Tom Coburn: “I wish I would have thought of that amendment. It is a great amendment. The Senator from South Dakota makes the point…”

“I wish I would have thought of that amendment. It is a great amendment. The Senator from South Dakota makes the point, we have to make decisions about priorities. When we have an unproven volunteer program that is more expensive than any other volunteer program, and we are putting an extra $20 million on the basis of emergency versus fulfilling the obligations to those people who have made the ultimate sacrifice and paid the price and served this country and put their lives in danger doing so, it is a no-brainer that we ought to be spending the money on the veterans rather than a program that has not proven to be effective, not proven to match a performance goal, and not proven even to be measuring itself in the 13 years of its existence. I support the Senator's amendment. Amendment No. 3641, Division VIII, Withdrawn With that, I ask the pending amendment be laid aside and amendment No. 3641, division VIII, be called up. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.”