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Oklahoma’s budget problems are squeezing the Department of Transportation, and U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe isn’t happy about it.

Not being one to suffer in silence, Inhofe took to the road — or, in his case, mostly the air — to let people know how he feels about the possibility of ODOT funding cuts.

“I know these are difficult times,” he said Friday. “I know there are lots of priorities, but for me a top priority has to be transportation.”

Inhofe said that for the first time Friday at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, where he met with a small group of business representatives. He said more or less the same thing during the course of the day as he and ODOT Director Mike Patterson flew from Tulsa to Norman with passes over planned or ongoing construction projects.

Inhofe reiterated the point in Norman, where a press conference had been called at the partly completed Lindsay Street/Oklahoma 9/Interstate 35 interchange.

Inhofe’s message: I’ve done my part getting federal highway dollars; if the state doesn’t step up, this overpass we’re standing on may not be finished for the first University of Oklahoma football game on Sept. 2.