By Constitution Staff

Oklahoma’s congressional delegation (two senators and five members of the House of Representatives) were among the members of Congress rated by the “Freedom Index” of the New American magazine.

The Freedom Index is a scorecard based on the U.S. Constitution, and members are rated “on their adherence to constitutional principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, national sovereignty, and a traditional foreign policy of avoiding foreign entanglements.”

The members of Congress from Oklahoma are all Republicans, but some scored little better than Democrats on the second Index for the 118th Congress.

In the House, Second District Congressman Josh Brecheen led the delegation with a 100% score, matching his cumulative score of 100. He was followed closely by First District Congressman Kevin Hern, at 90%, which also matched his cumulative score.

After that, there was a huge drop-off, with Fifth District Representative Stephanie Bice, who managed only 50%, the same as her cumulative. But that was better than the 40% scored by Third District Congressman Frank Lucas, at a mere 40% (45% cumulative).

Finishing last in the House (and behind both U.S. senators from Oklahoma) was Fourth District Congressman Tom Cole of Moore. Cole had a dismal 30%, even worse than his 40% cumulative.

Two votes that should be noted on the House side of the Index was HR 4821, in which Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) offered an amendment to prohibit funds from being used for any national monument designations under the Antiquities Act. Ogles said, “In the eight years that Joe Biden was vice president under the Obama Administration, the Antiquities Act was weaponized for 550 million acres of land. That is roughly a quarter of the land by acreage in the United States.”

Unfortunately, the House defeated Ogles’ amendment, with Bice, Cole, and Lucas voting against it. Brecheen and Hern supported Ogles’ effort. The New American commented that the Founding Fathers did not envision the federal government indefinitely “owning” 30 percent of the land area of the states.

Another bill of note was an amendment to a bill by Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), to prevent funds in the bill from being used to hire diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) officials or conduct DEI training. While four of the House delegation members did support Miller’s effort to rein in such Marxist-inspired training, Representative Tom Cole did not. Cole’s congressional district includes the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

In the Senate, Senior Senator James Lankford scored 70%, slightly below his 75% average, while Junior Senator Markwayne Mullin managed only 60%, slightly below his 65% cumulative. Mullin, who replaced Senator Jim Inhofe in the Senate in a special election last year (Inhofe stepped down early because of health issues), has so far voted much less conservative than Inhofe. Mullin has also drawn attention nationally for his challenges to people who disagree with him, to fight him. (Mullin was a wrestler in his younger years). In one instance, Mullin challenged a labor union leader to a fight, and even offered to fight a fellow Republican, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. It is hard to imagine Senator Inhofe doing something like that (even years ago when he was younger).

One vote of note in the Senate was on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) offered by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky (100% on this Index) “to express the sense of Congress that Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty does not supersede the constitutional requirement that Congress declare war before the United States engages in war.” Under Article Five, member nations of NATO “agree that an armed attack against one or more of them ... shall be considered an armed attack against them all.” Only 16 senators voted to uphold the constitutional requirement that Congress declare war, and while Lankford was one of those 16, the before-mentioned Mullin was not.

Another bill of note in the Senate was another amendment to the NDAA offered by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas (90% on this Index) that would prohibit the secretary of Defense from issuing any replacement Covid-19 vaccine mandate without congressional approval. Cruz’ amendment would have also required the Department of Defense to reinstate any service member separated solely for Covid-19 vaccine status who wants to return to service, restore their rank, and adjust to “honorable” any “dishonorable” discharge given to due to Covid-19 status.

The Senate rejected Cruz’s amendment by a vote of 46-53. Both Lankford and Mullin supported Cruz’s effort.

By comparison, senators from other states doing well on this particular Index included Paul and Cruz, and also Mike Braun of Indiana (100%); and Mike Lee of Utah (100%).

Those doing poorly included “the usual suspects” like Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; Chuck Schumer of New York; John Fetterman of Pennsylvania; and Patty Murray of Washington, all of which scored zero percent. All Democrats.

Other senators of note were Mitt Romney, a “Republican” of Utah, who scored 40%, and Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, who made 30%.

While Oklahomans might have little influence with members of Congress from other states, they should contact our state’s members of Congress, and either congratulate them on good votes, or call them to account for bad votes.