Press Room
Jul 18 2009
Coburn & DeMint Statement on Strong-Arm Tactics Used to Add $1 Billion Auto Earmark to Troop Funding Bill
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senators Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) and Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) made the following statement after the Senate Democrat Leadership held open a vote for 40 minutes to bypass Senate ethics rules to allow a $1 billion auto earmark to be added to a war funding bill.
The vote was to waive a point of order raised under Rule 44 of the Standing Rules of the Senate to allow an earmark to remain in the bill for “Cash for Clunkers,” which was air-dropped into the conference report. If the point of order had been sustained, the earmark would have been taken out of the conference report and the bill would have been sent back to the House for approval before being sent to the President. The motion to waive the ethics rules needed 60 votes, and passed 60-36 by just one vote after at least one senator changed their vote.
“While Americans were hard at work today, the Senate waived its own ethics rules so it could secretly add a $1 billion earmark into a war spending bill to bailout out failed auto companies,” said Senator DeMint. “The Democrats held the vote open for so long so they could twist arms and horse-trade their way to victory. We passed new ethics rules to stop this type of abuse from happening, but now we're back to business as usual. The Democrats promised to give Americans the most honest, open, and ethical Congress in history but they're still slipping earmarks into our bills in the dark of night.”
“I’m disappointed my colleagues decided to hijack a war funding bill to pass another bailout for the auto industry. Also, in these difficult economic times it’s hypocritical for this body to impose tough new rules on private companies while we ignore our own rules because we find it politically convenient to pass $1 billion in secret. The problem in this economy is not private enterprise. The problem is Congress,” Dr. Coburn said.
The vote was to waive a point of order raised under Rule 44 of the Standing Rules of the Senate to allow an earmark to remain in the bill for “Cash for Clunkers,” which was air-dropped into the conference report. If the point of order had been sustained, the earmark would have been taken out of the conference report and the bill would have been sent back to the House for approval before being sent to the President. The motion to waive the ethics rules needed 60 votes, and passed 60-36 by just one vote after at least one senator changed their vote.
“While Americans were hard at work today, the Senate waived its own ethics rules so it could secretly add a $1 billion earmark into a war spending bill to bailout out failed auto companies,” said Senator DeMint. “The Democrats held the vote open for so long so they could twist arms and horse-trade their way to victory. We passed new ethics rules to stop this type of abuse from happening, but now we're back to business as usual. The Democrats promised to give Americans the most honest, open, and ethical Congress in history but they're still slipping earmarks into our bills in the dark of night.”
“I’m disappointed my colleagues decided to hijack a war funding bill to pass another bailout for the auto industry. Also, in these difficult economic times it’s hypocritical for this body to impose tough new rules on private companies while we ignore our own rules because we find it politically convenient to pass $1 billion in secret. The problem in this economy is not private enterprise. The problem is Congress,” Dr. Coburn said.
