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Floor Speech

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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I have come to this floor many times to be able to talk about a lot of serious policy issues, to be able to walk through all different kinds of tax policy, energy policy, immigration policy. We have worked through a lot of different issues on this floor, and I have had the opportunity to be able to speak on a lot of issues.

I don't often take time just to be able to pause and talk about a cultural issue. I want to do that today.

This weekend, the Nation will pause and celebrate Father's Day. Now, this will be the 116th year of celebrating Father's Day in America; the 54th year since it was officially recognized as an official Federal holiday.

It is kind of a big deal. Every human being on Earth has a mom and a dad. You may or may not know them, but it does take two to tango, they say, and every single person does have a mom and a dad.

There are a lot of dads that are separated, and there is a lot of disjointedness. What we are watching in culture is culture pushing back on men, to challenge men to be better dads. I applaud a good thing that is happening in culture with that.

We are literally seeing the statistics on this. The numbers on it bear out. Literally in this generation of dads right now, they are three times more likely to spend more time with their kids than the dads during the 1960s.

It is an interesting shift that is happening. We have fewer dads out there, but the dads that are there in America are looking at their kids and saying: I want to spend more time with them.

Good. We need more engaged dads. Quite frankly, being a dad is a courageous job and a challenging job but exceptionally important. And it is not just being a breadwinner, it is not just being a disciplinarian, it is just being there for their child.

I first want to say happy Father's Day to my own dad, but I also want to be able to challenge all dads that are out there to turn to your kids and to rededicate again, not just this weekend, but to rededicate again to actually spending more time with your kids because healthy families are the most basic building block of culture.

I have said it to people over and over again: Healthy families make healthy communities, make a healthy nation.

And when I hear people complain about the status of where we are as a nation, I have to tell you, the first place that I look are dads and to say how are dads doing because dads will define a tremendous amount of the strength of our Nation and the strength of our culture.

If dads back away from their families, families get weaker, communities get weaker, the Nation gets weaker.

If dads are engaged with their kids and with their families, the Nation gets stronger, communities get stronger.

Now, it is not just me speaking on this; I mean, you can go to any statistic that you want to be able to go to. The research out there for youth and adult offenders, between--depending on a State and a place-- between 70 percent and 85 percent of incarcerated individuals do not have a dad in their life. They came from fatherless homes.

Around 85 percent of the abortions that happen in our country, year to year, happen with a single mom when no dad is around and no man is around--85 percent. That is a woman who is making an incredibly difficult decision to take the life of the child, often because she is afraid she will not have the resources or the support to be able to support this child, and so she makes this decision to take the life of a child instead.

I have a friend of mine that often says behind every abortion is an irresponsible man. Dads, dads are important.

Now, it is not something we can legislate, though I would tell you there are initiatives that are out there. Right now there is fatherhood.gov if people want to go to that site that encourages ideas for dads. It is not just up for Father's Day, it is up all the time. And people can go to fatherhood.org. Right now, the Ad Council is running an ad campaign across the entire country that just is called ``Be a Good Dad Today.''

That is cultural encouragement on these things. But there are also things that we are working on as well: marriage penalty, for instance, in our tax law. If there are areas of our tax law that actually give you greater benefit not being married than married, those things need to be fixed. And there are several of those.

The Brookings Institute for years has asked the most basic question: How does someone rise out of poverty? If someone is born in poverty, how do they rise out of poverty? For years, they have done this study, and the same three things rise up over and over again every time they do this study: if you graduate high school, if you have a job of any type, and if you wait until after marriage to have children. If those three things are true, 97 percent chance you rise out of poverty.

That is someone making good decisions, and it allows the next generation to also be successful as well. That is just good tax policy to be able to incentivize ways that we can keep families together and to encourage families in that way.

The Trump administration has also made some changes to be able to encourage more dads to make alimony payments; if there is a divorce that happens and a child is there, for the dad to make sure he is providing alimony.

It is incredibly important to that woman, that mom, that is raising those kids to still have the financial support and for that dad to still show his financial support, I hope, as well as his love and encouragement to those kids. The Trump administration is now saying if a dad is not paying child support, they can't get a passport, and if a dad is not paying child support, they can have their tax refund, if they are getting that, withheld. Good for them to be able to encourage that man to be able to be responsible as well.

But, ultimately, you can't legislate being a good dad. That is a decision that a man makes. Now, I would tell you, I have talked to men, and they have said: Hey, I didn't have a man in my life and so it is tough to be able to learn how to do that.

I have talked to plenty of folks in churches and in communities and friends and neighbors that are just encouraging other dads to be able to be a better dad. It is a good gift to the next generation to be able to do that.

I will tell you this, pure and simple: Every child needs a mom. Every child needs a dad. There is no substitute. Many people in this body know I am a former youth pastor, and I would have parents that came up to me all the time and say: You are such an influence on my child for teaching and role modeling. And I would say that is very kind, but there is no influence that is a bigger influence on a child than their mom and dad. The path of their life will be set by their mom or dad.

So dads should not think it is somebody else's responsibility; it is theirs. If the next generation is going to be patriotic, if the next generation is going to love God, if the next generation is going to make good decisions, if the next generation is going to have a hard work ethic, if the next generation is going to learn to be kind, if the next generation is going to stand up for what is right, it is going to be because a dad invested that into that child's life.

So if you want to see the Nation stronger, dads engage. That is what is going to make the Nation stronger. Every child needs a guide, a role model. They need to see the courage and kindness and strength of a dad.

They need more than just dad jokes. They need a dad present. That is what makes the biggest difference.

Could I just say from my own context, the Scripture is full of conversations challenging dads to love their children, and, quite frankly, children to honor their parents. Let me just give you a couple of them.

In Malachi 4:6.

It says: The role of the Prophet Elijah was to turn the heart of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest there be a curse on the land.

What a clear statement: to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the children to their father; if not, there is a curse on the land.

And how about this one? Just a simple challenge from Paul, who, interestingly enough, was not a dad but was somebody that understood the importance there. Paul in Ephesians 6:4. It says: Fathers don't exasperate your children. Don't just push them, push them, push them.

But instead he said: Bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord.

It is a very clear statement to dads to say don't just yell at your kids; train them on how to be able to love God and love people, train them up in the right way because if you want a church and community and a family to be better, dads need to be engaged with their kids.

So happy Father's Day to my dad, happy Father's Day to all the dads that are out there. And if I can make just the most simple cultural challenge, if we really want a stronger nation, there is no vote that we will take in this body today that will make the Nation stronger than just dads loving their kids and spending time with them and helping them know how to be able to walk with God and live a patriotic life and serve their family and community. There is no vote we will take that will help our Nation more than that.

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