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Updated: January 3, 2025 @ 6:01 am
Sunny. High 54F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..
Mostly clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 39F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph.
Updated: January 3, 2025 @ 6:01 am
Sen. James Lankford addressed a legislative forum Aug. 22 at Go Ye Village.
Sen. James Lankford addressed a legislative forum Aug. 22 at Go Ye Village.
Government efficiency, cutting costs, and reducing the federal debt have all been in the news over the past several months, and U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, said he is continuing his fight to save taxpayers’ money.
As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Governmental Affairs Committee and newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, he seems primed to be in the thick of efforts to work in all these areas.
Lankford’s press release, on Dec. 9, relates how he called out the “burdensome” Beneficial Ownership rule and continues to “highlight wasteful government spending.”
“Beneficial ownership information refers to identifying information about the individuals who directly or indirectly own or control a company,” states the U.S. government page, “Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.”
In 2021, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act on a bipartisan basis, states the website. The law is a new requirement as part of the government’s efforts to expose “bad actors” who hide or benefit from “their ill-gotten gains” with shell companies or other opaque ownership structures.
“For over a year, I have worked to get rid of a rule that is driving every one of my small businesses in Oklahoma absolutely crazy,” Lankford stated in the release.
The purpose of the bill, according to Lankford, is to root out money laundering and fraud, but it has become a “nightmare for every business owner” in Oklahoma.
The estimated time to fill out the form on the site submityourboir.com/authorizeform, is 12 minutes. It requests the following information: “company information” is estimated to take three minutes; “beneficial owners,” takes six minutes; and “compliance and filing” requires three minutes to complete.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce website states that many financial institutions require small businesses to submit beneficial ownership information, which protects the institution from being used for illegal activity.
“However, these are two distinct reporting requirements, and sharing beneficial ownership information with a financial institution does not fulfill a small business’s federal requirements,” states an article titled, “What Every Small Business Needs to Know About the Corporate Transparency Act,” published Dec. 27.
Beneficial ownership information reported to the FCEN is not accessible to those trying to gain knowledge of the workings and ownership of a company under the Freedom of Information Act, states the FCEN website.
In January 2024, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond spoke out in support of the rule, as he had led the effort to grant state, local and tribal entities appropriate access to information on the ownership of corporations, allowing access to the database for law enforcement.
This information is in an article titled, “At Drummond’s urging, federal treasury bureau grants timely corporate ownership info to state, local, tribal entities,” published on Gentner’s webpage.
A federal judge halted this rule from being implemented nationwide on Dec. 26, 2024, and Lankford said he is grateful for the ruling against the Corporate Transparency Act. This reverses the earlier decision from Dec. 23, 2024, to reinstate the CTA and its reporting requirements.
“The government is unable to provide the court with any tenable theory that this regulation falls within Congress’ power,” said U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant, of the Eastern District of Texas.
Lankford said he is going to ask the Senate to do the same, and stop the rule entirely.
As a member of DOGE, Lankford said every person he meets, regardless of party, says the government should “do its job and not somebody else’s job.”
“There are key things that we all need to do, but there are some things that continue to be able to pop up or money is being spent, that there’s great frustration in my state and a great number of people that say, why are we spending money on that?” Lankford said.
He said “hard-earned” taxpayers’ money is being spent to fund drag shows in Ecuador; a book about humans, chimpanzees, and climate change in Sierra Leone; and a study on seatbelts and helmet usage in Ghana.
On the usaspending.gov site, it states a $20,600 grant was for a film festival to promote discussion and greater understanding of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility concepts, and current challenges among university students and young professionals in Cuenca, Loja, and Zamora in Ecuador.
“The project involves organizing documentary film screenings on various subjects related to DEIA, followed by discussions and workshops led by two U.S. filmmaker envoys,” states the site about the grant. The other two grants mentioned by Lankford could not be verified by TDP.
Lankford said it isn’t about being selfish, but that the U.S. is $36 trillion in debt. He said every year he publishes a report titled, “Federal Fumbles: Ways the federal government dropped the ball.”
“I’m grateful there is a bipartisan conversation finally starting that is spreading among this body, in the House body, and now the new incoming executive branch saying, ‘let’s find areas of efficiency where we can be better at this,’” Lankford said.
The basic goal is to have a prosperous nation that “actually has economic growth” and an efficient government that matches the “efficiency of our nation,” Lankford said.
Learn more
To read Lankford’s latest Federal Fumbles, go to www.lankford.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/media/doc/federal-fumbles-7.pdf.
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