Issue Position: State Rights & Regulations

Issue Position

One of the greatest frustrations I have experienced in Congress is witnessing the raw power that federal agencies have acquired through waivers and red tape. Executive agencies have assumed regulatory authority, taking the place of state governments and centralizing control. Many Americans have experienced the frustration of "someone from the federal government" walking in their front door to tell them how to run their business or their family farm. This is what death by a thousand paper cuts looks like in the real world.

The solution to over-regulation is to return oversight to the states. Government works best when it is local and accessible. The farther decisions are made from an individual, the more you are just a number, not a neighbor. As a nation, we want reasonable boundaries for fraud and discrimination. But, we can all agree that federal regulators moving into a neighborhood (especially a farm neighborhood) to tell our families that we cannot work together violates everything about our core American freedom and values. Continued uncertainty and central planning will stifle our economic development as a nation. We are a nation of ideas and passion, not a nation of mindless zombies serving some federal agency in Washington, D.C.

This is not just a talking point for me, I fought and won in 2012 for a measure that would return more control back to the states in highway projects. Starting in 2013, more than 70% of the road projects in Oklahoma are back in the control of the state of Oklahoma because of my work.

I worked to pass the Student Success Act to give more local control to schools.

I worked on the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act to limit federal over reach into local communities and private businesses.

States rights and real reform is not just a slogan, it has been my mission. That is the only way to change the status quo.

When you return governmental control to the state, you can solve the problem of federal over reach.

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