US Rep. Frank Lucas missing as U.S. House reconvenes

WASHINGTON — Members of the Oklahoma delegation returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to cast their first votes since the August break ended. But as the members filed into the House chamber, one key Oklahoma voice was missing.

Rather than walking the halls of the Capitol, Congressman Frank Lucas was at his ranch near Cheyenne, 150 miles west of Oklahoma City, recovering from a recent surgery.

In August, Lucas’s office issued a statement with a list of town hall meetings that were being postponed due to an injury he recently sustained.

According to the statement, Lucas (OK-3), of Cheyenne, whose district stretches from the Oklahoma Panhandle to suburbs of Tulsa, was injured while working on his ranch in Roger Mills County. He was admitted to the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Oklahoma City where he underwent a successful surgery to repair a break in his hip socket.

However, the details of his injury were previously unknown.

That changed during a telephone town hall hosted by U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R, Moore) on Sept. 7, when Cole disclosed that Lucas was hit by a stray bull that had escaped onto his property.

A congressional staffer confirmed Cole’s story during an interview with Gaylord News, adding that the bull pinned Lucas to a fence and broke his hip socket.

“(Lucas) is feeling well and is looking forward to a speedy recovery. Frank and his family are in good spirits and are sincerely grateful to the tremendous team of doctors, nurses, and others who took care of him,” the statement said.

According to the staffer, Lucas is still recovering from his surgeries and is unable to bear weight or walk without a walker. He has not been cleared by his doctor to fly, the staffer said, so it will most likely be a few more weeks until he returns to Washington.

Lucas serves the 3rd District of Oklahoma, which encompasses 32 counties in northern and western Oklahoma. Lucas is chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and is the longest-serving Republican member of the House Committee on Financial Services.

Lucas, Oklahoma’s longest serving Congressman and the dean of the House Agriculture Committee, has had a hand in writing every Farm Bill since 1996. Lucas was recently appointed to the House Committee on Agriculture Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development and Conservation, Research and Biotechnology Subcommittees.

The Farm Bill, a package of legislation passed roughly once every five years that sets national agriculture, nutrition, conservation and forestry policy, is set to expire on Sept. 30. Included in the Farm Bill is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food benefits to low-income families so they can afford nutritious food.

“Nobody knows more about agriculture and production agriculture in Oklahoma than Frank Lucas,” Cole said during the town hall in response to a question about the Farm Bill. “I’ll vote for any Farm Bill that Frank Lucas says is a good farm bill, and I’ll vote against any Farm Bill that Frank Lucas says is not a good farm bill. I say that simply because that’s how much I trust him.”

The congressional staffer said Lucas will meet with a doctor later this month to hopefully gain clearance to fly back to D.C., where he will use a walker or a wheelchair to go to the Capitol to vote.

“It could have been a lot worse, and he’s been in great spirits,” the staffer said. “We’re just hoping that he’s gonna get back sooner rather than later.”

Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For more stories by Gaylord News, go to GaylordNews.net.