Tom Coburn: “Everything I try to do is toward transparency in our Federal Government, because what you cannot measure, you cannot…”

“Everything I try to do is toward transparency in our Federal Government, because what you cannot measure, you cannot manage. This is a very simple amendment. What we know is that in the last 7 years, the cost of a 4-year college education has doubled. It has gone from $2,700 to $5,800 at State universities. It has gone from about $10,500 to $23,000 at private universities. The costs have doubled. It is the only thing in this country that is rising twice as fast as the cost of health care. We ought to ask ourselves why. This amendment is very clear. What it says is if you are a university and you are lobbying Congress, you have to certify to Congress that you are not spending tuition money or other Federal money that you have gotten for a project for your students or for your university in terms of lobbying to get more money. This, by the way, was excluded from the lobbying and ethics bill we considered.”