Dr. Coburn has introduced amendments to the emergency supplemental spending bill. 

• Coburn Amendment No. 648 would strike $100 million in emergency funding for the 2008 political party conventions.
• Coburn Amendment No. 649 would strike a $2 million earmark for the University of Vermont. 
• Coburn Amendment No. 656 would require public disclosure of all reports provided to the appropriations committees by this act
• Coburn Amendment No. 657 would provide crop disaster and livestock assistance with offsets; also removes “emergency” spending for sugar beet, sugar cane, and Christmas and ornamental tree assistance
• Coburn Amendment No. 717 would strike all non-war and non-veterans spending from the bill
• Coburn Amendment No. 718 would strike all non-war and non-veterans spending from the bill except for funding for abestos abatement around the Capitol

Click here to read letters of support from:

• Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)
• National Taxpayers Union
• Citizen Outreach Project
• A joint press release of support from CAGW, the Club for Growth and the Republican Mainstreet Partnership

 

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The Senate this week will take up the emergency supplemental spending bill for the War in Iraq.  The Senate bill totals $122 billion, $18.5 billion more than the President requested, and contains several non-emergency items and projects unrelated to the war effort.  

 

Among the questionable non-emergency items in the emergency supplemental funding bill:

• $1.5 billion for Army Corps of Engineers funding for recovery along the coast
• $660 million for the procurement of an explosives detection system for the Transportation Security Administration
• $640 million for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
• $425 million in education grants for rural areas
• $165.9 million for fisheries disaster relief, funded through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• $100 million in funding for the 2008 national party conventions
• $75 million for salaries and expenses for the Farm Service Agency
• $48 million for disaster construction money for NASA
• $24 million in funding for sugar beets
• $20 million for insect damage reimbursements in Nevada
• $12 million for the Forest Service money which the President requested in the non-emergency fiscal year 2008 budget
• $3.5 million in additional funding for guided tours of the Capitol
• $3 million in funding for sugar cane
• Allows transfer of funds from holiday ornament sales in the Senate gift shop
• Includes funding for Hawaii for an April 2006 flood

President Bush has threatened to veto the supplemental spending bill because "of the excessive and extraneous non-emergency spending it contains" in addition to language that imposes a withdrawal date for troops in Iraq.