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Coburn's spending block rallies Senate GOP

By Sean Lengell (Contact) | Tuesday, July 29, 2008

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Senate Republicans rallied around Sen. Tom Coburn's crusade against excessive government spending by blocking a package of bills aimed at a variety of social programs, saying Democratic leaders first must address the country's energy problems before Congress leaves for its summer break.

Republican leaders joined Mr. Coburn, a vocal opponent against pork-barrel spending, to highlight what they see as the Democrat-led Congress' failure to address voters' main pocketbook concern.

"This is not the time to be going off the No. 1 issue in the country," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, referring to record high gasoline prices. "The American people expect us to move forward on this."

But Democratic leaders said Mr. Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, and his party colleagues were playing politics with a bundle of about 35 bills that included provisions to fight Lou Gehrig's disease, child pornography and homelessness - many of which had Republican co-sponsors.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said he was forced to package the mostly noncontroversial measures into one bill after Mr. Coburn placed "holds" on most of them, essentially blocking each from receiving an individual floor vote.

"My friend from Oklahoma wants to throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings here," Mr. Reid said.

The measure failed on a procedural vote of 52-43, with 60 votes needed to proceed with the bill. No Democrats voted against the measure, while only three Republicans crossed party lines and voted yes.

Mr. Coburn objected to most of the bills because he said they would have irresponsibly increased the federal budget.

The package included such provisions as a commission on "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the War of 1812, $1.5 billion for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and $5 million for a museum in Poland.

"I will continue to use every parliamentary procedure I know to reduce government spending," Mr. Coburn said.