mr. lankford: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: i want to get today's reality check. the federal reserve today raised interest rates 75 basis points, three-quarters with a point, with a statement they may come back and do that again in another month. a point and a half in two months, it's a pretty dramatic effect. it's going to be a situation where many people 40 and younger are about to face interest rates they've never faced in their lifetime. the cost of buying a car that's already high is about to get higher. the cost of buying a home that's already really high is about to get much higher. inflation is now at 8.6%. a lot of people are beginning to feel what that really means. this is not some strange anomaly. this is inflation over the last decade. it's bounced around about the same level basically for a decade until right there -- march of 2021. and then it just skyrockets at that point. this is the reality that we're facing at this point. what does inflation really look like when you say it's 8.6%? people know what t

mr. lankford: is the senate currently in a quorum call? the presiding officer: no. mr. lankford: thank you. over memorial day weekend, i spent the day in oklahoma, 102 at sundown. for those of us from oklahoma not used to that kind of heat but it was very helpful to be able to be there, to be on the ground, and to see what's happening at that particular border area. each area of the border is a little bit different. but what we're experiencing right now on our southern border is a continual rolling chaos there. i will have people catch me occasionally in oklahoma and say it seems like things are going better because i don't hear the media talking about what's happening at the border anymore. i'll smile at them and say well, you remember last summer when the media was focused on the southern border? we had 6,000 people illegally crossing a day at that time. now we have 8,000 people illegally crossing a day. 8,000. in fact, last month when a quarter million people that illegally crossed the border in one month, that was a record, by the way. the previous record for a one-m

senator lankford: mr. chairman, thank you. thank you for all the witnesses here to be able to talk this through. my state is somewhat unique in this conversation today because if you are in oklahoma, the eastern side of my state gets a tremendous amount of rain. and the western side of my state is the stopping point. so we face intense droughts in the west and we're growing tall timber in the east. so we get this. let me walk through a couple of things that may be unique to my state but also may translate into other areas. moving water by pipeline and actually trying to be able to transition water from east to west at times. some of these border states and areas. is that being explored at all as options and possibilities? obviously there's compact and other things with other states as water continues to be able to move south across the east. but how much is that being discussed? ms. touton? commissioner touton: we are looking at all options. being able to look at what's in the basin, what's in our reservoi

senator lankford. >> mr. chairman thank you and thank you to all the witnesses here. my state is somewhat unique in this conversation today it is an oklahoma the eastern side of my state gets a tremendous amount of rain in the western side of my state is a stopping point so we face intense drought in the west and growing tall timber the east so let me walk through couple of things unique to my state that may translate into other areas. the water pipeline in trying to be able to transition water from east to west and some of these border states and areas. is that being explored at all as options and possibilities? there are compacts in other things with other states as water continues to move south across the east but how much will without being discussed? >> we are looking at all options. being able to utilize the basin and what we have within our reservoirs of priority. a lot of our projects require operation of congress for a feasibility study scioscia debt the work congress wants to go that's a we will do. i'm focused on what we have now. >> it has been interesting