James Lankford

Is it wrong to ever actually balance the budget? Should that be a goal to balance the budget?

My concern is...the term 'primary balance' and 'sustainable debts and deficits' gives the clear impression we will never balance.

I do agree with you, by the way. This is a long-look issue.

Can the Federal Government reach into a church or religious institution and define for them their doctrine?

Can the Federal Government step into a religious institution and redefine their doctrine for them?

This is not an issue of limiting... that true religion is this; that we watch out for the orphans and widows in their distress.

Can any administration step into a church and say, 'I disagree with your doctrine; you will change it to mine?'

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, thank you for being here.

Will a company that is a drilling company, or a lot of these small independents, the majority of the drilling and operation that comes out of the ground is this very small company.

I completely agree, but you are not sure which taxes that would be or which areas?

Actually our imports are down because we are producing more.

It is easy in Washington to say we are going to stabilize our debt.

Come drink our water in Oklahoma.

But it should also be transparent. Everything should be open, everyone should be held to the same account.

This is an interesting series of conversations about the agency fees and opting out and such, and providing those types of protections.

Companies in Oklahoma love hiring veterans because they don't know when to quit.

You saved us as a Nation, you saved freedom for what is happening; come home and save our economy.

So you are saying currently the standard is 51 percent ownership, but 100 percent control.

There was that issue before; now people have gotten the message you are not going to be verified, you are going to be investigated if you come in and say you are a vet when you are not.

What we have determined is because of, as we evaluated failures to be verified, we have tried to go out with these simple little briefs.

So far, this year, we are at about 48 percent denials or more than half now we are verifying.

Let's find the things that are in the way and let's try to figure out how do we start resolving this.

Thank you for the work that you are doing and not only for this hearing, but the work you are doing all the time, when the cameras are off as well.

So this is the self-certify. So if I go to HHS and say I am a service-disabled veteran and I own this company and I want to bid for this contract, they just check I am a service-disabled veteran, but there is no one checking with the VA…

Because the requirement is if you are a service-disabled veteran company, you have to have 51 percent ownership management, be in a CEO or president type position.