Congressman Dan Boren addressed the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue luncheon meeting last week at the Raindrop Turkish House on Classen Boulevard in Oklahoma City. Boren, who has an undergraduate degree in economics and master’s of business administration degree from the University of Oklahoma, represents the U.S. 2nd Congressional District in southeastern Oklahoma. He was first elected to that position in 2004.
He served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives prior to that time and he is the son of former Oklahoma governor and U.S. senator and now OU President David Boren. He is the grandson of Lyle Boren, who represented southeast Oklahoma in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1937-47. When Congress is not in session, Boren resides in Muskogee with his wife Andrea and daughter Janna.
The congressman praised the attendees at the luncheon for their willingness to reach out to people of other faiths and beliefs, and lamented the fact there is not a similar sentiment in Washington, where he reports that Republicans and Democrats rarely reach out to one another. As a Democrat who is a member of what is known as “the Blue Dog Caucus” that frequently votes with Congressional Republicans, Boren said he receives criticism from both parties.
The congressman reported he had voted for the stimulus bill that was recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama, and he listed some of the programs that enactment will fund in the state of Oklahoma. No Republican members of the House of Representatives voted for it.
The programs include projects to improve Oklahoma highways and bridges as well as funding for health care and programs to fund education in the state. Boren said he voted for that measure because he believed the national economy needed to be stimulated with such expenditures. Boren said while Oklahoma has been spared much of the economic turmoil that has impacted most of the nation in recent months, he believes if corrective action is not taken the nation could face massive unemployment of the type that was last seen in the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The lawmaker said he voted for the expansion of the SCHIP program that will provide health care to Oklahoma children who live in households with modest income, and said thousands of previously uncovered children in the state now will have access to medical care as a result of its recent passage. But, he admitted to some degree of ambivalence about the measure, since it is funded by an increase in the taxes assessed on tobacco products, and many of his constituents use tobacco. The lawmaker said he is supportive of the state’s oil and gas industry, and has introduced bills in Congress to encourage production from the states marginal oil wells. He spoke with enthusiasm about a recent proposal that would have the nations garbage trucks using compressed natural gas as a nonpolluting energy source since Oklahoma is a major producer of natural gas. But, Boren also spoke about his belief that Oklahoma could play an important role in the development of alternative clean energy sources such as wind, solar and biofuels that will not pollute the environment. The congressman was appointed several years ago by the U.S. Speaker of the House to be a member of the House Permanent Select Subcommittee on Intelligence that oversees the nation’s entire intelligence community and he receives confidential briefings from several federal intelligence agencies as a result. He said that as a member of that subcommittee he has learned first-hand of the dangers that this nation faces from radical groups.
WILLIAM F. O’BRIEN is an Oklahoma City attorney.
Opinion
Boren looks for more congressional dialogue
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