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.
I thank the chairwoman for her kind words. It is necessary that we move this bill, I agree. I am thankful to Senator Landrieu and the ranking member for the movement on some of the commitments they made to me on programs that don't work…
I understand my first amendment is up and pending; is that correct? The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the clerk will report the amendment. The assistant legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator from Oklahoma [Mr. Coburn]…
I will discuss amendment No. 220 now. Is the chairman's intention that I defer calling up that amendment right now?
Amendment No. 220 is about making sure we don't send good money after bad. When you go to the pump today to buy gasoline that is blended with ethanol, you pay, as a taxpayer, $1.78. As a taxpayer, you pay that before you ever pay the $3.51…
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 provide a list of programs administered by every Federal…
I would like to finish my point. It is not about taking something away, except from the very wealthy, the fix from the deficit commission. That is what it did. We also added back. When you reach 80--and a lot of people may be running out…
I want to tell you, there has to be shared pain all across the country if we are going to get out of the problem we are in. We can no longer kick the can down the road without spilling the soup all over our kids. The time for action is…
I come to the floor today to talk about where we find ourselves. Nobody has spent more time in the last 6 rac{1}{2} ext{ years on this floor talking about the problem in front of us. Hopefully I can do that in a way that would never impugn…
I wish to express my opposition to Reid amendment No. 143, as modified. I do not believe public institutions of higher education, or any entity, should be carved out of the definition of micro entity in the underlying legislation. Had a…
It is one thing to ramp up. It is the other thing to ramp up without proper training and also the proper controls on the training.
The recommendation of the Deficit Commission was to essentially reduce State Department personnel by 10 percent based on studies that we reviewed.
The thing that concerns me is we have Diplomacy 3.0 with this goal of ramping up at a time when we're on an absolutely unsustainable course in terms of being able to pay the bills.
I want to thank all of the cosponsors who joined in support of my amendment, particularly Senators Boxer and Grassley, who recognized the importance of this amendment for the proper functioning of the PTO and for the underlying…
It is important for the American people to know that this is the first of three reports we are going to receive. This report just covers what the GAO has looked at in the last 4 to 5 years. It truly only covers about one-third of the…
I rise to voice my concerns regarding S. 388, a bill to prohibit Members of Congress and the President from receiving pay during government shutdowns. While I believe it is important we in Congress lead by example, I am concerned this bill…
Most of us in this room today, however, understand that we cannot simply cut our way out of the debt.
We need to establish a different kind of culture. We need to establish a culture of thrift.
the issue in terms of the lack of proper utilization of facts in the Department of Education in advantaging investors in one segment to make significant dollars over something the government is thinking about doing is highly unethical, and…
If we are really serious about out-innovating the rest of the world, we need to start by out-educating them.
I wish to thank the chairman of the committee for his work on this patent bill. I still have a few small problems with it, but I am extremely grateful for his consideration of our amendment. Most people don't understand there are no tax…
I have often wondered, how can you be for profit when you are getting 90 percent of your money from the taxpayers.
on February 17, 2011, I introduced a bill that will provide assurance to taxpayers that Federal employees are on equal footing with the American people and are held accountable to the same rules they enforce. In 2009, the Internal Revenue…
What Senator Leahy wants to do is great to help people. But the one question we have not asked is--and we are going to be asked to ask it all the time from here forward given where we are--is it a Federal responsibility to supply these…
Amendment No. 64 is an amendment by myself and Senator Begich from Alaska. It is an orphan earmark amendment where we instruct the agencies to eliminate moneys that have been sitting for 9 years or longer and have not expended it. That is…
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