Rep. Frank Lucas talks federal budget, Russia with Stillwater Rotary

Mar. 11—Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma) addressed Stillwater's Frontier Rotary Club Thursday, sharing his insights on the inner workings of Congress and touching on relations with Russia, federal energy policy and agriculture, before taking questions from the audience.

Lucas represents Congressional District 3, which covers most of western Oklahoma. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, after serving in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

He was the author of the 2014 Farm Bill. He's also the most senior Republican on the Financial Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

The congressman pushed hard to make it to the meeting in Stillwater, landing about an hour and fifteen minutes before, after staying in Washington D.C. for a late-night vote on the $1.5 trillion omnibus bill that provides the federal government with consistent funding for the rest of the fiscal year

The federal government has been operating on temporary agreements since its fiscal year began in October.

The almost even divide in both chambers of Congress sometimes makes it hard to get things done, he said. Vice President Kamala Harris has to fulfill her duty as President of the Senate to break the tie every morning. Even though there are five more Democrats than Republicans in the House of Representatives, there are times the majority can't function because absences mean they don't actually have a majority present.

But with Democrats holding the White House and control of the House of Representatives, Lucas, who sits on the other side of the aisle, sees some benefits.

"It just becomes more difficult to work," Lucas said, "but the positive side of such an evenly balanced body is it makes it extremely difficult to do anything ... sometimes making it really hard to do anything to the best interests of the Constitution and the Republic, because if we do agree, we have to actually agree. So that's a good thing."

The past couple of years have been intense for the Science, Space and Technology Committee, Lucas said.

Although he made it clear he's not a proponent of mandatory vaccinations for COVID-19, he said he is a proponent of using the best science to create alternatives and address challenges.

Lucas called the results achieved after former President Donald Trump announced Project Warp Speed to develop vaccines against COVID-19 "amazing."

"... bring every discipline from a variety of both public and private institutions together in corporate America, to come up with as quickly as possible, potential vaccines to address that," he said. "I think you should be very proud of that ... because in a matter of months, we did what would have taken decades or been impossible, not that many years ago ... an amazing accomplishment."

Lucas said it was the investment in scientific capacity, from people, to facilities, to equipment like supercomputers, that made it possible.

He touched on the international race to build a manned station on the Moon, and use that as a jumping off point to go to Mars. China has landed a lunar rover on the far side of the moon, which required developing a sophisticated satellite communications system with land-based systems around the world, he said.

Lucas also reminded the audience of the technological advances that have come from the space race.

Weather forecasting is another area of technology under the Science Committee, that also impacts agriculture, an area of special concern for Lucas — a rancher — and many in his district.

Finally, he addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia.

In addition to budgetary items, the omnibus bill approved by the House Wednesday included sanctions against Russian for waging war on Ukraine, he said.

Lucas said he believes Putin, as a former KGB agent, harbors a grudge over the dissolution of the Soviet Union and aspires to recreate the Soviet empire as the Russian Federation.

"It has led him to engage in activities in Crimea and Georgia and other countries that had been part of the Soviet Union ... This time, he made a mistake and jumped on a country that was large enough and had enough spirit and enough intensity and willingness to defend themselves. They have chosen to fight back aggressively and they have held off literally a fifth of a million Russian troops now for days and days and days."

Lucas said the U.S. and its allies in NATO are helping the Ukrainians with supplies to defend themselves. But he reminded the listeners that Ukraine is not part of NATO like Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Romania. He said there had been discussions in the past about how much NATO should expand and how close it could get to the Russian frontier without triggering a response. That's why Ukraine isn't in NATO.

"I would also suggest we want to be careful we don't slide into a third world war," he said.

Twitter: @mcharlesNP