REMEMBERING THE 31ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE OKLAHOMA BOMBING

On 2026-04-20, Representative Tom Cole (R-OK-4) delivered a floor speech titled "REMEMBERING THE 31ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE OKLAHOMA BOMBING" in the House. The speech addressed taxes and also covered the environment, trade policy.

REMEMBERING THE 31ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE OKLAHOMA BOMBING

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 69 (Monday, April 20, 2026) [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 st