Tom Coburn: “let me describe what has happened. There was an earmark which NOAA believed they did not have the responsibility to…”

“let me describe what has happened. There was an earmark which NOAA believed they did not have the responsibility to oversee, since it was an earmark, in terms of rehabitating oyster beds. We have seen from the investigations so far that it has been highly ineffective. But more importantly, what we have seen is conflicts of interest in terms of the board that manages the program and the ownership of the companies that are given the grant money. I won't go into the details. Senator Mikulski is in agreement that they should be oversighted and looked at and conflict of interest should be eliminated. This amendment is very simple. It just says that ought to happen and there ought to be a review, there ought to be a prohibition of use of NOAA funds for meetings. There is $46,000 yearly going out for a meeting out of this grant money with no real concern. There is no conflict of interest requirement in the grant authority- making process at NOAA. So this amendment simply sets out that we ought to have basic conflict of interest rules of engagement in the grant- making process with NOAA.”