Senator Coburn has offered 19 amendments to H.R. 4939, the Emergency Supplemental Spending Bill, one of which succeeded.  He will continue to offer the remaining amendments next week as the debate continues.

 

S.Amdt. 3641 (Division 2) to H.R. 4939 to prohibit the availability of certain funds for the National Marine Fisheries Service to implement seafood promotion strategies. Senate failed to table, or kill the amendment (by 44 yeas and 51 nays).  Roll call vote to table the amendment..  Agreed to by a voice vote on April 27, 2006. 

Savings to the U.S. taxpayer:  $15 million.

 

 

S.Amdt. 3641 (Division 1) to H.R. 4939 to deny funding for the destruction and relocation of the CSX railroad in Mississippi.  Senate voted to table, or kill, the amendment (50 yeas to 47 nays).  Roll call vote to table the amendment.  Rejected by a table vote on Apr. 27, 2006. 

Cost to the U.S. taxpayer: $700 million heaped on top of the $92 Billion request from the President.

 

Read a summary of the remaining Coburn amendments.

 

To ensure debate on these projects, Dr. Coburn exercised a rarely-used floor procedure called the “clay pigeon” strategy.  This strategy has been used only once before in Senate history.  In short, a Senator tosses out one amendment that gets broken down or divided into many pieces that must be considered.

 

Dr. Coburn used this strategy to help ensure the American people could hear a full and open debate about a few of the items in the bill that may not be true emergencies related to either the War on Terror or hurricane recovery effort.  Among the 100 plus questionable items in the bill, Dr. Coburn’s clay pigeon amendment only targeted 19 items, which should allow the Senate to complete consideration of these items within a few days. 

 

The total savings from the “clay pigeon” amendment will be $2,680,850,000.

Permalink