[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 55 (Thursday, April 16, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H2295-H2297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Zeldin). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Lucas) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, when I was a boy, my father used to point out 
to me that there were certain moments, certain events, that not only 
defined, perhaps, a community or a generation but that left an 
indelible mark on a person. He referenced me to go speak to my 
grandparents about where they were when the news came that Pearl Harbor 
had been bombed. I can remember my Grandfather Lucas describing the 
exact field, the exact row that he was picking cotton in in December of 
1941 when one of the neighbors stopped and asked, ``Have you heard?''
  My father could tell you exactly the moment, while walking down the 
street in Elk City, Oklahoma, when he walked up on a crowd that was 
staring in the window of a store that was selling televisions. 
Everyone's mouth was down. Everyone was aghast at the news from Dallas.
  In many ways, the experience of 2 minutes after 9 a.m. on April 19, 
1995, has had the same mark and the same effect on not only me and on 
my colleagues in this delegation but on our communities in the country. 
Like my grandfather in his remembering the moment that he found out 
about Pearl Harbor and like my father in the moment he understood that 
President Kennedy had been assassinated, I will never forget sitting 
with the Oklahoma delegation, waiting to give testimony in a BRAC 
hearing in Dallas, when a reporter tapped me on the shoulder, a 
reporter I had known for some time.
  He said: ``We have a report that there has been an explosion at the 
Federal building in Oklahoma City. They say the building is gone. Your 
district office is in one of those Federal buildings

[[Page H2296]]

in downtown Oklahoma City. Which building are your people in?''
  It is a moment that I will never forget.
  The delegation got up, and, en masse, we rushed out into the lobby. 
There on the television monitors was the building that we recognized as 
the shell of the Murrah building. It, literally, was gone.
  My folks were spared, but, on that day, 168 of our good fellow 
citizens in Oklahoma City were not. This Sunday morning, we will gather 
to remember that event of 20 years ago, an event that has changed us 
all forever.
  I am proud of my fellow Oklahoma delegation here today because we 
still work just now as we did 20 years ago to address those issues.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to one of my colleagues from Oklahoma, who was 
at that time the secretary of state for the State of Oklahoma, one of 
the folks in the inner circle in Governor Keating's administration as 
State government responded to something that no one could have 
expected.
  Mr. COLE. I thank my friend for yielding, and I thank my friend for 
leading us in this genuinely somber and extraordinarily important 
moment not only for our State and, certainly, for what was then his 
district but, I think, for Americans everywhere.
  Twenty years ago on April 19 of 1995, we saw a domestic tragedy of 
historic proportions. It is still the largest single act of domestic 
terrorism in American history. It was totally unexpected, totally 
unanticipated, and extraordinarily devastating to the people involved 
and, I think, to the country as a whole. But sometimes out of a tragedy 
of that proportion a triumph emerges, and that is certainly what 
occurred in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, and on the days that 
followed.
  Our first thoughts on the 20th anniversary is always of the victims--
of the 168 lives who were lost, 19 of them children, unknowing that 
disaster was about to overtake them--and of the many dozens who were 
wounded severely and who still, to this day, carry those injuries with 
them.
  Next, we think always of the first responders, particularly of the 
Oklahoma City fire and police officers who immediately rushed to the 
scene; of the surrounding fire and police departments that were rapidly 
mobilized to assist them; of the Oklahoma National Guard, which was 
there within a matter of hours; and, frankly, of the rescue teams from 
all across the United States of America that immediately moved in our 
direction to help our people.
  I think of the people of Oklahoma next, who, stunned, rallied with 
enormous speed and with great courage to try and support, in each and 
every way that they could, the folks whose lives had been lost and the 
people who were still in danger.
  I still remember that day at the Governor's office--at the end of the 
day, at 2 o'clock in the morning--and driving from the capitol toward 
my home in Moore, Oklahoma, and seeing a line of people outside the 
blood center. At 2 in the morning, they were still there, wanting to 
help and be supportive in whatever way that they could. We were really 
blessed at that particular moment in the history of our State and in 
the history of our country with extraordinary leadership. I think, 
first, always--because I worked for Governor Keating as his secretary 
of state--of the manner in which he responded.
  Like my friend Mr. Lucas, I heard about this totally unexpectedly. I 
was, literally, walking into the capitol at 9:02, in the tunnel, and I 
felt a little shudder. When I walked into my office, my secretary 
immediately walked in and said, ``Your wife is on the phone.'' She was 
working two blocks away from the site of the bombing, and she was on 
the 18th floor of a building.
  She said, ``I don't know what has happened, but I am looking down, 
and I can see enormous smoke--an explosion occurred--rolling out, and 
there are hundreds of people on the street, fleeing from this 
disaster.''
  My office was below the Governor's office on the first floor of the 
capitol, and I went up. This was maybe 8 minutes into the event. I 
walked in because I knew the Governor would be focused on this, 
obviously. He was standing in the press room immediately to the right 
as you walked in, and at that time, there were already helicopters in 
the air, and, on the scene, we were seeing the horrific sights.

  The speculation immediately was that it was some sort of natural gas 
explosion. Well, Frank Keating, who was our Governor, was also a former 
FBI agent who had been trained in investigating terrorism in the 1960s. 
He was a former Tulsa prosecutor, a former U.S. attorney, a former 
Associate Attorney General of the United States, and he knew what he 
was looking at. He immediately looked at that television set, and I 
will never forget what he said.
  He said: ``That is not a natural gas explosion. That is a car bomb of 
some sort.'' He knew instantly what he was dealing with.
  On that day and on the subsequent days, he led with extraordinary 
distinction in mobilizing resources, leading from the front, being on 
the front line. It was an exceptional act of public leadership from an 
official who was less than 100 days into his first term as Governor of 
the State.
  Equally impressive was the leadership of his wife, our first lady, 
Cathy Keating. Most of America knows of the memorial service that took 
place on the Sunday after the disaster. I remember the night after the 
disaster my being at the Governor's Mansion. We still didn't know how 
many people had been lost, and we didn't know if there were survivors 
still in the building. There were search teams. We were dealing with a 
disaster of national and of, really, international proportions.
  Cathy Keating came to the meeting and said: ``We need to have some 
sort of service to memorialize the people who have been lost. People 
are grieving, and they want to participate.''
  I remember thinking at the time, my goodness, how in the world can we 
ever pull this off? We are dealing with more than we can deal with, let 
alone organizing something like that, and I made that point. She said, 
``Don't worry. I will take over,'' and she did.
  America, not just Oklahoma City and Oklahoma, was given a moment to 
mourn, a moment that attracted the President of the United States, 
Billy Graham, a national audience, and thousands of Oklahomans who 
simply wanted to get together and pay tribute to those who had lost 
their lives. It was an exceptional act of public leadership on her 
part. The two of them set up a foundation to take care of the 
educational needs of anyone who had lost a parent, let alone two 
parents, in the course of that, and that institution still functions to 
this day. Again, exceptional leadership.
  We have had other moments of tragedy in our country, like 9/11, and 
just as Rudy Giuliani was quoted as being ``America's mayor'' on that 
day, Ron Norick in Oklahoma City was ``America's mayor'' that day. It 
was an amazing performance as he got together his police and his fire 
firefighters and was immediately on the scene. He is one of the 
greatest public servants who I have ever seen.
  I would be remiss not to mention my friend behind me, Mr. Lucas. As 
he alluded to in his remarks, that was his district office one building 
over. That was a place where he was in and out of a lot in the Federal 
building. My task as secretary of state, assigned by the Governor, was 
to work in Washington to try and coordinate with the Federal Government 
long-term rebuilding efforts.

                              {time}  1300

  Nobody did more to rebuild Oklahoma City than Frank Lucas. Nobody did 
more to help secure the funds, get the national support, work with us 
to get out of the requirements. We had to match this with 25 percent 
because this was not a natural disaster. This was literally an attack 
on a Federal facility in Oklahoma City with a unique Federal 
responsibility. Those were all things that Frank Lucas got done for not 
just the people of his district, but the people of our State; and, 
frankly, in that, he set some precedents that served the people of New 
York on 9/11 awfully well in addition.
  The last person I want to mention is the President of the United 
States at the time. I am a pretty good Republican, and I can't say I 
ever voted for Bill Clinton, but I was very glad he was President of 
the United States at that moment. Nobody helped us more.
  I will never forget 1 p.m. the day of the disaster. We had moved the 
Governor to a civil defense facility below

[[Page H2297]]

ground at the Capitol--he was directing affairs there--and we got a 
call from the President of the United States. I did not know it at the 
time, but they--Frank Keating and Bill Clinton--had actually gone to 
school together. They were both at Georgetown together. Frank Keating 
was president of the student body when Bill Clinton was president of 
the sophomore class, so they knew one another.
  The first thing that the President asked was: Governor, do you have 
any idea who is responsible for this?
  There were, of course, all sorts of wild reports on television, wild 
speculation.
  The Governor, being a law enforcement professional, immediately 
responded: Mr. President, we have no idea. We do not know who would do 
this. I know you are hearing foreign terrorists or all sorts of things. 
We just don't know yet. It is too chaotic for us to know.
  President Clinton at that point said something that really struck me, 
and struck me more later. He said: Well, I hope it wasn't a foreign 
national.
  And I remember being almost shocked that you would hope that, you 
know, an American had done something this awful, but then he added, 
prophetically, as it turned out several years later: Because if it was, 
we will be at war someplace in the world within 6 months.
  He was absolutely right. He, too, understood the dimensions of the 
tragedy. And in the days ahead, everything we asked for and all the 
resources and compassion that a great people like the United States of 
America and its citizens can muster was immediately at our disposal.
  I remember President Clinton, when we announced we were doing the 
ceremony, we were discreetly approached by a member in his 
administration, who said: You know, the President would like to be 
here, but we certainly don't want to be here if it is inappropriate.
  I said: Look, I have to go clear that with the Governor, but I can 
tell you, I know what Frank Keating's response is going to be. Of 
course, we would welcome the President of the United States.
  He did, indeed, come. He not only helped us through it, he helped us 
emotionally through it, as did the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, 
at the time also made that journey and was there to help and comfort 
people.
  So we may have our political differences from time to time as 
Americans, but in times of tragedy, we stick together. We come 
together; we pull together; and we work to help one another, and 
certainly President Clinton did that.
  Finally, let me just make this observation and this expression of 
gratitude. I want to use this occasion to thank the millions and 
millions of Americans who responded with their prayers, with their 
help, the rescue workers that came, the donations that flowed in from 
all across the country to help the victims and the families of the 
victims, that came, frankly, from around the world, because we had 
international help as well.
  I want to remind people that whenever they lose faith in the United 
States of America or just the sheer decency of people, think of the 
Oklahoma City bombing; think of the magnificent performance of this 
country, not just of the people on the scene, but of the support this 
country directed toward its fellow citizens in a time of difficulty, 
and of the many prayers and expressions of goodwill and condolence from 
around the world as people rallied in the face of what was an 
unspeakable act of terror.
  So we had our moment of tragedy, but we have had 20 years of triumph 
since then; and that triumph is not just the triumph of the people of 
Oklahoma City or the people of Oklahoma, it is an American triumph, and 
it is a human triumph of enormous dimensions and of great consequence.
  Mr. LUCAS. Thank you, Congressman Cole.
  I certainly want to acknowledge Congressman Mullin and Congressman 
Bridenstine. We work as a family delegation, so to speak, in the 
Oklahoma delegation.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to Congressman Russell, who 
has the responsibility of representing that site in the Fifth District 
of Oklahoma, to conclude with a few comments.
  Congressman Russell.
  Mr. RUSSELL. I thank Congressman Lucas and my friends and colleagues.
  Mr. Speaker, on April 19, 1995, I was defending my country as an 
officer in the United States Army. We were preparing warriors to defend 
our country, never imagining that an attack would occur in our 
hometown.
  Among the 168 people that were killed and the 680 nonfatal injuries, 
the 324 buildings that were destroyed or damaged in a 16-block radius, 
and the $652 million worth of damage that was caused in my hometown, 
there were a number of brother warriors and sister warriors that were 
defending their country at their duty stations at the recruiting depots 
that were contained in the Federal building--Victoria Sohn, a master 
sergeant in the United States Army; Benjamin Davis, a sergeant in the 
United States Marine Corps; Lakesha Levy, an airman first class in the 
United States Air Force; Randolph Guzman, a captain in the United 
States Marine Corps; Cartney McRaven, an airman first class in the 
United States Air Force; and Lola Bolden, a sergeant first class in the 
United States Army--never imagining that in their recruiting duties in 
Oklahoma City that they would give their lives in defense of their 
country.

  To my colleagues and to Congressman Lucas, I would ask that we could 
observe a moment of silence in memory to all the 168 Americans, 
Oklahomans, friends that were killed in this despicable act of terror 
on our domestic shores, and to all of those that carry the scars and 
injuries to this day, if we could observe a brief moment of silence.
  I thank my colleague and friend, Congressman Lucas, and thank you, 
Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, there is no way that the Oklahoma delegation 
can express our thanks to the country for the help over the last 20 
years, but with this moment of silence just now, we ask that everyone, 
2 minutes after 9, central time, this Sunday morning think about those 
168 souls, those killed and those who survived, and those who were 
changed forever.
  I yield back the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.

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