Word: coburn
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Senator Tom Coburn spent a good part of last Wednesday trying to stop the federal government from building bike paths. He wanted to redirect the $12 million allotted for them to shoring up U.S. bridges following the collapse of a highway bridge in Minneapolis that killed 13 people. The amendment failed 80-18. Undeterred, Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, immediately introduced his second amendment of the day: a motion to suspend all earmarks - or pet projects often attached in secret to funding bills - until structural integrity of all U.S. bridges can be verified. There were $2 billion in earmarks...
...fact that DeMint and Coburn's amendments were defeated is nothing new in the Senate, and it does little to temper their enthusiasm as Congress rushes to finish all of the funding bills for next year. At a time when the conservative base is lamenting its choice of presidential candidates as well as the priorities of the Oval Office's current occupant, the two are the leaders of a small group of Republican hard-liners working overtime against Democrats and Republicans alike to make a firm stand against what they view as out-of-control spending...
...that provision focusing on earmarks - measures that lawmakers have typically quietly inserted into legislation at the last minute to allot money for pet projects in their home states - that has drawn the loudest criticism from two conservatives, Sen. Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, and Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, as well as House Minority Leader John Boehner, who have derided the measure as mostly ineffective...
...What they did was wash the outside of the cup, but the inside of the cup is still filthy," railed Coburn, who said the legislation would present the appearance of reform while still leaving open loopholes. "If you want to fix what's wrong in Congress, you have to make the earmarking process completely transparent. We had a great strong bill in January and they gutted it." That bill, which passed the Senate almost unanimously, had stalled after Sen. DeMint blocked a conference committee from meeting to discuss and reconcile the bill's House and Senate versions because...
...DeMint and Coburn are unhappy with a rule that would allow Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and his committee chairmen - rather than the body?s parliamentarian - to determine whether earmark disclosure rules have been complied with. It's a technical point, admits DeMint, but a key one. "One of the reasons Americans have such a low opinion of Congress is that we pretend to do things that we don't actually do, and here we are just pretending to pass real reform," he said. "The [majority] leader can just say that no new earmarks have been added...