By JORDAN MCLEMORE
News Editor
Rep. Frank Lucas visited the Northwestern Wednesday Aug. 19 to discuss recent and upcoming topics in Washington. He spoke to a small crowd in the Ranger Room.
Lucas said that when Congress continues after Labor Day, the most important things to be done are the appropriations process, transportation, agriculture department, along with transportation. The money for the various programs comes from 12 appropriation bills. The House of Representatives passed six of the 12 bills before they adjourned on July 31.
The reason this process has stopped is due to the layout of the Congress, with a liberal president and a conservative house. Lucas believes that they will have a brief continuing resolution from three to six weeks and then the appropriations process will be finished in a spending bill that will determine the budgets of several government departments.
A bill that was brought up was the Federal Highway Bill, which was been temporarily reauthorized to the end of October. The bill allots how consumers spend the 18 1/2 cents a gallon of federal motor fuel tax money. This tax has stayed the same since it was created in 1932 by Herbert Hoover, yet due to inflation, the expenses of maintaining bridges and roads has gone up, calling for a higher tax. Another problem brought up by Lucas was that of increased fuel economy in cars.
Another subject was that of the Iranian government. President Obama has made a deal with the Iranian government referring to the development of nuclear weapons that states says that if they agree for the next 10 years to not ramp up productions- not stated- the US would immediately release billions of dollars of theirs that are currently frozen in banks worldwide.
“The deal is going to lead to a very lively debate in the House and Senate in September. Normally things like this would be treaties and be the jurisdiction of the U.S. Senate requiring a two thirds confirmation, but because the President made it clear early on that he was not negotiating a treaty, he was negotiating a deal, he passed a piece of legislation to compel this to be considered by Congress and put it into a must-sign bill,” said Lucas.
When Congress reconvenes in September, the House and Senate will go over the bill, debate, and vote. Lucas predicts that they will both reject the deal, which will then go to the President’s desk. At that point, he will veto it and the House will be able to vote by two-thirds to override. Then it may or may not be overridden by the Senate. If it is not overridden, and the Iranian government stands by the terms set, they will be able to build atomic weapons within 10 years.
Congressman Lucas ended the meeting with an open question and answer session.
His visit to Alva was one of many on a tour of Oklahoma County town hall meetings. The police detail was provided by the Alva City Police.