James Lankford

You anticipate when we ask people who they give to they're going to say, yes, I haven't done bidding before, but I want to jump in.

I would completely agree, and there is a good way to do that, is to keep it exposed as we are right now.

Let me ask you on a couple of things, where are we as far as timeline on the fiduciary rules?

I would just suggest that is something we need to address in the coming days, to be able to establish whether it is a relationship with the social sites or some way to be able to establish that technology-wise.

I think we need to find a solution to that.

I would like to yield back my time to the chairman at this point.

The concern that I have is that the new guidance document seems to remove flexibility that previously existed.

This new guidance seems to remove that 'or' and say, no, everything has to shift over to this other standard.

I appreciate very much your time and for being here and investing in the future of our country.

And we need to have a fiscal path that would bring us to stabilizing the debt at a sustainable level and then below over more time.

And there is this sense that is rising up that I sense from Americans, saying we have got to take on the big, difficult thing of our time, and that is our debt.

One word is perfect for the timing.

The more that we can hand back to the States, and the fewer things that we're trying to do from DC...

We are also at a very tenuous point that energy producers are a little tenuous on being able to invest into future plans.

I have no question that Republicans and Democrats are committed to clean water.

If this plan continues to move forward in a way that is not consistent with science, the actions of the EPA could dramatically increase the cost of every product in America, based on a single decision.

This is a major issue to us in America, on how we're going to deal with hydraulic fracking.

The more compliance officers that we hire to be able to fill out paperwork and be able to submit it back to EPA and other agencies, the slower our economy becomes.

My fear is right now we are more worried about balancing the budget and what effect that will have on our economy than we are about dealing with our debt.

I just don't hear anyone that I am interacting with saying, you know, if we just get to $26 trillion in debt, I think we will be fine.

I am kind of astounded by that to say, well, add a tax burden on them, which will cause them to drill less and to research less for things like IDCs and such.

Well, they would definitely have a pretty hard hit on it, on how they are going to handle it.

As a general principle, though, and following up on Mr. Woodall's comments as well, as a general principle, if you subsidize something, you get more of it; if you tax something, you get less of it.

Like to keep it that way.

For a lot of independent producers around the country, they have three to five employees.