July 21, 2008
Reid confronts GOP antagonist with 40 - bill package
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:44 p.m. ET
WA****NGTON (AP) -- Most lawmakers dream of getting their names linked to
legislation. That won't be so when the Senate takes up what is
unofficially
being called the ''Coburn Omnibus.''
It's a package of about 40 bills that have in many cases been
single-handedly stalled by one of the Senate's more conservative members,
Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
The package constitutes a showdown between Coburn, known for putting
''holds'' on legislation to slow their passage, and Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is increasingly frustrated by GOP delaying
tactics.
Republicans will have a choice, Reid said Monday on the Senate floor, to
join the side of the American people ''or continue to stand beside a
colleague or two intent on blocking virtually everything.''
Reid is expected to try to bring the package to the Senate floor later
this
week, setting up a possible vote on beginning debate in a rare Saturday
session.
The bills in the package are mostly narrowly tailored, largely
noncontroversial measures that have already passed the House and enjoy
bipartisan sup****t. But Coburn, and a small number of other Senate
Republicans, have objected, arguing that they duplicate existing programs
or
add to the federal deficit. Coburn said they would create 77 new federal
programs.
Under Senate rules, it normally takes unanimous agreement to take up
legislation. One senator can stop that process with a hold. When that
happens, it takes a supermajority of 60 to advance the bill to debate and
a
final vote.
Reid said the package will include the Emmitt Till Unsolved Crime Act,
aimed
at investigating unsolved civil rights era crimes; the Christopher and
Dana
Reeve Paralysis Act, a runaway and homeless youth bill; a bill to combat
child exploitation by ****ographers, and a measure to create a database
for
Lou Gehrig's disease. Many have Republican cosponsors.
Coburn said he sup****ted the intent of many of the bills, but argued that
by
trying to force legislation to a vote without debate and the right to
offer
amendments, ''we are doing great damage to the institution of the
Senate.''
He said that of 890 bills the Senate has passed in this session of
Congress
there has been debate on only about 50. The others were approved by
''unanimous consent,'' with little or no debate and no roll call vote.
''We
don't want the American people to know what we would rather do in
secret.''
It isn't the first run-in this year between Reid and Coburn. In April Reid
put together a package of 62 popular land bills, sidestepping Coburn's
objections to some, and limited amendments Coburn wanted to offer. Coburn
called the package bloated and unnecessary, but it passed 91-4.
Later that same month Coburn objected to a voice vote on a bill, sponsored
by Reid, to study the relation****p between breast cancer and the
environment.
Coburn, a medical doctor, said his sister and sister-in-law both have
breast
cancer. But he said the government spends more on breast cancer research
than on any other cancer, and scientists, not politicians, should decide
priorities in health research.
''For those of you who may not know this, you cannot negotiate with
Coburn,'' Reid said at a news conference last week. ''It's just something
that you learn over the years is a waste of time.''
Coburn, speaking on the floor Monday, rejected that, noting how, after
initially delaying action earlier this month on a $50 billion global AIDS
relief bill backed by President Bush, he helped work out a compromise that
satisfied most conservatives.
Coburn in turn took a swipe at Reid, saying he was ''trumping on minority
rights which are a sacred and central feature of the Senate that should
not
be violated.''
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The bill is S. 3294
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