Coburn threatens blockade
Washington Bureau, December 6, 2007
Chris Casteel
WASHINGTON Sen. Tom Coburn, who already is stalling action on 95 bills, warned his colleagues Wednesday he'll block
more in the waning days of the session if they expand the size or cost of government.
Coburn, R-Muskogee, was seeking to head off the year-end crush of legislation that Senate leaders seek to pass by a procedure
called "unanimous consent. When bills come up under that procedure, there is no debate or opportunity for amendments,
and it is usually done with few senators in attendance.
"At the end of the year, the time pressure comes and everybody wants to get something passed, Coburn said in a
speech on the Senate floor.
"And so what happens is we do a poor job of legislating because we don't look at it, we don't amend it, we don't have
a debate so the American people can know about it. We just pass it, he said.
Coburn vowed to block any bills that come up under the expedited process if they cost money that isn't offset with cuts
elsewhere, or if they violate the Constitution. In case the other 99 senators missed his speech, he sent them all a letter
Wednesday with the same warning.
The power of one
Under the rules of the Senate, a single senator can block consideration of a bill, and Coburn has used that power dozens of times since taking his seat in 2005.
Among the bills Coburn is already blocking is one that calls for a campaign about swimming pool safety and authorizes grants to states that approve certain pool regulations. The bill, intended to reduce the number of accidental drownings involving children, calls for $29 million in new spending, though the actual money would have to be approved by appropriators.
Aaron Cooper, a spokesman for Coburn, said Wednesday that Coburn supports the intent of the bill but thinks Congress "must make tough choices and prioritize spending.
Lisa Ackerman, press secretary for Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., the sponsor of the pool safety bill, said Wednesday that Pryor is trying to work with Coburn on a compromise.
She said Coburn wants the bill's cost cut by 70 percent. Despite that, she said, Pryor is optimistic he can satisfy Coburn's concerns.
Ackerman said the pool safety bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent last year with a cost of $75 million. It didn't become law because it didn't pass the House.
Cooper said Coburn simply missed the bill last year.
Picking fights?
Coburn has come under fire for some of his efforts to block legislation.
Earlier this year, he blocked one aimed at reducing suicide among veterans. He eventually worked out a compromise with the author of that bill, and it was approved.
He also is holding up a bill to prevent health insurance companies from discriminating against people based on genetic information gleaned from DNA tests.
In his speech on the Senate floor, he said he is blocking a small-business investment bill because of a venture capital program that has lost money.
The House also has an expedited procedure for approving bills that are noncontroversial; they are typically debated for 20 minutes or less, with no amendments allowed, and usually require approval from two-thirds of the members voting.
Many of the bills that come up under unanimous consent in the Senate are noncontroversial.
Since a bill can take days or weeks of floor time in the Senate, leaders try to use unanimous consent as much as possible to clear legislation.
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