Right Now
Jan 23 2013
Coburn, Mark Udall Introduce Bill to End Taxpayer Subsidies for Party Conventions in 113th Congress
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) and Mark Udall (D-CO) will introduce a bill that would prohibit the use of Presidential Election Campaign Funds (PECF) for future political party nominating conventions.
During the 112th Congress, Dr. Coburn and Sen. Udall introduced similar legislation (S. 3257) to abolish taxpayer money from being used for conventions. The legislation passed with a vote of 95 to 4 in the Senate as an amendment to the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012 (S. 3240). Similarly, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5912 in the 112th Congress, a bill approved by a vote of 310-95 to end future federal funding of political conventions. However, neither piece of legislation was signed into law by the end of the 112th Congress.
“Congress has tough decisions on deck that must be made in order to rein in our unsustainable debt and deficit, and this is one bipartisan step forward in right direction. Taxpayers should not foot the bill for events that are solely parties for polarized partisanship,” Dr. Coburn said. “With this common-sense legislation receiving previous bipartisan support and passage in both houses of Congress, I am hopeful members will act again to ensure the practice of subsidizing extravagant party conventions with taxpayer dollars is ended in the new Congress.”
"Over the past several decades, political party nominating conventions have become lavish and elaborate celebrations devoted to partisanship. At a time when we’re working to trim all unnecessary spending, it is a no-brainer for taxpayers to stop footing part of the bill for these large, expensive events, " Udall said. "The Senate passed this common-sense legislation by a broad bipartisan margin last year and the House of Representatives passed a similar bill, too, last year. This legislation is but one down payment on some of the larger decisions Congress will have to make to show that it is serious about fiscal discipline."
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Supporting documents
• View text of the legislation, here.
• Congressional Research Service report on public funding for Presidential Nominating Conventions.
• Examples of spending by-the-numbers: 2008 Republican National Convention Committee.
• Examples of spending by-the-numbers: 2008 Democratic National Convention Committee.
• Dr. Coburn called for the elimination of taxpayer subsidies for party conventions in his 2011 Wastebook report, citing this report from the Congressional Research Service on federal funding for 2012 Presidential nominating conventions.
• Additional explanation of how the Presidential Election Campaign Fund (PECF) operates.
• Background on other efforts from the Republican Study Caucus (RSC) to eliminate funding for conventions in 2009: here.
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 9/13/12 | Dr. Coburn's Amendments to the Veterans Job Corps Act of 2012 |
| 9/13/12 | Social Security Disability Programs: Improving the Quality of Benefit Award Decisions |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 6/19/12 | Farm Bill Amendments Update |
| 6/12/12 | Dr. Coburn's Amendments to the S. 3240, Farm Bill |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 7/27/11 | 9,000,000,000,000 Ways to Balance the Budget |
| 7/22/11 | Dr. Coburn on C-SPAN's Washington Journal This Morning |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 4/13/11 | New Report Reveals Overbilling of Treasury Department by Law Firms, Misuse of TARP Funds |
| 4/4/11 | Dr. Coburn's amendments to cut spending by $20 billion |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 11/17/10 | Today, Dr. Coburn filed two amendments to the Food Safety bill |
| 11/10/10 | Earmark Myths and Realities |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 10/26/10 | What Others Are Saying About "Grim Diagnosis" |
| 10/7/10 | Dr. Coburn Not Holding Aid to Haiti |
| 10/4/10 | HHS ADMINISTRATIVE FAILURE |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 2/22/10 | Guns in Parks Fact Sheet |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 11/18/09 | Coburn's efforts to improve the Caregiver and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act |
| 11/5/09 | Facts about the Veterans Caregiver Bill |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 8/6/09 | Clunkers for Charity |
| 8/4/09 | Coburn Amendments to the Agriculture Appropriations Bill |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 6/16/09 | Dr. Coburn Releases Stimulus Oversight Report |
| 6/2/09 | Coburn Amendments to the Family Smoking and Prevention Act |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 5/12/09 | Coburn Gun Amendments 1067 and 1068 |
| 5/5/09 | Coburn Offers Amendment to Dispose of Unneeded Federal Buildings |
| 5/1/09 | OMB Responds to Coburn's Letter on Transparency |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 4/22/09 | Coburn Amendments to The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 1/29/09 | Senate Rejects Opportunity to Provide Health Care to Needy Children at No Additional Cost |
| 1/7/09 | Senate Leaders to Kick Off New Congress with an Earmark-Laden Omnibus Lands Bill |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 10/16/08 | Highlights of Senator Reid's Omnibus Lands Grab and Energy Restrictions Act Scheduled for Debate Next Month |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 9/27/08 | Coburn Comments on the Fiscal Year 2009 Continuing Resolution |
| 9/26/08 | Reid Neglects Economy to Pursue Pet Projects |
| 9/17/08 | Reid's Monkey Business Continues |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 8/21/08 | Coburn Applauds HHS Action on Physician Conscience Rights |
| 8/1/08 | Democrats Hold Civil Rights and Child Pornography Legislation as a Political Hostage |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 6/20/08 | AMERICAN OIL REMAINS UNTOUCHED |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 3/14/08 | Dr. Coburn's Efforts Fix GINA |
| 3/11/08 | Coburn's Speech on the 2009 Budget |
| 3/3/08 | Dr. Coburn Amendment to Ensure Scientists Conduct Research, Not Politicians |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 2/14/08 | Dr. Coburn's amendments to fix the broken Indian Health Care system |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 1/29/08 | Dr. Coburn's Federal Land Bill Amendments |
| 1/24/08 | Coburn's official visit to Taiwan |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 8/28/07 | Congress celebrates the Year of the Golden Pig |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 2/14/07 | Debating the continuing resolution |
| 2/7/07 | What's next for the War in Iraq? |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 1/30/07 | Do we need to increase the federal mininum wage? |
| 1/12/07 | Real reform for the Senate ethics bill |
| 1/4/07 | The Coburn Principles |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 12/14/06 | 109th Congress Convenes |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 11/16/06 | Coburn amendments to the Agriculture Appropriations bill |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 9/26/06 | Ryan White CARE Act Reauthorization |
| 9/26/06 | President Bush Signs Coburn/Obama Transparency Act |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 8/23/06 | Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act |
| 8/2/06 | Coburn amendments to the Department of Defense Appropriations bill |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 5/2/06 | Stop the Senate from approving non-emergency projects in the emergency supplemental |
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 12/14/05 | Dr. Coburn letter to HHS on Ryan White CARE Act formulas and ADAP funding |