The Public Record
Tom Coburn is a former U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, serving from 2005 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Coburn was known for his fiscal conservatism and advocacy for government transparency. He was a practicing physician before entering politics, which influenced his views on healthcare and government spending. Throughout his tenure, he was a vocal critic of wasteful government expenditures and often called for reforms to improve accountability in Congress.
They are eligible, and there are some reasons for that. But that is not what this debate is about. We are not questioning it. We are just saying on this basis we are not using science how we have used it in every other aspect of veterans'…
I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The amendment is as follows: (Purpose: To require evidence of causal relationships for presumptions by the…
let me update my colleague. I do plan to call up this amendment, and I do plan to ask for a vote on it because it is important. I will call up the amendment in a moment. What has happened--the Senator from Arizona has had the disease…
Yes, I will. Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I want to make it clear that in this amendment there is no desire to deprive someone who was actually exposed to this herbicide called Agent Orange and suffered physical consequences as a result…
the answer is that the Senator is absolutely correct. We have a lot of science that shows causation with this herbicide and disease. We have made the assumption that any other association should fall into that same category, such as hairy…
I call up amendment No. 553. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report. The assistant legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator from Oklahoma [Mr. Coburn], for Mr. McCain, proposes an amendment numbered 553.
I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The amendment is as follows: (Purpose: To eliminate the additional amount of $10,000,000, not included…
I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Amendment No. 553
I was not a big fan of the Affordable Care Act, but the fraud provisions in it, I readily support.
I am sorry. I will finish in just a short period of time. The question then comes over why we would not allow the States to decide whether they think we ought to have a balanced budget. It is true, it will take 5 to 7 years for it to be…
I have been listening to the debate this morning. It is concerning to me because as a physician, I am trained to diagnose disease. Disease, if you break that word up, is ``dis'' and ``ease.'' We are not at ease, and I hear us talking all…
I ask unanimous consent to continue, since nobody is on the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
As recently as July 2011, Senator Tom Coburn introduced an amendment to eliminate the presumption of service connection for Vietnam War veterans exposed to the poison Agent Orange.
I call up amendment No. 521. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report. The assistant editor of the Daily Digest read as follows: The Senator from Oklahoma [Mr. Coburn], for himself, Mr. Udall of Colorado, Ms. Collins, Mrs. McCaskill…
about 3 months ago, one of the results of the last time we raised the debt limit was a report by the Government Accountability Office. Ninety-seven Senators in this body voted to put that in the last debt limit extension. What was that…
I failed to mention the cosponsors of this amendment, and they are Senator Udall of Colorado, Senators Collins, McCaskill, Burr, Paul, Brown of Massachusetts, and Senator McCain. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from…
may I inquire of the Chair what the status is on the bill? Are there pending amendments? The PRESIDING OFFICER. Currently, there are no amendments pending. Amendment No. 521
OK. Great. I will withdraw my unanimous consent request. Amendment No. 521 Mr. President, this is a very straightforward amendment. The people who vote against this rule change, what they are going to be telling you is they do not want you…
I advise the senior Senator from New York that I will ask unanimous consent, if it is agreeable to him, that when I finish my few words, we go directly to the vote.
Again, I will state, if you are against this amendment, you are against eliminating the very cause of our problems in this country, which is duplication, redundancy, overlap, and you are against doing the proper oversight so we make…
because our minority views were not included in the Senate Judiciary Committee's report on S. 1103, I ask unanimous consent to have them printed in the Record. We hope these views will be of use to Members of the Senate if this legislation…
in a few minutes, I will offer an amendment, but first I wish to speak about a bill that myself and 26 other Senators have introduced today, and it is called The Enumerated Powers Act. Our Founding Fathers understood the only way to…
I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The amendment is as follows: (Purpose: To prevent the creation of duplicative and overlapping Federal…
I will call up my amendment No. 500. I also tell the Senator from Maine, I will very much consider her recommendation in terms of trying to put it on the second half of this. But I wish to call it up now, and then maybe ask that we…
Politicians like Tom Coburn
