News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed
Tom Cole’s Bipartisan Reputation Gets Put to the Test in Trump’s Partisan Washington
If you ask lawmakers to describe Rep. Tom Cole and his more than 20 years of service in the House, Republicans and Democrats will both give him praise. Knowledgeable. A bipartisan negotiator. A friend.
But for the last year as Appropriations chair, the Oklahoma Republican has overseen one of the most bitter and partisan processes lawmakers have ever gone through while exercising Congress’ power of the purse. And Democrats are concerned this upcoming appropriations cycle will somehow be more bitter and partisan than the last.
Along with so many other norms, President Donald Trump has upended the practice of reaching across the aisle — particularly when it comes to appropriations bills. Lawmakers used to come together at the end of the year and approve a sweeping spending bill, after they were mostly unable to pass individual appropriations measures.
But during the last spending cycle, Republicans and Democrats weren’t able to agree on anything. Instead, Republicans rammed through a glorified continuing resolution that mostly extended the previous spending deal, with some notable exceptions that Democrats disagreed with.
Now, as Congress starts the appropriations process again, Cole is tasked with appeasing his GOP colleagues and somehow getting buy-in from Democrats to negotiate after they were largely shut out of talks last time.
“I’ve never seen it quite as challenging as it is now to come to deals,” Cole told NOTUS.
“We’re better off when we work together and find common ground,” he said. “I think the [appropriations committee] has a tradition of doing that. I don’t think that tradition is gone. We’ve just got to get back to our roots.”
Getting back to those roots won’t be easy. But somehow, even after the appropriations process devolved into a cascade of CRs, a spending deal that was reneged, and, finally, a partisan spending bill, Democrats told NOTUS they have hope.
The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, suggested she blamed Speaker Mike Johnson, Trump and Elon Musk a lot more for the December spending deal falling apart than Cole. She said that legislation — which dissolved when Musk and some Republicans began railing against the special projects in the deal — was the product of intense negotiations between the two parties.
“Oh my gosh, heavy negotiations,” DeLauro said.
She said she’s worked “very closely” and “very, very well” with her counterpart. Ultimately, however, Trump’s grip on the conference made Cole’s work not matter all that much.
“It was hard, you know, when we were that close,” DeLauro said. “I continue to negotiate with him, but he is a good friend, and somebody who gets it.”
She said Cole doesn’t have the leeway she has to push back against the president.
Cole, for his part, said Trump is “not an insignificant player” in any negotiations on Capitol Hill — he has to sign the bill after all. But what the administration wants is not the end-all-be-all, as far as Cole is concerned.
Outside of his office last week, where the smell of cigar smoke filled the hallway, Cole held court with reporters. He talked about the tension between the president and Congress as Republicans now attempt to hammer out a reconciliation bill.
“Presidents and administrations don’t get to dictate what’s going to happen here,” Cole said. “Congress is not the Army, and the president is the president, but not the commander-in-chief of Congress.”
“We’re supporting this administration, what it’s trying to do, but with all due respect to anybody, I think the members have a better understanding of what can pass and what can’t than the executive branch does,” he added.
Cole told NOTUS he doesn’t think this administration has tried to dictate anything in particular, but he insisted spending bills must be “a negotiated product.”
“Leadership on both sides have to agree, and I don’t think leadership on either side was prepared to agree in December. I think that’s too bad because that was a time to make the deal,” Cole said. “Come March, clearly, we had a deal on the table, we thought, and we couldn’t quite get there. And again, I think that was pressure from leadership.”
It’s true that spending negotiations were largely taken from Cole. Republican leaders, under pressure from Trump and conservatives, seemed to think mostly extending current spending levels was the way to go. And once, somewhat miraculously, Republicans were able to advance their bill out of the House, a number of Democrats in the Senate swallowed the legislation, reasoning that it was better than a shutdown.
It wasn’t how Democrats wanted the process to play out. But Democrats also suggested they didn’t think it was how Cole wanted it to play out either.
Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern told NOTUS he respects and admires Cole, whom he worked with closely when they served as the top members of the Rules Committee for their respective parties. McGovern said Cole, “if left to his own devices,” could come up with a “decent” appropriations package. But, McGovern said, Cole isn’t steering that spending ship.
The Trump administration and the Freedom Caucus have put Cole in a “tough spot,” McGovern said.
“My fear is that he is not going to be allowed to work his will,” he added. “What we’ve seen to this point is that reasonable people like Tom Cole seem to have been kind of pushed to the sidelines.”
Yes, Democrats were unhappy with the last appropriations process. Yes, Cole oversaw the process. But Democrats don’t seem to blame him for the outcome.
While that sort of goodwill among Democrats could be a liability in the red-meat Republican conference, GOP lawmakers also suggested it was an advantage. Rep. Steve Womack, who chairs a key subcommittee on Appropriations, said Cole’s favorability in both parties is exactly what’s needed.
“He’s a very well-respected member, kind of more of an institution guy, which is what I think we need right now, in terms of being — I mean, let’s just face it, we’re in divided government. The country’s divided,” Womack told NOTUS. “Political reality is you’re going to have to have things that can attract members on both sides of the aisle for the most important work that our Congress needs to be doing, and I think Tom Cole is the ideal person to lead the effort in that regard.”
Other Republicans on the Appropriations Committee agreed.
Rep. David Valadao emphasized the “tough” political environment members are in right now. He said Cole was better positioned than anyone to be chair at the moment.
“We’re trying to reach an agreement on top-line numbers that we could actually get something to the president’s desk and be signed by the president. And [Democrats] weren’t willing to negotiate,” Valadao said. “Hopefully, moving forward, they’re willing to talk to Tom, get to top-line numbers, agree to them and start appropriations bills, but it really is going to fall on both sides to come to an agreement that can get across the desk.”
Another longtime appropriator, Rep. Mike Simpson, echoed Valadao, saying Republicans couldn’t find a better chair than Cole, “especially in these times,” with razor-thin majorities in the House and Senate.
“Leadership decided to go a different direction to do the year-long CR,” Simpson said. “It is not something that anybody on the Appropriations Committee wanted, but we had to do something, and Tom’s very good at doing that.”
“There’s not a bigger supporter of leadership in getting the job done than Tom is,” Simpson said.
This article first appeared on Oklahoma Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Tom Cole’s Bipartisan Reputation Gets Put to the Test in Trump’s Partisan Washington appeared first on oklahomawatch.org
Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The content presents a balanced view of Rep. Tom Cole’s role and challenges as Appropriations chair, incorporating perspectives from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. It neither favors nor criticizes one side excessively, recognizing bipartisan respect for Cole while acknowledging the partisan difficulties intensified by figures like President Trump. The piece emphasizes negotiation, cooperation, and political realities without partisan spin, reflecting a neutral and fact-based tone typical of centrist reporting.
News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed
Family sues Roblox, accusing them of failing to protect kids from predators
SUMMARY: An Oklahoma family is suing Roblox, accusing the popular gaming platform of failing to protect children from predators. The suit centers on a 12-year-old girl allegedly groomed and sexually extorted by a man posing as a 15-year-old boy. According to court documents, the predator coerced the girl into sending explicit photos, threatened to kill her family, and manipulated her using Roblox’s digital currency. The family claims Roblox is a “hunting ground for child predators” and profits from these dangers. Roblox states it has safeguards and recently announced plans to better detect risks. The lawsuit does not specify damages sought.
Family sues Roblox, accusing them of failing to protect kids from predators
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News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed
Thousands of State Employees Still Working Remotely
More than 8,500 state employees are working remotely at least some of the time, with the arrangement mostly from a lack of space at agencies.
The Office of Management and Enterprise Services compiled the latest numbers after a December executive order issued by Gov. Kevin Stitt mandating a return to the office for state employees.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission and the Department of Environmental Quality went in opposite directions on remote work in the second quarter report. Just 12% of employees at the Corporation Commission were on remote work in the first quarter. That jumped to 59% in the second quarter. The agency has relocated as its longtime office, the Jim Thorpe Building, undergoes renovations.
Brandy Wreath, director of administration for the Corporation Commission, said the agency has a handful of experienced employees in its public utility division who work out of state and were hired on a telework basis. Some other employees are working remotely because of doctor’s orders limiting their interactions. The agency got rid of space and offices in the Jim Thorpe Building before the renovations started. The building project is expected to be completed in the next six months.
“At Jim Thorpe, we were right-sized for everyone to be in the office,” Wreath said. “Whenever we moved to Will Rogers, we are in temporary space, and we don’t have enough space for everyone to be in every day.”
Wreath said the Corporation Commission uses the state’s Workday system that has codes for employees to use when they are logged in and working remotely. Employees also know they are subject to random activity audits.
“We’re supportive of the idea of having employees in the workplace and willing to serve,” Wreath said. “We also realize the value of having employees in rural Oklahoma and still being a part of the state structure. Our goal is to make sure our employees are productive, no matter where they are working. We are supportive of return-to-office, and we are utilizing the tools OMES has given us to ensure the state is getting its money’s worth.”
The Department of Environmental Quality now has just 1% of its employees working remotely. That’s down from 30% in the first quarter. Spokeswoman Erin Hatfield said the agency, with 527 employees, is in full compliance with the executive order. Seven employees are on telework, with all but one on temporary telework status as they recover from medical issues.
There are three exceptions to the return-to-office policy: employees whose hours are outside normal business hours; employees who already work in the field; and when new or additional office space would have to be acquired at additional cost.
The Department of Human Services continued to have more than 80% of its 6,060 employees on some type of telework, according to the second quarter report. The agency said those numbers stemmed mostly from a lack of available office space. DHS closed dozens of county offices or found other agency office space for its employees to use in the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was a huge shift to remote work.
The latest telework report covers 29,250 of the state’s 31,797 employees. About 30% of employees were on some version of telework in the second quarter. Dozens of agencies did not submit quarterly reports to the Office of Management and Enterprise Services.
Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or pmonies@oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies.
Related
The post Thousands of State Employees Still Working Remotely appeared first on oklahomawatch.org
Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This content provides a fact-based report on the remote work status of Oklahoma state employees following an executive order from Governor Kevin Stitt. It presents information from multiple state agencies with no apparent favor or criticism of the executive order or political figures involved. The tone is neutral and focuses on the practical reasons and outcomes of remote work policies, reflecting a balanced approach without clear ideological leanings.
News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed
Test taker finds it's impossible to fail 'woke' teacher assessment
SUMMARY: Oklahoma’s “America First” teacher qualification test aims to weed out “woke” educators from states like California and New York, focusing on civics, parental rights, and biology. However, many find it nearly impossible to fail. Test-takers, including independent publisher Ashley, report multiple attempts allowed per question, enabling passing regardless of knowing answers, often by guessing until correct. Average Oklahomans tested struggled with the questions, highlighting the test’s difficulty and questionable effectiveness. Critics say the test’s ease defeats its purpose of ensuring teacher knowledge. The state superintendent’s office was contacted for comment but had yet to respond.
Test taker finds it’s impossible to fail ‘woke’ teacher assessment
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