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Lucas Stops in Woodward

By Daniel Fedora

August 8, 2008

U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas was in Woodward Thursday morning at a town hall meeting discussing several issues facing Congress and answering questions from those in attendance.

In all, about 25 people attended the meeting at High Plains Technology Center on 34th Street.

Lucas touched on several points before opening the floor to questions, the first and most recurring of which was America’s energy policy and the need for a comprehensive energy bill.

Lucas, a Republican, criticized the House’s Democratic leadership for failing to address the energy crisis.

“The Speaker has not been inclined to allow...such a vote to take place,” Lucas said. He postulated that Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s unwillingness to allow such a vote will likely continue through the November election.

Lucas then discussed his and his colleagues’s proposed energy solutions.

“We have to have energy from all sources,” Lucas said. “Renewable energy is part of the equation,” he said, though “we’ve got to have some way to function until we get there.”

Lucas said the best way for the U.S. to keep energy prices low until that point is pursuing every avenue of energy production available, including increasing fossil fuel production.

He went on to discuss the farm bill that recently passed the House and Senate.

Lucas said he voted for the bill with the nation’s farmers in mind, though he expressed dissatisfaction with several attachments that a Pelosi surrogate added to the bill.

“This is a farm bill where the biggest single increase in spending is...the $10 billion in additional spending on food stamps and social nutrition programs,” Lucas said. “75 percent of the farm bill will be spent on food stamps, WIC and school lunch...it’s become a feeding bill, not so much a farm bill anymore.”

Lucas also addressed the housing market woes plaguing the economy.

“We passed another massive housing bill not many days ago,” Lucas said. “There are some good things in the housing bill--tighter oversight and regulation of Freddie and Fannie...modernizing, updating FHA--the Federal Housing Administration--is good.”

There are at least as many drawbacks, Lucas said.

“There are a number of fees and a number of pools of funds created by this bill that ultimately will enable everyone who’s paid their mortgage on time to bail out your friends on the east and west coasts who were playing games,” Lucas said. “Ultimately, like any boom gone bust, the system has to clear itself.”

“In a capitalistic society, you should be able to reap profits when you make the right decisions,” Lucas said. “But you shouldn’t be able to, on a few pennies, throw the dice, so to speak, and leverage the entire system.”

“Congressional staff even got into the business of flipping houses,” Lucas said.

Lucas also applauded the success of the troop surge in Iraq.

“Progress has been made in Iraq...the level of violence has consistently gone down,” Lucas said. “The President has been vindicated. It has made a difference.”

“The flip-side of the coin is the challenge in Afghanistan,” Lucas said. He criticized presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama for calling for increased troop presence in Afghanistan while portraying himself as the “peace candidate.”

After delivering his prepared remarks, Lucas addressed questions from attendees for about half an hour.

The congressman covered topics ranging from Medicare to the threat of radical Islamic terrorism to the House leadership’s apparent staunch refusal to address the energy issue.

Lucas encouraged those in the audience to get involved and make their voices heard in any way they can to accomplish the changes they would like to see.

“The key thing, I think, is you’ve got to get enough national attention fired up...to put heat on the members in Congress,” Lucas said. “If the Speaker is forced to bring a bill to the floor, it’ll pass.”

Lucas had similar meetings scheduled later Thursday for Guymon and Boise City. He has meetings scheduled in Beaver Town, Buffalo, Shattuck and Cheyenne over the course of the day Friday.

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