill we can get produced under the conditions we find ourselves in -- slim majorities, and we're happy to negotiate everything along the way. But the problem is, do you have more to vote for or to vote against? Because when this bill does come to the floor of the House, the same thing when it comes to the floor here on the Senate, you have [those] two choices."

Tuesday, July 1

While the vote-a-rama lasted longer than most people expected, and included a record number of votes on amendments, it became clear that Republican leaders needed that extra time to whip the vote and work with a couple of Senators whose support was in question. In an interview just after leadership had reached an agreement to get the needed votes, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) explained what had been going on:

"That was part of the issue, literally to the very end, there was lots of people, lots of different ideas. And when you realize -- for some members, when you realize that, 'hey, my vote could decide this whole thing', you come back and say, 'I’ve got one more thing I want, I’ve got one more thing I want', and it takes three or four members to say, 'I’ve got one more thing I want', and that conflicts with this one...and at some point leader leadership has to be able to step in and say we gotta stop this."

Wednesday, July 2

With the One Big, Beautiful Bill through the Senate and back in the House, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK4) acknowledged there were changes the Senate had made that he was not thrilled with but insisted it made no sense to 'allow the perfect be the enemy of the good', insisting it was a good bill and that the cuts to Medicaid were not as draconian as Democrats made them out to be.

"[Medicaid] is not meant for everybody, it’s not supposed to be insurance for everybody, it’s supposed to be insurance for people that really need it; that might be single moms with kids, people with disabilities. They’re all safe. As a matter of fact, we slow down the hemorrhaging of funds out of the Medicaid Trust Fund, so it extends the life of that. I think that’s very important. I think the energy provisions for a state like Oklahoma are exceptionally important--the speeding up of permitting, the opening up of federal lands for production, those sorts of things—again, extraordinarily important. And finally, I would actually argue the defense and border security components, which have not gotten the attention they deserve. Most Americans don’t realize the Chinese navy is now larger than the American navy; this has a major ship-building provision in it to help close that gap."

Thursday, July 3

Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK2) was one of a dozen or so House Republicans who stalled the bill Wednesday night into Thursday morning, as leaders tried to pass the rule for its consideration on the floor. Brecheen and his House Freedom Caucus colleagues were very concerned about some of the Senate's changes to the bill and were in talks with leadership and Trump administration officials about how they could be sure their concerns would be addressed. In an interview Thursday morning after the group dropped its opposition and allowed the bill to go to the floor, Brecheen chose not to detail what he said had been confidential discussions, but did give some insight into what caused him to go from no to yes.

"After meeting with the president, after multiple conversations that went on an extended period of time, even up until the vote -- there were conversations that were happening about how we can still advance the America First agenda, fulfill the things President Trump was given as a mandate, all the things that we promised the constituency...and then I had to make a prayerful, prayerful judgment call— was this the very best that we could get that would pass the Senate and the house, and I got to a yes...I’m grateful to the president and to the speaker for meaningful commitments to advance the America First agenda. We are going to continue to do that, even beyond what the bill has within...We’re trying to make sure that we’re making good decisions, that is America First agenda, and there’s nobody who understands the threat of the 'Green New Scam' greater than President Trump, and I am so grateful for the conversation, hearing from him how passionate he is about that."