[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 69 (Monday, April 20, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H2985-H2988]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REMEMBERING THE 31ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE OKLAHOMA BOMBING
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Lucas
of Oklahoma was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the
majority leader.)
Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in solemn remembrance of
something that happened 31 years ago in Oklahoma City at the Federal
building that we refer to as the Murrah Building when an act of
unimaginable horror took place and the lives of 168 of our fellow
Americans were taken in almost an instant.
That was one of those experiences that forever reshaped my community
and my neighbors. It reshaped the country at the time, and that is what
I and my colleagues rise this evening to discuss those 31 years ago and
how our communities responded and where we went from there.
I was an 11-month Member of Congress at the time. My district office
was 1\1/2\ blocks away from the Murrah Building, and the force and the
magnitude of the explosion that day were so incredible that not only
did it blow the interior out of the Murrah Building, leaving just a
shell, but it also damaged buildings blocks away, literally creating
chaos and confusion all over central Oklahoma City.
Sometimes, in the chaos of the modern world, we forget that we are
Americans, we are Oklahomans, we are fellow human beings, and we rise
to the occasion. That response, beginning almost instantly and covering
hours, days, and weeks, reflected that Oklahoma standard, that Oklahoma
way of doing things--but not just Oklahoma, our great Nation.
This evening for a little bit, we together will discuss the things
that we have dealt with since then, things we observed in those
moments, and how it made a real difference in the lives of the
survivors and those who were so critically injured.
My friend, Congressman Cole, was Secretary of State in the State of
Oklahoma, a central member of Governor Keating's cabinet. When the
emergency response programs were activated, he was a part of the
State's response to help local government in interacting with FEMA.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole).
Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Oklahoma, my
distinguished colleague and extraordinary leader in that moment, Mr.
Lucas, for yielding.
Like my friend, we don't need a lot of notes to talk about that day
31 years ago to the day yesterday. We remember what was the darkest day
in Oklahoma history, the worst act of domestic terrorism ever performed
on American soil.
My friend, Mr. Lucas, as he said, was only 11 months in as a new
Congressman representing that area, that district, and we are very
lucky there was not a loss of life in his office, as close as they were
to the disaster site. I had been in office less than 100 days working
for our friend, Frank Keating.
I will never forget that day. I was walking into my office, and I
could feel a little shudder. The capitol is about 2\1/2\ miles away
from the disaster site. I sat down in my chair, and my secretary
immediately walked into my office.
She said: Something terrible has happened in downtown Oklahoma City.
Your wife--who was three blocks away working as a paralegal at the
time--has just called and said that something terrible has happened.
She is on the phone.
I got on the phone, and she described to me what she could see from
the 18th floor of an office tower at a law firm three blocks away.
She said: I don't know what has occurred, but there has been a
horrific explosion. There are hundreds of people in the street. People
are screaming, and something awful has happened.
Immediately I walked upstairs to the Governor's office. Frank Keating
was our new Governor at the time. He obviously had been in office less
than 100 days, as well. If you walked into the Governor's office, Mr.
Speaker, there is a press office immediately to your right. I looked to
the right. I saw the Governor and his chief of staff, my good friend,
Clinton Key.
They were watching the disaster as it unfolded because there were
already helicopters flying over the disaster site, and one of the news
commentators was speculating: Well, this was a natural gas explosion.
Frank Keating had been an FBI agent in the early part of his career
as a law enforcement official and later an Associate Attorney General
of the United States under President Reagan. He was looking at this.
One of his first jobs as a young FBI officer in the 1960s had been to
investigate acts of terrorism associated with the Vietnam war on the
West Coast.
I will never ever forget him watching this. He said that is not a
natural gas explosion. That is a car bomb, and it is probably some act
of terrorism.
He knew immediately what we were dealing with. As we watched that
horrific day unfold where we lost 168 lives, I marveled every single
day at the extraordinary leadership that Frank Keating and our first
lady, Cathy Keating, showed for the State of Oklahoma. He not only knew
what had happened, he knew instinctively what he needed to do.
We had an emergency meeting in the Governor's office. We decided
there is always a debate in one of those things: Do you go to the site?
Do you lead from the capitol?
Frank Keating said: You go to where the action is. I am going
downtown and assign various tasks to the rest of us. Then he headed
down.
{time} 2000
I joined him later that day. He saw this horrific explosion that had
taken 168 lives and injured hundreds and hundreds more people. We
watched the unfolding relief effort.
As bad as the day was for Oklahoma, I don't think I ever was more
proud of the State and, quite frankly, the country as it dealt with the
tragedy unfolding in front of us in those opening hours on April 19,
1995.
Our first responders in Oklahoma City--police officers and the fire
department--immediately sprang into action, immediately trying to get
people out of the building, trying to contain the disaster. Over 300
buildings around the site had been heavily damaged.
They performed heroically and magnificently because, frankly, we
thought at the time that there might be other bombs there and that
there might be other explosions coming.
By about 11 o'clock that morning, we had the Governor back, and we
convened at the capitol complex in Oklahoma City.
About 1 o'clock, we got a call from the President of the United
States, Bill Clinton. Most people don't know this, but President
Clinton and Governor Keating had gone to Georgetown University
together. When the Governor was president of the senior class, then-
sophomore class member Bill Clinton was president of the sophomore
class. They knew one another extraordinarily well.
There was already lots of speculation that it might be terrorist
activity directed from overseas. The President asked the Governor:
Governor, do we have any earthly idea who did this? He said: No, Mr.
President, we don't. You will hear a lot of speculation, but obviously,
we don't know at this point who did this deed.
I will never forget the response of President Clinton, who said
immediately: Well, I hope it is not a foreigner who did something like
this.
I remember thinking: Well, gosh, how could you want it to be an
American? The President said something very insightful. It actually
came back to me when we as a country went through 9/11. He said: If
this was done by somebody overseas, we will be at war someplace in the
world in the next 6 months. He, too, knew immediately
[[Page H2986]]
what the consequences of this awful act were.
In the days ahead, again, our firefighters, our National Guard, our
police, and all the surrounding police officers and fire departments
did an extraordinary job as we struggled to find out who had done this,
what we could do to save lives, and whether there were still survivors
left in there.
At every point, Governor Keating showed leadership, but he was not
alone. The mayor of Oklahoma City, Ron Norick, a good friend of
Congressman Lucas and mine, also performed magnificently, directing the
response effort.
Much more importantly than that for us, the people of Oklahoma
responded instinctively and heroically, not only in sending the relief
efforts that we initially needed, but also in rallying around the
victims, giving blood, and trying to see that whatever was needed would
be done.
I then recall all the other Americans from all over the country who
were immediately moving in our direction to help. We had relief units.
I met the captain of the New York Fire Department, who later lost his
life responding to 9/11. I met relief and rescue workers from Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. People came from all over America because it is
what Americans do when they face a tragedy: You help other Americans.
Finally, I will tell you that the Clinton administration responded
spectacularly. President Clinton sent every bit of aid that we
requested and then some. When our First Lady decided that we needed to
grieve while we were dealing with disaster, she came up with the idea
of the prayer service, which was attended immediately by Billy Graham,
by the President of the United States, obviously by our local
dignitaries, and by our neighbor, the newly elected Governor of the
State of Texas, George Bush. You saw all Americans coming and working
together.
Over the course of that, something called the Oklahoma Standard was
developed and is still very famous amongst first responders. This is
how our community, a State, and, frankly, a country is supposed to
respond when confronted with an unspeakable act of evil. So as terrible
as it was, it became a rallying point for the people of Oklahoma, and
it became an incident where you could see the goodness and decency of
the American people overcoming a terrible act of evil.
We got help from all over the world. I still have prayer beads sent
to us from Germany that the nuns had made. People just responded and
stepped up.
We will never forget in Oklahoma the horror of those days, the worst
days I ever lived through. We will never forget the decency of both the
people of Oklahoma, certainly of Oklahoma City, decent people from all
across the country who helped us, and a great and compassionate
government that was immediately available. Sometimes, the government is
a pretty controversial thing these days. You will never know how lucky
you are as an American as when something terrible like this happens and
all the resources and all the compassion of a great and good people are
immediately at your disposal to help you get through a disaster: FBI,
FEMA, law enforcement personnel, more rescue teams. That went on for
day after day after day.
Out of that came a thought that the Governor had: What can we do to
help the survivors? What can we do for all the children who are now
orphans? He set up with the First Lady, Cathy Keating, a foundation
which, frankly, raised the money and provided for the education of
every child who lost a parent. College, technical education, whatever
they needed, we would be there to fulfill the role of the parents who
were taken from very young children at an age and in a way that they
couldn't possibly comprehend. Frankly, none of us could ever understand
what happened behind it and what the reasons for it were.
I think about that day quite often, and I think about it particularly
on the anniversary dates. There was an enormous celebration yesterday
in Oklahoma City, prayer services, a memorial marathon that we run
every year connected with this event, and the Day to Remember. Again,
out of that terrible thing, many good things have happened.
Mr. Speaker, I particularly commend my friend. I was assigned the
job, as secretary of state, of being the liaison with the Federal
Government. That meant I was working through my congressman and friend
Frank Lucas to try to make sure that the Federal Government played its
appropriate role, not only in the response--and, believe me, they did.
I could not have, again, asked any more from President Clinton. I have
expressed that to him on many occasions and on this floor on multiple
occasions. Anything we asked for, he made sure that we had.
I also think of all the decent people who rallied around and helped
us. We saw superb leadership at the public level. My friend was at the
heart of making sure that Oklahoma City got all the help that it
needed.
We were trying to struggle with what it would take to rebuild
Oklahoma City. I remember talking to my counterparts in the Federal
Government at the time whom President Clinton had dispatched. The
normal relief in a situation like that, a disaster, is a 75/25 split. I
remember telling one of them that this isn't a natural disaster. This
is an attack on a Federal facility in the middle of Oklahoma City.
{time} 2010
They thought about it. They said: You know, you are right, this is
really a Federal responsibility. The generosity of the people of the
United States of America helped rebuild Oklahoma City, and that very
same concept was used when our friends in New York, who had been so
quick to send us help, went through an even more horrific ordeal on 9/
11.
These disasters were meant to hurt the State of Oklahoma. They were
meant to hurt our faith and our system, and they were meant to damage
the American people profoundly. They did exactly the opposite. They
reminded us that whatever our differences politically, whatever
differences we have in different parts of the country, in the end we
are all Americans, and in the end Americans stick together and look
after their own.
Frankly, as I said, we got help from all over the world. We got help
from every point on the political spectrum. We got the assistance of
folks who decided they would not give in to horror, they would not give
in to terrorism, they would not allow evil to overcome the innate
decency of the people.
As I pause and reflect, I do remember it as the worst day of my life.
I do remember it as the worst day in the history of my State. But I
remember it also as an example of the compassion, decency, and the
enormous capability of the American people to look after their own in a
terrible situation.
I thank my friend for organizing this memorial to this horrific event
because it is really something we should never forget, but it is
something we should always be proud of. We should be proud of the
response of those very first police officers and firemen, just as at 9/
11, not knowing exactly what had happened, but throwing themselves in
harm's way.
We should be proud of the political leadership that we had at the
time. We were very fortunate to have the Governor we had, the First
Lady that we had, Frank and Cathy Keating, the mayor we had in Oklahoma
City, the Congressmen we had that represented that area and worked with
us not just in those days and weeks but, frankly, in the months and
years that followed to make sure that Oklahoma City recovered.
We should be proud of a people that never ever will forget what
occurred that day and never ever will let the forces of evil overcome
the forces of good and the decency of the American people.
I have seen enough in my lifetime to know when good overcomes evil
and that in the end it always does because I saw it in Oklahoma City. I
saw it with friends and colleagues. I saw it from strangers all across
the country. I saw it from political leaders at every point in the
political spectrum. What was our worst day as a State was probably our
best day in terms of showing what we were capable of when we were
challenged and reminding the world that all of America stands together
against terrorism and all of America works together to help people not
only deal with the immediate tragedy but to overcome, to heal, and to
move on.
[[Page H2987]]
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for setting up this fitting memorial
discussion this evening.
Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman who represents
the Second District of Oklahoma, Congressman Brecheen. Clearly, he,
too, cares about all Oklahomans and all of our fellow citizens.
Mr. BRECHEEN. Mr. Speaker, I find myself in an unfortunate status. I
was a Coalgate High School young adult. A Member of Congress was
dealing with this at the time that I was in high school, and the
Secretary of State was dealing with this at the time I was in high
school. I, of course, had friends who lost a loved one. I would later
have a college roommate that I would discover--people I went to church
with for years--his father was an APHIS, Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service, veterinarian for USDA. We would room together at
Oklahoma State University. I never learned this story while we were
going to church together; it took going to college.
I heard the story of how his wife accidentally put the notice of him
being called to the headquarters office, she covered it up
accidentally, and he didn't show up for one of the sides of the
building that would be most impacted. There are some very famous
photos.
A few years later, I would be State FFA president, and we would start
the 168 Pennies campaign on behalf of career tech. While these men were
serving in State leadership roles, the youth were responding to try to
find ways to assist and be a part of the good will that was spoken of
just a minute ago.
I will close just by saying that it reminds us, this incident, of the
need to fulfill what George Washington in a 1789 statement talked
about: That it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence
of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and
humbly to implore His protection and favor.
That incident was a first for a Nation that had enjoyed quietness on
the home front, and it shattered us. Years later, we would have 9/11,
but it reminds us today, as we pause and remember what happened in
Oklahoma 31 years ago, taking the lives of 168 innocent people, the
need for us to have bended knees and pray Psalms 91-type protection
over this Nation.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Lucas for setting this up. I truly
appreciate it.
Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, my grandparents' generation could tell you
where they were when they heard the news that Wiley Post and Will
Rogers had been lost in that plane crash in Alaska in 1935. They could
also tell you exactly what they were doing when the news came of the
bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941.
My parents, who were young men, kids at the time, could tell you
exactly where they were when that same news about Pearl Harbor came.
They could tell you exactly what they were doing when they discovered
that President Kennedy had been assassinated.
For my generation, there have been many things that imprint the mind
that will mark the memory forever, but that day 31 years ago that took
the lives of 168 of our fellow citizens is my equivalent to those
earlier tragedies.
I and the Oklahoma delegation were all together in Dallas-Fort Worth
for a meeting of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, BRAC,
when the tragedy occurred at 9:02 a.m. I will never forget having a
reporter from one of the Oklahoma City news radio stations tap me on
the shoulder, and he said: Congressman, don't you have an office in the
Federal Building?
I said: Chris, I do, but there are three Federal buildings. Are you
talking about Murrah, the Federal Courthouse, or the United States Post
Office?
He said: We have a report that there has been some kind of an
explosion at the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and it is gone.
Now, at that moment, I jumped up and charged out of the auditorium,
and in the lobby were the television screens even in that day with the
live coverage. I immediately recognized the Murrah Building. My people
were a block and a half away in the U.S. Post Office Building, but I
immediately recognized the building. The core of this building had been
blown out. It had been designed in the 1960s during the antiwar period
to withstand an attack, but not the magnitude of this attack.
Senator Nickles, who led the delegation that day to the BRAC hearing,
hurriedly went down and discussed with the leadership of the BRAC
Commission and the two State delegations ahead of us, and they were
able to accelerate our abbreviated testimony. We left Dallas and came
back to Oklahoma City as fast as we could.
I will never forget walking up the street from the south, I believe
Harvey, coming by what was then our old Sixth District office in the
U.S. Post Office Building. This is a block and a half away on the
opposite side of the blast, down the street. The shock wave was big
enough that it blew all of our windows in and took down our ceilings.
Now, I had people buried under rubble, I had people thrown across
rooms, but everyone was okay. We were lucky. In the delegation, we
proceeded, J.C. and I and several staffers, on up the street and around
the corner to behold what we saw, it was just the most amazing thing.
{time} 2020
My colleagues are right, the response from almost the first instant
was amazing. A lot of times people think that when you have a tragedy,
a natural disaster, that the Federal Government is going to come in and
save you. That is not the system.
The system is for local government to function and for local
government to call upon county and State government to support them. If
the need is great enough, they then turn to the Federal Government and
FEMA to back them up. That is exactly the way it worked in Oklahoma
City. The mayor, the police chief, and fire chief triaged the
situation, knew they had more than they could handle, called upon
county government, State government, the Governor, Secretary Cole, who
then turned to FEMA and the President of the United States. It was a
textbook example of how things were supposed to work in the most
hideous and horrible of circumstances.
I don't ever want anyone to go through something of that nature or
magnitude ever again. It took 5 years of the Federal delegation working
with those Federal employees who had survived, many of whom had been
physically or emotionally injured, and their families to sort out what
were they going to do next, what did they want to do, and what were
they capable of doing.
Mr. Speaker, call it compassionate work if you want, call it treating
your fellow citizens in a decent way, but we worked for 5 years to work
our way through that.
I will also say that Congressman Cole referenced the outflowing of
love and support from across the country. The emergency management
teams and all of the entities that came pouring in to help. It was
amazing. However, about 3 or 4 months after the immediate tragedy was
over, I got a call from one of our colleagues, a congressman in New
Jersey by the name of Jim Saxton. Jim told me that his community had
been raising money and they wanted to give it to Oklahoma City to help.
Would I come to New Jersey with him and see his folks and accept their
gift.
I didn't know what to expect, but I thought the world of Congressman
Saxton, and if his people were trying to help my people, absolutely. We
went up to New Jersey. In a high school auditorium near a military
base, the bands and the cheerleaders and the school kids and the adults
in the community--it was quite an event--they had done car washes and
bake sales. They donated money. They raised cash, and they presented me
with a huge check--now, this is 31 years ago--for $100,000.
That is a lot of money now, but that was an incredible amount of
money in 1995 to give to people you had never met and that you didn't
know but you knew you cared about. That is another one of those moments
I will never forget, $100,000.
Bottom line is this: From that great tragedy came the foundation to
educate people about these issues, from that tragedy came the memorial
memorializing, honoring, and remembering those 168 lost people.
If you are ever even remotely close to Oklahoma City, you should go
and walk through that somber memorial. You should go through all of the
educational exhibits at the foundation. It is just the most amazing
thing.
[[Page H2988]]
Am I different today still after all this time than I was before the
moment the tragedy struck? I will always be different. I will always be
different. When you have seen the worst of what humanity can do to
itself, followed by the best of what humanity can do for itself, you
can't help but be a changed person.
Mr. Speaker, again, to my friends, I thank them for everything that
they did. I thank them for working so diligently for all those good
folks in Oklahoma City and everybody across the country.
My grandparents could tell you when Wiley and Will had their tragedy.
My father could quote you where he was standing in Elk City when they
saw on the TV screen that President Kennedy has been assassinated. I
will forever have burned in my memory that reporter tapping me on the
shoulder, ``We have a report. There has been an explosion. The Federal
building is gone. Where is your office?'' I will never forget that.
Mr. Speaker, one last time, I thank everyone who helped us in
Oklahoma City. I express my sympathy for everyone who lost someone in
Oklahoma City, but thank goodness, we are Oklahomans. Most importantly,
we are Americans.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________