Tom Coburn: “today the Senate accepted two modified amendments that I authored. Amendment 2230, as modified, will reduce the amount…”

“today the Senate accepted two modified amendments that I authored. Amendment 2230, as modified, will reduce the amount appropriated for travel, conference programs and related expenses at the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, by $15 million. Currently $68 million is available for these activities. The $15 million saved by this revised amendment would ensure sufficient funding for travel and conference expenses that may be necessary while recognizing that the current amount spent on these activities by HHS is excessive and can be reduced. In 2005 alone, HHS spent $68.5 million on conferences. This is a 50 percent increase in conference spending during a 5-year period. At a time when our Nation is fighting a global war against terrorism, recovering from the most expensive natural disaster in our history, and facing an ever growing debt that now surpasses $8 trillion, we must be more frugal with the taxpayers' dollars we have been entrusted and prioritize how they are spent. This amendment ensures that a greater amount of Federal health dollars will actually be spent on health care, which should be the goal of HHS. In the context of the $2.5 trillion Federal budget, $15 million may not seem like much until you put it into a real world perspective. According to the American Institute of Preventative Medicine, the average doctor visit costs $55.…”