James Lankford

“There is only one person in the State Department that can sign off on State Department personnel being in a facility that doesn't meet security standards, and it's the secretary of state.”

“Government on its own is always inefficient.”

“We have a very structured process for taking in refugees. It takes almost two years to transition from another country into the United States through the refugee process.”

“I'm not a 'messiah' coming to change Washington. I don't come with a political background, so I think it's part of my responsibility to raise my hand and say 'Why?' Folks don't just want smaller government; they want an efficient small government.”

“No matter where I travel in the state, people want to talk about education.”

“ISIS has leadership, just like al Qaeda has leadership. It's important to be able to eliminate the individuals that are leading the organization.”

“We've overmedicated kids. Quite frankly, some of the overmedication of kids are because welfare moms want to get additional benefits, and if they can put them on SSI through maintenance drugs, they can also put them on Social Security disability and get a separate check. That is wrong on every single level.”

“The different Washington, D.C.-based groups and the different special interest groups, they all want to be able to pick who they want to be a senator. They don't speak for everyone, and they definitely don't speak for Oklahomans.”

“It's very difficult for the family members of ICE agents, and it's very difficult for ICE agents to know what's right and what's wrong and why should I get engaged and go out there and enforce the law when I don't know what it means any more to have consequences.”

“If you are going to replace somebody off of one of the bills - which I have no problem with a lady being on one of the bills - that you would replace the 20.”

“There's a lot of middle school behavior in Washington, D.C. I look at that and I say, 'I've seen that before,' it was just with a 14-year-old.”

“We're facing serious issues. We can either complain about it or try to step in and solve it.”

“What they have done, ISIS is very well outspoken about how much they hate our freedom, who we are as Americans.”

“If we are going to remove someone, which I have no problem with doing, then let's do the 20, not the 10, the very first secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton.”

“My wife and I come from a Christian worldview.”

“Every schoolteacher will tell you that there is no substitute for engaged parents in the education of a child.”

“Personally and politically, I'm extremely conservative for who I am, but I'm also very careful in my tone.”

“I believe that being conservative means you try to get in to the middle of the fight and try to solve the problem.”

“Spanish Explorers celebrated Christmas in 1539 in the area we now know as the State of Florida.”

“We basically ran the Henry Bellmon campaign.”