Thomas Allen "Tom" Coburn,
M.D.The Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians...
(born March 14, 1948), is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
politicianA politician or political leader is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest,...
,
medical doctorA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
, and ordained
deaconDeacon is a role in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
. A member of the Republican Party, he currently serves as the junior
U.S. SenatorThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
from
OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,617,316 residents in 2007 and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
Coburn was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 as part of the "
Republican RevolutionThe Republican Revolution or Revolution of '94 is what the Republican Party of the United States dubbed their success in the 1994 U.S. midterm elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of Representatives, and a pickup of eight seats in the Senate...
." He upheld his pledge to serve no more than three consecutive terms and did not run for re-election in 2000, returning to political office in 2004 with a successful run for Senate. Coburn is a fiscal and social conservative, known for his opposition to
pork barrelPork barrel is a derogatory term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district...
projects, "the
homosexual agendaHomosexual agenda is a phrase used by some social conservatives to refer to advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual orientations and relationships. The term is regarded as pejorative by some LGBT organisations. The term is applied to efforts to change government...
," and abortion rights. He supports term limits, gun rights, and the death penalty, including "for abortionists and other people who take life." Coburn has said, however, that he thinks the
Iraq WarThe Iraq War, also known as the Occupation of Iraq or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.Prior to the war, the governments of the United...
was "probably a mistake." When in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, Sen. Coburn shares a dorm room with Sen.
John EnsignJohn Eric Ensign is the junior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since January 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party and the former chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee....
(
RThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
-
NVNevada is a state located in the western region of the United States. The capital is Carson City and the largest city is Las Vegas. The state's nickname is Silver State, due to the large number of silver deposits that were discovered and mined there...
) at the C Street House, the residence of a religious and political organization known as
"The Family" or "The Fellowship."The Fellowship is an international organization founded in 1935, which since at least 1969 has been led by Douglas Coe. Its members include scores of U.S. Senators, members of Congress, White House and other executive branch officials, high-ranking military officers, corporate executives, the heads...
Personal life and medical career
Coburn was born in
Casper, WyomingCasper is the only city in and the county seat of Natrona County, Wyoming, United States. With a population of 49,644, Casper is the second largest city in Wyoming, according to the 2000 census...
to Anita Joy Allen and Orin Wesley Coburn, and graduated with a B.S. in accounting from Oklahoma State University, where he was also a member of
Sigma NuSigma Nu is an undergraduate social college fraternity with chapters in the United States and Canada. Sigma Nu was founded in 1869 by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia...
fraternity. In 1968, he married Carolyn Denton, the 1967
Miss OklahomaThe Miss Oklahoma competition selects a winner to compete on behalf of Oklahoma in the Miss America pageant. Miss Oklahoma has won the crown on five occasions. Also, in the years when city representatives were common, Norma Smallwood won, competing as Miss Tulsa, giving the state of Oklahoma a...
; their three daughters are Callie, Katie, and Sarah. After recovering from a case of malignant
melanomaMelanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes which are found predominantly in skin but also in the bowel and the eye . It is one of the less common types of skin cancer but causes the majority of skin cancer related deaths. Melanocytes are normally present in skin, being responsible for the...
Coburn pursued a medical degree and graduated from the
University of Oklahoma Medical SchoolThe University of Oklahoma College of Medicine was founded in 1900 as a medical department of the University of Oklahoma at its main campus in Norman. Lawrence N. Upjohn, M.D. is regarded as the "founding dean" and served from 1900-1904...
in 1983. He then opened a medical practice in
Muskogee, OklahomaMuskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh largest city in Oklahoma...
, and served as a deacon in a
Southern Baptist ChurchThe Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based, mostly conservative Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the US with over 16 million members and more than 42,000 churches.The word Southern in Southern Baptist Convention...
. Coburn is one of only two licensed doctors currently serving in the US Senate. During his career in
obstetricsObstetrics is the surgical specialty dealing with the care of women and their children during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal. Midwifery is the non-medical equivalent...
, he has treated over 15,000 patients and delivered 4,000 babies and was subject to one malpractice lawsuit. Coburn and his wife are members of
Muskogee'sMuskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh largest city in Oklahoma...
New Community Church.
House career
In 1994, Coburn ran for the
House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in Oklahoma's Democratic
2nd Congressional DistrictAs of the 2000 census, there are five Oklahoma United States congressional districts. Previous to the 2000 Census, Oklahoma had 6 Congressional districts. Oklahoma was one of eight states to lose one seat in the House of Representatives that year....
, which was based in Muskogee and included 22 counties in northeastern Oklahoma. Coburn initially expected to face eight-term incumbent
Mike SynarMichael Lynn "Mike" Synar was an American Democratic politician who represented Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district in Congress for eight terms.-Early life and career:...
. However, Synar was defeated in a runoff for the Democratic nomination by a 71-year-old retired
principalPrincipal or Head of School is the title of the head administrator of an elementary school, middle school, or high school in some English-speaking countries, including the United States, India and Australia. Public schools in the United States generally use the title Principal whereas private...
, Virgil Cooper. According to Coburn's book
Breach of Trust, Coburn and Cooper got along very well and both had a dislike for the liberal Mike Synar. The general election was very cordial since both men knew Synar would not be returning to Washington regardless of the outcome. Coburn won by a 52%–48% margin, becoming the first Republican to represent the district since 1921.
Coburn was one of the most
conservativeConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
members of the House. He supported "reducing the size of the
federal budgetFederal budgets are the national budgets of federations, including:* Federal budget * Federal budget * Federal budget * Federal budget * Federal budget...
" and opposed
abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
and supported the proposed
V-chipV-chip is a generic term used for television receivers allowing the blocking of programs based on their ratings category. It is intended for use by parents to manage their children's television viewing. Most 13-inch and larger televisions manufactured for the United States market since 1999 and all...
legislation.
Despite representing a heavily Democratic district, Coburn was reelected in 1996 (even as
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
easily carried the district) and 1998 without difficulty.
While he served in the House, he earned a reputation as a "maverick" due to his frequent battles with House Speaker
Newt GingrichNewton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is an American politician who served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. In 1995, Time magazine selected him as the Person of the Year for his role in leading the Republican Revolution in the House, ending 40 years of the...
. Most of these stand-offs stemmed from his belief that the Republican caucus was moving toward the political center and away from the more conservative "
Contract With AmericaThe Contract with America was a document released by the United States Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign. Written by Larry Hunter who was aided by...
" policy proposals that had placed the Republicans into power in Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years. Specifically, Coburn was concerned that the Contract's
term limitA term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. Term limits are found usually in presidential and semi-presidential systems as a method to curb the potential for dictatorships, where a leader effectively becomes "president for...
s had not been implemented, and that the Republicans were continuing the excessive federal spending that they had so vigorously opposed when the Democrats were in the majority.
Coburn endorsed conservative activist and former diplomat
Alan KeyesAlan Lee Keyes is an American conservative political activist, author and former diplomat, and perennial candidate for public office. He ran for President of the United States in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2008, and was a Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1988, 1992, and 2004. Keyes served in...
in the
2000 Republican presidential primariesThe United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President. Bill Clinton, the incumbent President, was vacating the position...
, although he supported
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
after the nomination was sewn up. Coburn's congressional district returned to the Democratic fold, as attorney
Brad CarsonBradley Rogers "Brad" Carson is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2005.-Background:...
easily defeated a Republican endorsed by Coburn. After leaving the House and returning to private medical practice, Coburn wrote a book in 2003, with
ghostwriterA ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
John Hart, about his experiences in Congress called
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders. The book detailed Coburn's perspective on the internal Republican Party debates over the "Contract With America" and displayed his disdain for career politicians. Some of the figures he criticized (such as Gingrich) were already out of office at the time of publishing, but others (such as former House Speaker
Dennis HastertJohn Dennis "Denny" Hastert is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2007, representing , and served as Speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007....
) remained very influential in Congress, which resulted in speculation that some congressional Republicans wanted no part of Coburn's return to politics.
Senate career
In 2004, Coburn chose to challenge the establishment Republican candidate for the open Senate seat being vacated by
Don NicklesDonald Lee Nickles is an American businessman and political leader who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 until 2005. He was a fiscal and social conservative.-Early life:...
. Former
Oklahoma CityOklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
Mayor
Kirk HumphreysKirk Humphreys served as Mayor of Oklahoma City from April 9, 1998 to November 3, 2003.He was considered a favorite candidate of the Republican party establishment for U.S. Senator in 2004, losing to former Congressman Tom Coburn, MD in the primary...
(the favorite of the state and national Republican establishment) and Corporation Commissioner
Bob AnthonyBob Anthony is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Anthony is currently serving his fourth consecutive six-year term on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, where he has served since 1989. In 2004 he entered the race to succeed Don Nickles on the Senate but came third in the...
joined the field before Coburn. However, Coburn easily won the primary with 61% of the vote to Humphreys's 25%. In the general election, he faced
Brad CarsonBradley Rogers "Brad" Carson is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2005.-Background:...
, a Democrat who had succeeded him in the 2nd District and was giving up his seat after only two terms. During the Senate campaign, Coburn said that the "homosexual agenda" was the biggest threat to American freedom.
Coburn emphasized fighting "pork" and "corruption" in Washington. His focus on "cutting spending" and his reputation for fighting the practice of awarding federal dollars to "special interest causes" won him many supporters who disagreed with him on other issues.
He also promised to maintain his medical practice in Muskogee and return there during the weekend as he had while serving in the House.
In the election, Coburn won by a margin of 53% to Carson's 42%. While Carson routed Coburn in the heavily Democratic 2nd District, Coburn swamped Carson in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and the closer-in Tulsa suburbs. Coburn won the state's two largest counties, Tulsa and Oklahoma, by a combined 86,000 votes — more than half of his overall margin of 166,000 votes.
Coburn's Senate voting record is as conservative as his House record. Coburn has a reputation for stalling measures in the Senate, to the chagrin of members of both major parties.
Committee assignments
After taking office in January 2005, Coburn, along with fellow conservative Sam Brownback, was selected to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Coburn is a rare non-attorney on the Judiciary Committee.
On April 19, 2007, Coburn became the first Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to call for the firing of Attorney General
Alberto GonzalesAlberto Reynaldo Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic and Mexican-American to serve as United States Attorney General...
as a result of the
controversyThe dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy is a United States political scandal initiated by the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys on December 7, 2006 by the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice. Congressional investigations focused on whether the...
concerning the dismissal of eight
United States AttorneyUnited States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
s.
Senator Coburn is a member of the following committees:
- Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
The United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions generally considers matters relating to health, education, labor, and pensions...
- Subcommittee on Children and Families
The Senate Health Subcommittee on Children and Families is one of the three subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Health-Jurisdiction:The Subcommittee's jurisdiction includes Head Start, the Family Medical Leave Act, child care and child support, and other issues involving children, youth,...
- Subcommittee on Retirement and Aging
The Senate Health Subcommittee on Retirement & Aging is one of the three subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Health-Jurisdiction:The Subcommittee has oversight over many issues including: Pensions, the Older Americans Act; elder abuse, neglect, and scams affecting seniors; long-term care...
- Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
The United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland security concerns, as well as the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and...
- Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security
- Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Ranking Member)
- Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight is one of the six subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs...
- Committee on the Judiciary
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a standing committee of the United States Senate, the upper house of the United States Congress...
- Subcommittee on the Constitution (Ranking Member)
- Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs is one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee.-Jurisdiction:Jurisdiction: Oversight of the Department of Justice's Criminal Division; Drug Enforcement Administration; Executive Office of the U.S. Attorneys; Violence...
- Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security
The United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security is one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee.-Jurisdiction:...
- Committee on Indian Affairs
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is a standing committee of the United States Senate charged with oversight in matters related to the American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples. A Committee on Indian Affairs existed from 1820 to 1947, after which it was folded into the...
- Select Committee on Intelligence
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the Federal government of the United States who provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches...
Since April 2007, Senator Coburn has been holding the Federal Employee Protection of Disclosures Act (S.274) from becoming law. This bill relates to so-called "whistleblowing," and would effectively reverse the Supreme Court's decision in
Garcetti v. CeballosGarcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 , is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the First Amendment free speech protections for government employees. The plaintiff in the case was a district attorney who claimed that he had been passed up for a promotion for criticizing the...
, 04-473. (Coburn has also placed a hold on final Senate consideration of a measure passed by the House in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings to improve state performance in checking the federal watch list of gun buyers.)
Iraq War appropriations
On May 24, 2007 the US Senate voted 80-14 to fund the war in Iraq. Coburn voted nay. On October 1, 2007 the US Senate voted 92-3 to fund the war in Iraq. Coburn voted nay. In February 2008, Coburn said, "I will tell you personally that I think it was probably a mistake going to Iraq."
Abortion
Coburn opposes abortion. In 2000 he sponsored a bill to prevent the
Food and Drug AdministrationThe Food and Drug Administration is a Government agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is responsible for regulating and supervising the safety of foods, tobacco products, dietary supplements, Medication drugs, vaccines, Biopharmaceutical, blood transfusion,...
from developing, testing or approving the
abortifacientAn abortifacient is a substance that induces abortion. Abortifacients for animals that have mated undesirably are known as mismating shots.Common abortifacients used in performing medical abortions include mifepristone, which is typically used in conjunction with misoprostol in a two-step approach...
RU-486. On July 13, the bill failed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 182 to 187. On the issue, Coburn sparked controversy with his remark, "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life." He noted that his great-grandmother was raped by a sheriff and in the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings concerning
Samuel AlitoSamuel Anthony Alito, Jr. is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and has served on the court since January 31, 2006....
, said his grandmother was a product of that rape.
On September 14, 2005, during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, Coburn began his opening statement with a critique of
Beltway"Inside the Beltway" is a phrase used to characterize parts of the real or imagined American political system. It refers to the Capital Beltway , a beltway that encircles Washington, D.C., and is meant to invoke matters that are important primarily within the offices of the Federal government, its...
partisan politics while, according to news reports, "choking back a sob." Coburn had earlier been completing a
crossword puzzleFor the common puzzle, see CrosswordCrossword Puzzle was the second to last album made by The Partridge Family and was not one of the most popular albums. It was released in 1973 and did not produce a U.S. single. This album was finally released on CD in 2003 on Arista's BMG Heritage label...
during the hearings, and this fact was used by
The Daily ShowThe Daily Show, known in its current incarnation as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn...
to ridicule Coburn's
pathosPathos is one of the three modes of persuasion in rhetoric . Pathos appeals to the audience's emotions. It is a part of Aristotle's philosophies in rhetoric...
. Coburn then began his questioning by discussing the various legal terms mentioned during the previous day's hearings. Proceeding to questions regarding both abortion and end-of-life issues, Coburn, who noted that during his tenure as an obstetrician he had delivered some 4,000 babies, asked Roberts whether the judge agreed with the proposition that "the opposite of being dead is being alive."
Fiscal conservatism
Coburn made several attempts in 2005 to combat
pork barrelPork barrel is a derogatory term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district...
spending in the federal budget. The best-known of these was an amendment to the fiscal 2006 appropriations bill that funds transportation projects. Coburn's amendment would have transferred funding from the infamous
Bridge to NowhereThe Gravina Island Bridge, commonly referred to as the "Bridge to Nowhere", was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects the town of Ketchikan, Alaska with Gravina Island, an island which contains the Ketchikan International Airport as well as 50 residents. The bridge was...
in
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
to rebuild Louisiana's "Twin Spans" bridge, which was devastated by
Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States...
. The amendment was defeated in the Senate, 82-14, after
Ted StevensTheodore Fulton Stevens is a former United States Senator from Alaska, serving from December 24, 1968, until January 3, 2009. Stevens was President pro tempore in the 108th and 109th Congresses from January 3, 2003, to January 3, 2007...
, the senior senator from Alaska, threatened to resign his office if the amendment was passed. Coburn's actions did result in getting the funds made into a more politically feasible
block grantIn a federal system of government, a block grant is a large sum of money granted by the national government to a regional government with only general provisions as to the way it is to be spent...
to the State of Alaska, which can use the funds for the bridge or other projects.
Coburn is also a member of the Fiscal Watch Team, a group of seven senators led by
John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
, whose stated goal is to combat "wasteful government spending".
On April 6, 2006, Coburn and Senators
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii...
, Thomas Carper and
John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
introduced the
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 is an Act of Congress that requires the full disclosure to the public of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds beginning in fiscal year 2007. The website opened in December 2007 as a result of the act, and is...
. The bill would require the full disclosure of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2007 on a website maintained by the Office of Management and Budget. The bill was signed into law on September 26, 2006.
Coburn and McCain recently noted that the practice of members of Congress adding earmarks (and thus, increasing government spending) has risen dramatically over the years, from 121 "earmarks" in 1987 to 15,268 earmarks in 2005, according to the
Congressional Research ServiceThe Congressional Research Service , known as "Congress's think tank", is the public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a...
.
In July 2007, Coburn criticized pork barrel spending fellow Senator
Ben NelsonEarl Benjamin "Ben" Nelson is the Senior U.S. Senator from Nebraska, where he was born and has lived for most of his life. Nelson is a Methodist. A Democrat, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000, and is now one of the leading conservative Democrats in the Senate...
had inserted into the 2007 defense spending bill. Coburn alleged that the earmarks would benefit Nelson's son Patrick's employer with millions in federal dollars and that the situation violated terms of the Transparency Act, which was passed by the Senate but had not yet been voted on in the House. Nelson's spokesperson said the Senator did nothing wrong. At that time, newspapers in Nebraska and Oklahoma noted that Coburn failed to blast very similar earmarks that benefited Oklahoma.
In 1997, Coburn introduced a bill called the
HIV Prevention Act of 1997, which would have amended the
Social Security ActSocial Security in the United States currently refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program....
. The bill would have required confidential notification of HIV exposure to the sexual partners of those diagnosed with HIV along with counseling and testing. The bill was endorsed by the American Medical Association and had over 100 co-sponsors. Coburn also offered an amendment that would have prohibited insurance companies from discriminating against someone who was tested for HIV, regardless of the result, and introduced a bill to expand AIDS coverage for those enrolled in Medicare. He was the primary House sponsor of the 2000 Ryan White CARE Act reauthorization that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
Presidential nominations
During the administration of
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
, Coburn spoke out against the threat by some Democrats to
filibusterA filibuster, or "talking out a bill", is a form of obstruction in a legislature or other decision-making body whereby one attempts to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a proposal by extending a debate on that proposal....
nominations to judgeships and executive-branch positions. He took the position that no presidential nomination should ever be filibustered, in light of the wording of the
ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America and the federal government of the United States...
. Coburn said: "There is a defined charge to the president and the Senate on advice and consent."
In May 2009 Coburn was the only U.S. Senator to vote against confirmation of
Gil KerlikowskeRichard Gil Kerlikowske is the current Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position generally referred to as the United States "Drug Czar". He assumed office on May 7, 2009.-Personal:...
as the Director of the National Drug Control Policy.
Tobacco
Tom Coburn thinks tobacco should not have additional regulation by the FDA in addition to the current ATF oversight. "Tom Coburn is consistent in his free market philosophy and in his strict reading of what Congress can and can't do," according to the
Tulsa WorldThe Tulsa World is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the second-most widely circulated newspaper in the state, after The Oklahoman. The World is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma...
and other sources
Additional quotes:
"Beyond the fact that a federal ban on tobacco would go against Coburn's basic philosophy, is the fact, that he was debating against the bill (to allow the FDA to regulate tobacco) in the first place."
Gun rights
Regarding the
Second AmendmentThe Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects a right to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights...
, Coburn believes that it "recognizes the right of individual, law-abiding citizens to own and use firearms", and he opposes "any and all efforts to mandate gun control on law-abiding citizens". On the
Credit CARD Act of 2009The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 or Credit CARD Act of 2009 is a federal law passed by the United States Congress and signed by President Barack Obama on May 22, 2009...
, which aimed "...to establish fair and transparent practices relating to the extension of credit under an open end consumer credit plan, and for other purposes.", Coburn sponsored an amendment that would allow concealed carry of weapons in national parks. The Senate passed that amendment 67-29.
Issues
Senator Coburn was involved in the Bush Administration's struggle with congress over whistleblower rights. The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow to government whistleblowers when, in the case of
Garcetti v. CeballosGarcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 , is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the First Amendment free speech protections for government employees. The plaintiff in the case was a district attorney who claimed that he had been passed up for a promotion for criticizing the...
, 04-473, it ruled that
government employeesThe term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
did not have protection from retaliation by their employers under the
First AmendmentThe First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion", prohibiting the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech and infringing on the freedom of the...
of the Constitution. The free speech protections of the First Amendment have long been used to shield whistleblowers from retaliation by whistleblower attorneys.
In response to the Supreme Court decision, the
HouseThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
passed H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Act of 2007. President
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
, citing
national securityNational security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the nation-state through the use of economic, military and political power and the exercise of diplomacy.Measures taken to ensure national security include:...
concerns, promised to
vetoA veto, Latin for "I forbid", is used to denote that a certain party has the right to stop unilaterally a piece of legislation. In practice, the veto can be absolute A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is used to denote that a certain party has the right to stop unilaterally a piece of legislation....
the bill should it be enacted into law by Congress. The Senate's version of the Whistleblower Protection Act (S. 274) was approved by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on June 13, 2007. However, it has yet to reach a vote by Senate as a hold has been placed on the bill by Senator Coburn.
Coburn's hold effectively prevents passage of the bill, which has broad bipartisan support in the Senate. According to the National Whistleblower Center, Coburn's hold is an example of a right-wing Senator enacting President Bush's agenda while frustrating a majority.
Senator Coburn's Web site features a news item about
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
whistleblower Mathieu Credo Koumoin, a former employee for the U.N. Development Program in West Africa, who has asked U.N. ethics chief Robert Benson for protection under the U.N.'s new whistleblower protection rules.
The Web site has a link to the "United Nations Watch" of the Republican Office of the
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental AffairsThe United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland security concerns, as well as the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and...
' Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security, of which he is the ranking minority member. Coburn's Web site also features a tip line for potential whistleblowers on government waste and fraud.
Allegations of non-consensual sterilization and Medicaid fraud
A
sterilizationSterilization is a surgical technique leaving a male or female unable to reproduce. It is a method of birth control. For non-surgical causes of sterility, see infertility.Common sterilization methods include:...
Coburn performed on a 20-year-old woman, Angela Plummer, in 1990 became what was called "the most incendiary issue" of his Senate campaign. Coburn performed the sterilization on the woman during an emergency surgery to treat a life-threatening
ectopic pregnancyAn ectopic pregnancy is a complication of pregnancy in which the fertilized ovum is developed in any tissue other than the uterine wall. Most ectopic pregnancies occur in the Fallopian tube , but implantation can also occur in the cervix, ovaries, and abdomen...
, removing her intact
fallopian tubeThe Fallopian tubes, named after Gabriel Fallopius , also known as oviducts, uterine tubes, and salpinges are two very fine tubes lined with ciliated epithelia, leading from the ovaries of female mammals into the uterus, via the utero-tubal junction.- Fallopian Tube :The tube connects the ovary to...
as well as the one damaged by the surgery. The woman sued Coburn, alleging that he did not have consent to sterilize her, while Coburn claimed he had her oral consent. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed with no finding of liability on Coburn's part.
The state attorney general claimed that Coburn committed
Medicaid Medicaid is the United States health program for eligible individuals and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is managed by the states. Among the groups of people served by Medicaid are certain...
fraud by not reporting the sterilization when he filed a claim for the emergency surgery. Medicaid did not reimburse doctors for sterilization procedures for patients under 21, and according to the attorney general, Coburn would not have been reimbursed at all had he not withheld this information. Coburn says since he did not file a claim for the sterilization, no fraud was committed. No charges were filed against Coburn for this claim.
Schindler's List television broadcast
As a congressman in 1997, Coburn protested
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
's plan to air the
R-ratedThe Motion Picture Association of America's film-rating system is used in the U.S. and its territories to rate a film's thematic and content suitability for certain audiences...
Academy AwardThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
-winning Holocaust drama
Schindler's ListSchindler's List is a 1993 American drama film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel Schindler's Ark by...
during prime time. Coburn stated that, in airing the movie without editing it for television, TV had been taken "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity." He also said the TV broadcast should outrage parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere. Coburn described the airing of
Schindler's List on television as "...irresponsible sexual behavior...I cringe when I realize that there were children all across this nation watching this program."
Since the film deals mainly with
the HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as The Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany,...
, many people showed disgust with this statement, including a number of fellow Republican Congressmen who criticized Coburn in their speeches. Coburn apologized after heavy criticisms "to all those I have offended" and clarified that he agreed with the movie being aired on television, but stated that it should have been on later in the evening. In apologizing, Coburn said that at that time of the evening there are still large numbers of children watching without parental supervision, and stated that he stood by his message of protecting children from violence, but had expressed it poorly. He also said, "my intentions were good, but I've obviously made an error in judgment in how I've gone about saying what I wanted to say."
He later wrote in his book
Breach of Trust that he considered this one of the biggest mistakes in his life and that, while he still feels the material was unsuitable for an 8 p.m. television broadcast, he handled the situation poorly.
Use of Senatorial 'hold' privilege
Coburn has used the special
holdA secret hold is a parliamentary procedure within the Standing Rules of the Senate within the United States Senate that allows one or more Senators to prevent a motion from reaching a vote on the Senate floor...
privilege to prevent several bills from coming to the Senate floor. The hold privilege is allowed by Rule VII of the Senate Standing Rules. The practice is generally used to form consensus on questionable legislation and has come under fire for its procedural secrecy. Coburn has actively exercised the privilege and has earned a reputation for his liberal use of the procedural mechanism.
Rachel Carson commemoration
On May 23, 2007, Coburn threatened to block two bills honoring the 100th birthday of
Rachel CarsonRachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and nature writer whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
. Coburn called Carson's work "
junk scienceJunk science is a term used in U.S. political and legal disputes that brands an advocate's claims about scientific data, research, or analyses as spurious. The term may convey a pejorative connotation that the advocate is driven by political, ideological, financial, or other unscientific...
", proclaiming that
Silent SpringSilent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin in September 1962. The book is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement....
"was the catalyst in the deadly worldwide stigmatization against insecticides, especially
DDTDDT is one of the most well-known synthetic pesticides. It is a chemical with a long, unique, and controversial history....
."
Advancing America's Priorities Act
In response to Senator Coburn's repeated holds on legislation, Senator
Harry ReidHarry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada and a member of the Democratic Party. He has been the Senate's Majority Leader since January 2007....
introduced the Advancing America's Priorities Act, , in July 2008. S. 3297 combined several bills which Senator Coburn had blocked into what became known as a "Tomnibus" bill, a reference to
omnibus billAn Omnibus bill is a single document that is accepted in a single vote by a legislature but contains amendments to a number of other laws or even many entirely new laws...
s used to combine several individual bills into one piece of legislation. The bill included health care provisions, new penalties for child pornography, and several natural resources bills.
Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act
Coburn opposed parts of the legislation creating the Lewis and Clark
Mount HoodMount Hood, called Wy'east by the Multnomah tribe, is a stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc of northern Oregon. It was formed by a subduction zone and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States...
Wilderness, which would add protections to wild lands in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Senator Coburn exercised a one-vote hold on the legislation in both March and November 2008 and decried the required $10 million for surveying and mapping as wasteful. The Mount Hood bill would have been the largest amount of land added to federal protection since 1984.
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
According to
The Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993. Its chief print rival is the Boston Herald....
Coburn had blocked passage of the
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination ActThe Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 , is an Act of Congress in the United States designed to prohibit the improper use of genetic information in health insurance and employment...
(GINA), objecting to provisions in the bill that allow discrimination based on genetic information from embryos and fetuses. Recently, the embryo loophole was closed, and Tom Coburn reevaluated his opposition to the bill. Senator Coburn had holds on 90 other bills in the 110th Congress. However, he voted in favor of an earlier version of GINA which passed unanimously in the Senate in 2005. By April 2008, Senator Coburn lifted his hold on the bill after some provisions of GINA were changed.
Affiliation with The Family and John Ensign
Senator Coburn is affiliated with a religious organization called
The FamilyThe Fellowship is an international organization founded in 1935, which since at least 1969 has been led by Douglas Coe. Its members include scores of U.S. Senators, members of Congress, White House and other executive branch officials, high-ranking military officers, corporate executives, the heads...
. Senator Coburn lives in one of the Family's dormitories when in Washington, D.C. with Senator
John EnsignJohn Eric Ensign is the junior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since January 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party and the former chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee....
, another Family member and longtime resident of the C Street Center who admitted he had an extra-marital affair with a staffer in 2009. The announcement by Ensign of his extramarital affair brought public scrutiny of the Family and its connection to other high ranking politicians including Senator Coburn.
Senator Coburn, together senior members of the Family, attempted to intervene to end Ensign's affair in February 2008, prior to the affair becoming public, including by meeting with the husband of Ensign's mistress and encouraging Ensign to write a letter to his mistress breaking off the affair. Senator Ensign was driven to Federal Express from C Street Center to post the letter, shortly after which Ensign called to tell his mistress to ignore it.
Senator Coburn refuses to speak about his involvement in Ensign's affair or his knowledge of the affair well before it became public on the grounds of alleged "privilege" due to his separate status as a licensed physician in the State of Oklahoma (OB/GYN) and an ordained deacon. However, bioethicist Jacob Appel recenty challenged this assertion of
physician-patient privilegePhysician-patient privilege is a legal concept, related to medical confidentiality, that protects communications between a patient and his or her doctor from being used against the patient in court. It is a part of the rules of evidence in many common law jurisdictions...
on the grounds that Coburn is not licensed in the District of Columbia and had acquired his knowledge outside of his work as a physician.
Miscellany
Even though President
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii...
and Senator Coburn are nearly polar opposites on most political matters, the two of them are personally friendly and have worked together on certain issues like political ethics reform legislation.
Prior to the
2009 BCS gameThe 2009 FedEx BCS National Championship Game was an American football game played at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on January 8, 2009, and saw the Florida Gators face the Oklahoma Sooners, as determined by the BCS Rankings to decide the BCS National Championship. Television coverage...
between the
Oklahoma SoonersThe 2008 Oklahoma Sooners football team represented the University of Oklahoma in the college football season of 2008-2009. It was the 114th year of season play for the Sooners. The team was led by head coach Bob Stoops, a two-time Walter Camp Coach of the Year award winner, who has a contract...
and the
Florida GatorsThe 2009 Florida Gators football team represents the University of Florida in the college football season of 2009. The team is coached by Urban Meyer and play their homes games in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The Gators are coming off of a national championship during the 2009 college football bowl...
, Coburn made a bet over the outcome of the game with Florida senator
Bill NelsonClarence William "Bill" Nelson is the senior U.S. Senator from Florida. Nelson is a member of the Democratic Party. Nelson became the second sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the as a Payload Specialist during NASA mission STS-61-C...
; the loser had to serenade the winner with a song. The Gators defeated the Sooners and Coburn will sing
Elton JohnSir Elton Hercules John, CBE is an English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist.In his four-decade career, John has sold more than 200 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single, Candle in the Wind 1997, has sold over 37 million copies, becoming the...
's "
Rocket Man"Rocket Man " is a song composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and originally performed by John. It is loosely based on the short story "The Rocket Man" in Ray Bradbury's book The Illustrated Man, and echoes the theme of David Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity"...
" to Nelson, a former astronaut.
Electoral history
{{for|the American scholar of religion|Thomas B. Coburn}}
{{OKGovernment}}
Thomas Allen "Tom" Coburn, M.D.The Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians...
(born March 14, 1948), is an AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
politicianA politician or political leader is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest,...
, medical doctorA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
, and ordained deaconDeacon is a role in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
. A member of the Republican Party, he currently serves as the junior U.S. SenatorThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
from OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,617,316 residents in 2007 and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
Coburn was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 as part of the "Republican RevolutionThe Republican Revolution or Revolution of '94 is what the Republican Party of the United States dubbed their success in the 1994 U.S. midterm elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of Representatives, and a pickup of eight seats in the Senate...
." He upheld his pledge to serve no more than three consecutive terms and did not run for re-election in 2000, returning to political office in 2004 with a successful run for Senate. Coburn is a fiscal and social conservative, known for his opposition to pork barrelPork barrel is a derogatory term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district...
projects, "the homosexual agendaHomosexual agenda is a phrase used by some social conservatives to refer to advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual orientations and relationships. The term is regarded as pejorative by some LGBT organisations. The term is applied to efforts to change government...
," and abortion rights. He supports term limits, gun rights, and the death penalty, including "for abortionists and other people who take life." Coburn has said, however, that he thinks the Iraq WarThe Iraq War, also known as the Occupation of Iraq or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.Prior to the war, the governments of the United...
was "probably a mistake." When in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, Sen. Coburn shares a dorm room with Sen. John EnsignJohn Eric Ensign is the junior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since January 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party and the former chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee....
(RThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
-NVNevada is a state located in the western region of the United States. The capital is Carson City and the largest city is Las Vegas. The state's nickname is Silver State, due to the large number of silver deposits that were discovered and mined there...
) at the C Street House, the residence of a religious and political organization known as "The Family" or "The Fellowship."The Fellowship is an international organization founded in 1935, which since at least 1969 has been led by Douglas Coe. Its members include scores of U.S. Senators, members of Congress, White House and other executive branch officials, high-ranking military officers, corporate executives, the heads...
Personal life and medical career
Coburn was born in Casper, WyomingCasper is the only city in and the county seat of Natrona County, Wyoming, United States. With a population of 49,644, Casper is the second largest city in Wyoming, according to the 2000 census...
to Anita Joy Allen and Orin Wesley Coburn, and graduated with a B.S. in accounting from Oklahoma State University, where he was also a member of Sigma NuSigma Nu is an undergraduate social college fraternity with chapters in the United States and Canada. Sigma Nu was founded in 1869 by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia...
fraternity. In 1968, he married Carolyn Denton, the 1967 Miss OklahomaThe Miss Oklahoma competition selects a winner to compete on behalf of Oklahoma in the Miss America pageant. Miss Oklahoma has won the crown on five occasions. Also, in the years when city representatives were common, Norma Smallwood won, competing as Miss Tulsa, giving the state of Oklahoma a...
; their three daughters are Callie, Katie, and Sarah. After recovering from a case of malignant melanomaMelanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes which are found predominantly in skin but also in the bowel and the eye . It is one of the less common types of skin cancer but causes the majority of skin cancer related deaths. Melanocytes are normally present in skin, being responsible for the...
Coburn pursued a medical degree and graduated from the University of Oklahoma Medical SchoolThe University of Oklahoma College of Medicine was founded in 1900 as a medical department of the University of Oklahoma at its main campus in Norman. Lawrence N. Upjohn, M.D. is regarded as the "founding dean" and served from 1900-1904...
in 1983. He then opened a medical practice in Muskogee, OklahomaMuskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh largest city in Oklahoma...
, and served as a deacon in a Southern Baptist ChurchThe Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based, mostly conservative Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the US with over 16 million members and more than 42,000 churches.The word Southern in Southern Baptist Convention...
. Coburn is one of only two licensed doctors currently serving in the US Senate. During his career in obstetricsObstetrics is the surgical specialty dealing with the care of women and their children during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal. Midwifery is the non-medical equivalent...
, he has treated over 15,000 patients and delivered 4,000 babies and was subject to one malpractice lawsuit. Coburn and his wife are members of Muskogee'sMuskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh largest city in Oklahoma...
New Community Church.
House career
In 1994, Coburn ran for the House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in Oklahoma's Democratic 2nd Congressional DistrictAs of the 2000 census, there are five Oklahoma United States congressional districts. Previous to the 2000 Census, Oklahoma had 6 Congressional districts. Oklahoma was one of eight states to lose one seat in the House of Representatives that year....
, which was based in Muskogee and included 22 counties in northeastern Oklahoma. Coburn initially expected to face eight-term incumbent Mike SynarMichael Lynn "Mike" Synar was an American Democratic politician who represented Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district in Congress for eight terms.-Early life and career:...
. However, Synar was defeated in a runoff for the Democratic nomination by a 71-year-old retired principalPrincipal or Head of School is the title of the head administrator of an elementary school, middle school, or high school in some English-speaking countries, including the United States, India and Australia. Public schools in the United States generally use the title Principal whereas private...
, Virgil Cooper. According to Coburn's book Breach of Trust, Coburn and Cooper got along very well and both had a dislike for the liberal Mike Synar. The general election was very cordial since both men knew Synar would not be returning to Washington regardless of the outcome. Coburn won by a 52%–48% margin, becoming the first Republican to represent the district since 1921.
Coburn was one of the most conservativeConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
members of the House. He supported "reducing the size of the federal budgetFederal budgets are the national budgets of federations, including:* Federal budget * Federal budget * Federal budget * Federal budget * Federal budget...
" and opposed abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
and supported the proposed V-chipV-chip is a generic term used for television receivers allowing the blocking of programs based on their ratings category. It is intended for use by parents to manage their children's television viewing. Most 13-inch and larger televisions manufactured for the United States market since 1999 and all...
legislation.
Despite representing a heavily Democratic district, Coburn was reelected in 1996 (even as Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
easily carried the district) and 1998 without difficulty.
While he served in the House, he earned a reputation as a "maverick" due to his frequent battles with House Speaker Newt GingrichNewton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is an American politician who served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. In 1995, Time magazine selected him as the Person of the Year for his role in leading the Republican Revolution in the House, ending 40 years of the...
. Most of these stand-offs stemmed from his belief that the Republican caucus was moving toward the political center and away from the more conservative "Contract With AmericaThe Contract with America was a document released by the United States Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign. Written by Larry Hunter who was aided by...
" policy proposals that had placed the Republicans into power in Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years. Specifically, Coburn was concerned that the Contract's term limitA term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. Term limits are found usually in presidential and semi-presidential systems as a method to curb the potential for dictatorships, where a leader effectively becomes "president for...
s had not been implemented, and that the Republicans were continuing the excessive federal spending that they had so vigorously opposed when the Democrats were in the majority.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Coburn endorsed conservative activist and former diplomat Alan KeyesAlan Lee Keyes is an American conservative political activist, author and former diplomat, and perennial candidate for public office. He ran for President of the United States in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2008, and was a Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1988, 1992, and 2004. Keyes served in...
in the 2000 Republican presidential primariesThe United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President. Bill Clinton, the incumbent President, was vacating the position...
, although he supported George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
after the nomination was sewn up. Coburn's congressional district returned to the Democratic fold, as attorney Brad CarsonBradley Rogers "Brad" Carson is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2005.-Background:...
easily defeated a Republican endorsed by Coburn. After leaving the House and returning to private medical practice, Coburn wrote a book in 2003, with ghostwriterA ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
John Hart, about his experiences in Congress called Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders. The book detailed Coburn's perspective on the internal Republican Party debates over the "Contract With America" and displayed his disdain for career politicians. Some of the figures he criticized (such as Gingrich) were already out of office at the time of publishing, but others (such as former House Speaker Dennis HastertJohn Dennis "Denny" Hastert is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2007, representing , and served as Speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007....
) remained very influential in Congress, which resulted in speculation that some congressional Republicans wanted no part of Coburn's return to politics.
Senate career
In 2004, Coburn chose to challenge the establishment Republican candidate for the open Senate seat being vacated by Don NicklesDonald Lee Nickles is an American businessman and political leader who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 until 2005. He was a fiscal and social conservative.-Early life:...
. Former Oklahoma CityOklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
Mayor Kirk HumphreysKirk Humphreys served as Mayor of Oklahoma City from April 9, 1998 to November 3, 2003.He was considered a favorite candidate of the Republican party establishment for U.S. Senator in 2004, losing to former Congressman Tom Coburn, MD in the primary...
(the favorite of the state and national Republican establishment) and Corporation Commissioner Bob AnthonyBob Anthony is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Anthony is currently serving his fourth consecutive six-year term on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, where he has served since 1989. In 2004 he entered the race to succeed Don Nickles on the Senate but came third in the...
joined the field before Coburn. However, Coburn easily won the primary with 61% of the vote to Humphreys's 25%. In the general election, he faced Brad CarsonBradley Rogers "Brad" Carson is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2005.-Background:...
, a Democrat who had succeeded him in the 2nd District and was giving up his seat after only two terms. During the Senate campaign, Coburn said that the "homosexual agenda" was the biggest threat to American freedom.
Coburn emphasized fighting "pork" and "corruption" in Washington. His focus on "cutting spending" and his reputation for fighting the practice of awarding federal dollars to "special interest causes" won him many supporters who disagreed with him on other issues.
He also promised to maintain his medical practice in Muskogee and return there during the weekend as he had while serving in the House.
In the election, Coburn won by a margin of 53% to Carson's 42%. While Carson routed Coburn in the heavily Democratic 2nd District, Coburn swamped Carson in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and the closer-in Tulsa suburbs. Coburn won the state's two largest counties, Tulsa and Oklahoma, by a combined 86,000 votes — more than half of his overall margin of 166,000 votes.
Coburn's Senate voting record is as conservative as his House record. Coburn has a reputation for stalling measures in the Senate, to the chagrin of members of both major parties.
Committee assignments
After taking office in January 2005, Coburn, along with fellow conservative Sam Brownback, was selected to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Coburn is a rare non-attorney on the Judiciary Committee.
On April 19, 2007, Coburn became the first Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to call for the firing of Attorney General Alberto GonzalesAlberto Reynaldo Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic and Mexican-American to serve as United States Attorney General...
as a result of the controversyThe dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy is a United States political scandal initiated by the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys on December 7, 2006 by the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice. Congressional investigations focused on whether the...
concerning the dismissal of eight United States AttorneyUnited States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
s.
Senator Coburn is a member of the following committees:
- Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
The United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions generally considers matters relating to health, education, labor, and pensions...
- Subcommittee on Children and Families
The Senate Health Subcommittee on Children and Families is one of the three subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Health-Jurisdiction:The Subcommittee's jurisdiction includes Head Start, the Family Medical Leave Act, child care and child support, and other issues involving children, youth,...
- Subcommittee on Retirement and Aging
The Senate Health Subcommittee on Retirement & Aging is one of the three subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Health-Jurisdiction:The Subcommittee has oversight over many issues including: Pensions, the Older Americans Act; elder abuse, neglect, and scams affecting seniors; long-term care...
- Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
The United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland security concerns, as well as the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and...
- Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security
- Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Ranking Member)
- Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight is one of the six subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs...
- Committee on the Judiciary
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a standing committee of the United States Senate, the upper house of the United States Congress...
- Subcommittee on the Constitution (Ranking Member)
- Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs is one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee.-Jurisdiction:Jurisdiction: Oversight of the Department of Justice's Criminal Division; Drug Enforcement Administration; Executive Office of the U.S. Attorneys; Violence...
- Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security
The United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security is one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee.-Jurisdiction:...
- Committee on Indian Affairs
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is a standing committee of the United States Senate charged with oversight in matters related to the American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples. A Committee on Indian Affairs existed from 1820 to 1947, after which it was folded into the...
- Select Committee on Intelligence
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the Federal government of the United States who provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches...
Since April 2007, Senator Coburn has been holding the Federal Employee Protection of Disclosures Act (S.274) from becoming law. This bill relates to so-called "whistleblowing," and would effectively reverse the Supreme Court's decision in Garcetti v. CeballosGarcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 , is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the First Amendment free speech protections for government employees. The plaintiff in the case was a district attorney who claimed that he had been passed up for a promotion for criticizing the...
, 04-473. (Coburn has also placed a hold on final Senate consideration of a measure passed by the House in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings to improve state performance in checking the federal watch list of gun buyers.)
Iraq War appropriations
On May 24, 2007 the US Senate voted 80-14 to fund the war in Iraq. Coburn voted nay. On October 1, 2007 the US Senate voted 92-3 to fund the war in Iraq. Coburn voted nay. In February 2008, Coburn said, "I will tell you personally that I think it was probably a mistake going to Iraq."
Abortion
Coburn opposes abortion. In 2000 he sponsored a bill to prevent the Food and Drug AdministrationThe Food and Drug Administration is a Government agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is responsible for regulating and supervising the safety of foods, tobacco products, dietary supplements, Medication drugs, vaccines, Biopharmaceutical, blood transfusion,...
from developing, testing or approving the abortifacientAn abortifacient is a substance that induces abortion. Abortifacients for animals that have mated undesirably are known as mismating shots.Common abortifacients used in performing medical abortions include mifepristone, which is typically used in conjunction with misoprostol in a two-step approach...
RU-486. On July 13, the bill failed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 182 to 187. On the issue, Coburn sparked controversy with his remark, "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life." He noted that his great-grandmother was raped by a sheriff and in the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings concerning Samuel AlitoSamuel Anthony Alito, Jr. is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and has served on the court since January 31, 2006....
, said his grandmother was a product of that rape.
On September 14, 2005, during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, Coburn began his opening statement with a critique of Beltway"Inside the Beltway" is a phrase used to characterize parts of the real or imagined American political system. It refers to the Capital Beltway , a beltway that encircles Washington, D.C., and is meant to invoke matters that are important primarily within the offices of the Federal government, its...
partisan politics while, according to news reports, "choking back a sob." Coburn had earlier been completing a crossword puzzleFor the common puzzle, see CrosswordCrossword Puzzle was the second to last album made by The Partridge Family and was not one of the most popular albums. It was released in 1973 and did not produce a U.S. single. This album was finally released on CD in 2003 on Arista's BMG Heritage label...
during the hearings, and this fact was used by The Daily ShowThe Daily Show, known in its current incarnation as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn...
to ridicule Coburn's pathosPathos is one of the three modes of persuasion in rhetoric . Pathos appeals to the audience's emotions. It is a part of Aristotle's philosophies in rhetoric...
. Coburn then began his questioning by discussing the various legal terms mentioned during the previous day's hearings. Proceeding to questions regarding both abortion and end-of-life issues, Coburn, who noted that during his tenure as an obstetrician he had delivered some 4,000 babies, asked Roberts whether the judge agreed with the proposition that "the opposite of being dead is being alive."
{{cquote|You know I'm going somewhere. One of the problems I have is coming up with just the common sense and logic that if brain wave and heartbeat signifies life, the absence of them signifies death, then the presence of them certainly signifies life.
And to say it otherwise, logically is schizophrenicSchizophrenia , from the Greek roots skhizein and phrēn, phren- is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality...
. And that's how I view a lot of the decisions that have come from the Supreme Court on the issue of abortion.}}
Fiscal conservatism
Coburn made several attempts in 2005 to combat pork barrelPork barrel is a derogatory term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district...
spending in the federal budget. The best-known of these was an amendment to the fiscal 2006 appropriations bill that funds transportation projects. Coburn's amendment would have transferred funding from the infamous Bridge to NowhereThe Gravina Island Bridge, commonly referred to as the "Bridge to Nowhere", was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects the town of Ketchikan, Alaska with Gravina Island, an island which contains the Ketchikan International Airport as well as 50 residents. The bridge was...
in AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
to rebuild Louisiana's "Twin Spans" bridge, which was devastated by Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States...
. The amendment was defeated in the Senate, 82-14, after Ted StevensTheodore Fulton Stevens is a former United States Senator from Alaska, serving from December 24, 1968, until January 3, 2009. Stevens was President pro tempore in the 108th and 109th Congresses from January 3, 2003, to January 3, 2007...
, the senior senator from Alaska, threatened to resign his office if the amendment was passed. Coburn's actions did result in getting the funds made into a more politically feasible block grantIn a federal system of government, a block grant is a large sum of money granted by the national government to a regional government with only general provisions as to the way it is to be spent...
to the State of Alaska, which can use the funds for the bridge or other projects.
Coburn is also a member of the Fiscal Watch Team, a group of seven senators led by John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
, whose stated goal is to combat "wasteful government spending".
On April 6, 2006, Coburn and Senators Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii...
, Thomas Carper and John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
introduced the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 is an Act of Congress that requires the full disclosure to the public of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds beginning in fiscal year 2007. The website opened in December 2007 as a result of the act, and is...
. The bill would require the full disclosure of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2007 on a website maintained by the Office of Management and Budget. The bill was signed into law on September 26, 2006.
Coburn and McCain recently noted that the practice of members of Congress adding earmarks (and thus, increasing government spending) has risen dramatically over the years, from 121 "earmarks" in 1987 to 15,268 earmarks in 2005, according to the Congressional Research ServiceThe Congressional Research Service , known as "Congress's think tank", is the public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a...
.
In July 2007, Coburn criticized pork barrel spending fellow Senator Ben NelsonEarl Benjamin "Ben" Nelson is the Senior U.S. Senator from Nebraska, where he was born and has lived for most of his life. Nelson is a Methodist. A Democrat, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000, and is now one of the leading conservative Democrats in the Senate...
had inserted into the 2007 defense spending bill. Coburn alleged that the earmarks would benefit Nelson's son Patrick's employer with millions in federal dollars and that the situation violated terms of the Transparency Act, which was passed by the Senate but had not yet been voted on in the House. Nelson's spokesperson said the Senator did nothing wrong. At that time, newspapers in Nebraska and Oklahoma noted that Coburn failed to blast very similar earmarks that benefited Oklahoma.
In 1997, Coburn introduced a bill called the HIV Prevention Act of 1997, which would have amended the Social Security ActSocial Security in the United States currently refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program....
. The bill would have required confidential notification of HIV exposure to the sexual partners of those diagnosed with HIV along with counseling and testing. The bill was endorsed by the American Medical Association and had over 100 co-sponsors. Coburn also offered an amendment that would have prohibited insurance companies from discriminating against someone who was tested for HIV, regardless of the result, and introduced a bill to expand AIDS coverage for those enrolled in Medicare. He was the primary House sponsor of the 2000 Ryan White CARE Act reauthorization that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
Presidential nominations
During the administration of George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
, Coburn spoke out against the threat by some Democrats to filibusterA filibuster, or "talking out a bill", is a form of obstruction in a legislature or other decision-making body whereby one attempts to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a proposal by extending a debate on that proposal....
nominations to judgeships and executive-branch positions. He took the position that no presidential nomination should ever be filibustered, in light of the wording of the ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America and the federal government of the United States...
. Coburn said: "There is a defined charge to the president and the Senate on advice and consent."
In May 2009 Coburn was the only U.S. Senator to vote against confirmation of Gil KerlikowskeRichard Gil Kerlikowske is the current Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position generally referred to as the United States "Drug Czar". He assumed office on May 7, 2009.-Personal:...
as the Director of the National Drug Control Policy.
Tobacco
Tom Coburn thinks tobacco should not have additional regulation by the FDA in addition to the current ATF oversight. "Tom Coburn is consistent in his free market philosophy and in his strict reading of what Congress can and can't do," according to the Tulsa WorldThe Tulsa World is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the second-most widely circulated newspaper in the state, after The Oklahoman. The World is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma...
and other sources
Additional quotes:
"Beyond the fact that a federal ban on tobacco would go against Coburn's basic philosophy, is the fact, that he was debating against the bill (to allow the FDA to regulate tobacco) in the first place."
Gun rights
Regarding the Second AmendmentThe Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects a right to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights...
, Coburn believes that it "recognizes the right of individual, law-abiding citizens to own and use firearms", and he opposes "any and all efforts to mandate gun control on law-abiding citizens". On the Credit CARD Act of 2009The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 or Credit CARD Act of 2009 is a federal law passed by the United States Congress and signed by President Barack Obama on May 22, 2009...
, which aimed "...to establish fair and transparent practices relating to the extension of credit under an open end consumer credit plan, and for other purposes.", Coburn sponsored an amendment that would allow concealed carry of weapons in national parks. The Senate passed that amendment 67-29.
Issues
Senator Coburn was involved in the Bush Administration's struggle with congress over whistleblower rights. The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow to government whistleblowers when, in the case of Garcetti v. CeballosGarcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 , is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the First Amendment free speech protections for government employees. The plaintiff in the case was a district attorney who claimed that he had been passed up for a promotion for criticizing the...
, 04-473, it ruled that government employeesThe term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
did not have protection from retaliation by their employers under the First AmendmentThe First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion", prohibiting the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech and infringing on the freedom of the...
of the Constitution. The free speech protections of the First Amendment have long been used to shield whistleblowers from retaliation by whistleblower attorneys.
In response to the Supreme Court decision, the HouseThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
passed H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Act of 2007. President George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
, citing national securityNational security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the nation-state through the use of economic, military and political power and the exercise of diplomacy.Measures taken to ensure national security include:...
concerns, promised to vetoA veto, Latin for "I forbid", is used to denote that a certain party has the right to stop unilaterally a piece of legislation. In practice, the veto can be absolute A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is used to denote that a certain party has the right to stop unilaterally a piece of legislation....
the bill should it be enacted into law by Congress. The Senate's version of the Whistleblower Protection Act (S. 274) was approved by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on June 13, 2007. However, it has yet to reach a vote by Senate as a hold has been placed on the bill by Senator Coburn.
Coburn's hold effectively prevents passage of the bill, which has broad bipartisan support in the Senate. According to the National Whistleblower Center, Coburn's hold is an example of a right-wing Senator enacting President Bush's agenda while frustrating a majority.
Senator Coburn's Web site features a news item about United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
whistleblower Mathieu Credo Koumoin, a former employee for the U.N. Development Program in West Africa, who has asked U.N. ethics chief Robert Benson for protection under the U.N.'s new whistleblower protection rules.
The Web site has a link to the "United Nations Watch" of the Republican Office of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental AffairsThe United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland security concerns, as well as the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and...
' Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security, of which he is the ranking minority member. Coburn's Web site also features a tip line for potential whistleblowers on government waste and fraud.
Allegations of non-consensual sterilization and Medicaid fraud
A sterilizationSterilization is a surgical technique leaving a male or female unable to reproduce. It is a method of birth control. For non-surgical causes of sterility, see infertility.Common sterilization methods include:...
Coburn performed on a 20-year-old woman, Angela Plummer, in 1990 became what was called "the most incendiary issue" of his Senate campaign. Coburn performed the sterilization on the woman during an emergency surgery to treat a life-threatening ectopic pregnancyAn ectopic pregnancy is a complication of pregnancy in which the fertilized ovum is developed in any tissue other than the uterine wall. Most ectopic pregnancies occur in the Fallopian tube , but implantation can also occur in the cervix, ovaries, and abdomen...
, removing her intact fallopian tubeThe Fallopian tubes, named after Gabriel Fallopius , also known as oviducts, uterine tubes, and salpinges are two very fine tubes lined with ciliated epithelia, leading from the ovaries of female mammals into the uterus, via the utero-tubal junction.- Fallopian Tube :The tube connects the ovary to...
as well as the one damaged by the surgery. The woman sued Coburn, alleging that he did not have consent to sterilize her, while Coburn claimed he had her oral consent. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed with no finding of liability on Coburn's part.
The state attorney general claimed that Coburn committed Medicaid Medicaid is the United States health program for eligible individuals and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is managed by the states. Among the groups of people served by Medicaid are certain...
fraud by not reporting the sterilization when he filed a claim for the emergency surgery. Medicaid did not reimburse doctors for sterilization procedures for patients under 21, and according to the attorney general, Coburn would not have been reimbursed at all had he not withheld this information. Coburn says since he did not file a claim for the sterilization, no fraud was committed. No charges were filed against Coburn for this claim.
Schindler's List television broadcast
As a congressman in 1997, Coburn protested NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
's plan to air the R-ratedThe Motion Picture Association of America's film-rating system is used in the U.S. and its territories to rate a film's thematic and content suitability for certain audiences...
Academy AwardThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
-winning Holocaust drama Schindler's ListSchindler's List is a 1993 American drama film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel Schindler's Ark by...
during prime time. Coburn stated that, in airing the movie without editing it for television, TV had been taken "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity." He also said the TV broadcast should outrage parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere. Coburn described the airing of Schindler's List on television as "...irresponsible sexual behavior...I cringe when I realize that there were children all across this nation watching this program."
Since the film deals mainly with the HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as The Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany,...
, many people showed disgust with this statement, including a number of fellow Republican Congressmen who criticized Coburn in their speeches. Coburn apologized after heavy criticisms "to all those I have offended" and clarified that he agreed with the movie being aired on television, but stated that it should have been on later in the evening. In apologizing, Coburn said that at that time of the evening there are still large numbers of children watching without parental supervision, and stated that he stood by his message of protecting children from violence, but had expressed it poorly. He also said, "my intentions were good, but I've obviously made an error in judgment in how I've gone about saying what I wanted to say."
He later wrote in his book Breach of Trust that he considered this one of the biggest mistakes in his life and that, while he still feels the material was unsuitable for an 8 p.m. television broadcast, he handled the situation poorly.
Use of Senatorial 'hold' privilege
Coburn has used the special holdA secret hold is a parliamentary procedure within the Standing Rules of the Senate within the United States Senate that allows one or more Senators to prevent a motion from reaching a vote on the Senate floor...
privilege to prevent several bills from coming to the Senate floor. The hold privilege is allowed by Rule VII of the Senate Standing Rules. The practice is generally used to form consensus on questionable legislation and has come under fire for its procedural secrecy. Coburn has actively exercised the privilege and has earned a reputation for his liberal use of the procedural mechanism.
Rachel Carson commemoration
On May 23, 2007, Coburn threatened to block two bills honoring the 100th birthday of Rachel CarsonRachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and nature writer whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
. Coburn called Carson's work "junk scienceJunk science is a term used in U.S. political and legal disputes that brands an advocate's claims about scientific data, research, or analyses as spurious. The term may convey a pejorative connotation that the advocate is driven by political, ideological, financial, or other unscientific...
", proclaiming that Silent SpringSilent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin in September 1962. The book is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement....
"was the catalyst in the deadly worldwide stigmatization against insecticides, especially DDTDDT is one of the most well-known synthetic pesticides. It is a chemical with a long, unique, and controversial history....
."
Advancing America's Priorities Act
In response to Senator Coburn's repeated holds on legislation, Senator Harry ReidHarry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada and a member of the Democratic Party. He has been the Senate's Majority Leader since January 2007....
introduced the Advancing America's Priorities Act, {{USBill|110|S|3297}}, in July 2008. S. 3297 combined several bills which Senator Coburn had blocked into what became known as a "Tomnibus" bill, a reference to omnibus billAn Omnibus bill is a single document that is accepted in a single vote by a legislature but contains amendments to a number of other laws or even many entirely new laws...
s used to combine several individual bills into one piece of legislation. The bill included health care provisions, new penalties for child pornography, and several natural resources bills.
Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act
Coburn opposed parts of the legislation creating the Lewis and Clark Mount HoodMount Hood, called Wy'east by the Multnomah tribe, is a stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc of northern Oregon. It was formed by a subduction zone and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States...
Wilderness, which would add protections to wild lands in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Senator Coburn exercised a one-vote hold on the legislation in both March and November 2008 and decried the required $10 million for surveying and mapping as wasteful. The Mount Hood bill would have been the largest amount of land added to federal protection since 1984.
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
According to The Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993. Its chief print rival is the Boston Herald....
Coburn had blocked passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination ActThe Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 , is an Act of Congress in the United States designed to prohibit the improper use of genetic information in health insurance and employment...
(GINA), objecting to provisions in the bill that allow discrimination based on genetic information from embryos and fetuses. Recently, the embryo loophole was closed, and Tom Coburn reevaluated his opposition to the bill. Senator Coburn had holds on 90 other bills in the 110th Congress. However, he voted in favor of an earlier version of GINA which passed unanimously in the Senate in 2005. By April 2008, Senator Coburn lifted his hold on the bill after some provisions of GINA were changed.
Affiliation with The Family and John Ensign
Senator Coburn is affiliated with a religious organization called The FamilyThe Fellowship is an international organization founded in 1935, which since at least 1969 has been led by Douglas Coe. Its members include scores of U.S. Senators, members of Congress, White House and other executive branch officials, high-ranking military officers, corporate executives, the heads...
. Senator Coburn lives in one of the Family's dormitories when in Washington, D.C. with Senator John EnsignJohn Eric Ensign is the junior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since January 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party and the former chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee....
, another Family member and longtime resident of the C Street Center who admitted he had an extra-marital affair with a staffer in 2009. The announcement by Ensign of his extramarital affair brought public scrutiny of the Family and its connection to other high ranking politicians including Senator Coburn.
Senator Coburn, together senior members of the Family, attempted to intervene to end Ensign's affair in February 2008, prior to the affair becoming public, including by meeting with the husband of Ensign's mistress and encouraging Ensign to write a letter to his mistress breaking off the affair. Senator Ensign was driven to Federal Express from C Street Center to post the letter, shortly after which Ensign called to tell his mistress to ignore it.
Senator Coburn refuses to speak about his involvement in Ensign's affair or his knowledge of the affair well before it became public on the grounds of alleged "privilege" due to his separate status as a licensed physician in the State of Oklahoma (OB/GYN) and an ordained deacon. However, bioethicist Jacob Appel recenty challenged this assertion of physician-patient privilegePhysician-patient privilege is a legal concept, related to medical confidentiality, that protects communications between a patient and his or her doctor from being used against the patient in court. It is a part of the rules of evidence in many common law jurisdictions...
on the grounds that Coburn is not licensed in the District of Columbia and had acquired his knowledge outside of his work as a physician.
Miscellany
Even though President Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii...
and Senator Coburn are nearly polar opposites on most political matters, the two of them are personally friendly and have worked together on certain issues like political ethics reform legislation.
Prior to the 2009 BCS gameThe 2009 FedEx BCS National Championship Game was an American football game played at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on January 8, 2009, and saw the Florida Gators face the Oklahoma Sooners, as determined by the BCS Rankings to decide the BCS National Championship. Television coverage...
between the Oklahoma SoonersThe 2008 Oklahoma Sooners football team represented the University of Oklahoma in the college football season of 2008-2009. It was the 114th year of season play for the Sooners. The team was led by head coach Bob Stoops, a two-time Walter Camp Coach of the Year award winner, who has a contract...
and the Florida GatorsThe 2009 Florida Gators football team represents the University of Florida in the college football season of 2009. The team is coached by Urban Meyer and play their homes games in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The Gators are coming off of a national championship during the 2009 college football bowl...
, Coburn made a bet over the outcome of the game with Florida senator Bill NelsonClarence William "Bill" Nelson is the senior U.S. Senator from Florida. Nelson is a member of the Democratic Party. Nelson became the second sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the as a Payload Specialist during NASA mission STS-61-C...
; the loser had to serenade the winner with a song. The Gators defeated the Sooners and Coburn will sing Elton JohnSir Elton Hercules John, CBE is an English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist.In his four-decade career, John has sold more than 200 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single, Candle in the Wind 1997, has sold over 37 million copies, becoming the...
's "Rocket Man"Rocket Man " is a song composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and originally performed by John. It is loosely based on the short story "The Rocket Man" in Ray Bradbury's book The Illustrated Man, and echoes the theme of David Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity"...
" to Nelson, a former astronaut.
Electoral history
{{for|the American scholar of religion|Thomas B. Coburn}}
{{OKGovernment}}
Thomas Allen "Tom" Coburn, M.D.The Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians...
(born March 14, 1948), is an AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
politicianA politician or political leader is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest,...
, medical doctorA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
, and ordained deaconDeacon is a role in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
. A member of the Republican Party, he currently serves as the junior U.S. SenatorThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
from OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,617,316 residents in 2007 and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
Coburn was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 as part of the "Republican RevolutionThe Republican Revolution or Revolution of '94 is what the Republican Party of the United States dubbed their success in the 1994 U.S. midterm elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of Representatives, and a pickup of eight seats in the Senate...
." He upheld his pledge to serve no more than three consecutive terms and did not run for re-election in 2000, returning to political office in 2004 with a successful run for Senate. Coburn is a fiscal and social conservative, known for his opposition to pork barrelPork barrel is a derogatory term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district...
projects, "the homosexual agendaHomosexual agenda is a phrase used by some social conservatives to refer to advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual orientations and relationships. The term is regarded as pejorative by some LGBT organisations. The term is applied to efforts to change government...
," and abortion rights. He supports term limits, gun rights, and the death penalty, including "for abortionists and other people who take life." Coburn has said, however, that he thinks the Iraq WarThe Iraq War, also known as the Occupation of Iraq or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.Prior to the war, the governments of the United...
was "probably a mistake." When in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, Sen. Coburn shares a dorm room with Sen. John EnsignJohn Eric Ensign is the junior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since January 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party and the former chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee....
(RThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
-NVNevada is a state located in the western region of the United States. The capital is Carson City and the largest city is Las Vegas. The state's nickname is Silver State, due to the large number of silver deposits that were discovered and mined there...
) at the C Street House, the residence of a religious and political organization known as "The Family" or "The Fellowship."The Fellowship is an international organization founded in 1935, which since at least 1969 has been led by Douglas Coe. Its members include scores of U.S. Senators, members of Congress, White House and other executive branch officials, high-ranking military officers, corporate executives, the heads...
Personal life and medical career
Coburn was born in Casper, WyomingCasper is the only city in and the county seat of Natrona County, Wyoming, United States. With a population of 49,644, Casper is the second largest city in Wyoming, according to the 2000 census...
to Anita Joy Allen and Orin Wesley Coburn, and graduated with a B.S. in accounting from Oklahoma State University, where he was also a member of Sigma NuSigma Nu is an undergraduate social college fraternity with chapters in the United States and Canada. Sigma Nu was founded in 1869 by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia...
fraternity. In 1968, he married Carolyn Denton, the 1967 Miss OklahomaThe Miss Oklahoma competition selects a winner to compete on behalf of Oklahoma in the Miss America pageant. Miss Oklahoma has won the crown on five occasions. Also, in the years when city representatives were common, Norma Smallwood won, competing as Miss Tulsa, giving the state of Oklahoma a...
; their three daughters are Callie, Katie, and Sarah. After recovering from a case of malignant melanomaMelanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes which are found predominantly in skin but also in the bowel and the eye . It is one of the less common types of skin cancer but causes the majority of skin cancer related deaths. Melanocytes are normally present in skin, being responsible for the...
Coburn pursued a medical degree and graduated from the University of Oklahoma Medical SchoolThe University of Oklahoma College of Medicine was founded in 1900 as a medical department of the University of Oklahoma at its main campus in Norman. Lawrence N. Upjohn, M.D. is regarded as the "founding dean" and served from 1900-1904...
in 1983. He then opened a medical practice in Muskogee, OklahomaMuskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh largest city in Oklahoma...
, and served as a deacon in a Southern Baptist ChurchThe Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based, mostly conservative Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the US with over 16 million members and more than 42,000 churches.The word Southern in Southern Baptist Convention...
. Coburn is one of only two licensed doctors currently serving in the US Senate. During his career in obstetricsObstetrics is the surgical specialty dealing with the care of women and their children during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal. Midwifery is the non-medical equivalent...
, he has treated over 15,000 patients and delivered 4,000 babies and was subject to one malpractice lawsuit. Coburn and his wife are members of Muskogee'sMuskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh largest city in Oklahoma...
New Community Church.
House career
In 1994, Coburn ran for the House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in Oklahoma's Democratic 2nd Congressional DistrictAs of the 2000 census, there are five Oklahoma United States congressional districts. Previous to the 2000 Census, Oklahoma had 6 Congressional districts. Oklahoma was one of eight states to lose one seat in the House of Representatives that year....
, which was based in Muskogee and included 22 counties in northeastern Oklahoma. Coburn initially expected to face eight-term incumbent Mike SynarMichael Lynn "Mike" Synar was an American Democratic politician who represented Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district in Congress for eight terms.-Early life and career:...
. However, Synar was defeated in a runoff for the Democratic nomination by a 71-year-old retired principalPrincipal or Head of School is the title of the head administrator of an elementary school, middle school, or high school in some English-speaking countries, including the United States, India and Australia. Public schools in the United States generally use the title Principal whereas private...
, Virgil Cooper. According to Coburn's book Breach of Trust, Coburn and Cooper got along very well and both had a dislike for the liberal Mike Synar. The general election was very cordial since both men knew Synar would not be returning to Washington regardless of the outcome. Coburn won by a 52%–48% margin, becoming the first Republican to represent the district since 1921.
Coburn was one of the most conservativeConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
members of the House. He supported "reducing the size of the federal budgetFederal budgets are the national budgets of federations, including:* Federal budget * Federal budget * Federal budget * Federal budget * Federal budget...
" and opposed abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
and supported the proposed V-chipV-chip is a generic term used for television receivers allowing the blocking of programs based on their ratings category. It is intended for use by parents to manage their children's television viewing. Most 13-inch and larger televisions manufactured for the United States market since 1999 and all...
legislation.
Despite representing a heavily Democratic district, Coburn was reelected in 1996 (even as Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
easily carried the district) and 1998 without difficulty.
While he served in the House, he earned a reputation as a "maverick" due to his frequent battles with House Speaker Newt GingrichNewton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is an American politician who served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. In 1995, Time magazine selected him as the Person of the Year for his role in leading the Republican Revolution in the House, ending 40 years of the...
. Most of these stand-offs stemmed from his belief that the Republican caucus was moving toward the political center and away from the more conservative "Contract With AmericaThe Contract with America was a document released by the United States Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign. Written by Larry Hunter who was aided by...
" policy proposals that had placed the Republicans into power in Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years. Specifically, Coburn was concerned that the Contract's term limitA term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. Term limits are found usually in presidential and semi-presidential systems as a method to curb the potential for dictatorships, where a leader effectively becomes "president for...
s had not been implemented, and that the Republicans were continuing the excessive federal spending that they had so vigorously opposed when the Democrats were in the majority.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Coburn endorsed conservative activist and former diplomat Alan KeyesAlan Lee Keyes is an American conservative political activist, author and former diplomat, and perennial candidate for public office. He ran for President of the United States in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2008, and was a Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1988, 1992, and 2004. Keyes served in...
in the 2000 Republican presidential primariesThe United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President. Bill Clinton, the incumbent President, was vacating the position...
, although he supported George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
after the nomination was sewn up. Coburn's congressional district returned to the Democratic fold, as attorney Brad CarsonBradley Rogers "Brad" Carson is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2005.-Background:...
easily defeated a Republican endorsed by Coburn. After leaving the House and returning to private medical practice, Coburn wrote a book in 2003, with ghostwriterA ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
John Hart, about his experiences in Congress called Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders. The book detailed Coburn's perspective on the internal Republican Party debates over the "Contract With America" and displayed his disdain for career politicians. Some of the figures he criticized (such as Gingrich) were already out of office at the time of publishing, but others (such as former House Speaker Dennis HastertJohn Dennis "Denny" Hastert is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2007, representing , and served as Speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007....
) remained very influential in Congress, which resulted in speculation that some congressional Republicans wanted no part of Coburn's return to politics.
Senate career
In 2004, Coburn chose to challenge the establishment Republican candidate for the open Senate seat being vacated by Don NicklesDonald Lee Nickles is an American businessman and political leader who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 until 2005. He was a fiscal and social conservative.-Early life:...
. Former Oklahoma CityOklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
Mayor Kirk HumphreysKirk Humphreys served as Mayor of Oklahoma City from April 9, 1998 to November 3, 2003.He was considered a favorite candidate of the Republican party establishment for U.S. Senator in 2004, losing to former Congressman Tom Coburn, MD in the primary...
(the favorite of the state and national Republican establishment) and Corporation Commissioner Bob AnthonyBob Anthony is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Anthony is currently serving his fourth consecutive six-year term on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, where he has served since 1989. In 2004 he entered the race to succeed Don Nickles on the Senate but came third in the...
joined the field before Coburn. However, Coburn easily won the primary with 61% of the vote to Humphreys's 25%. In the general election, he faced Brad CarsonBradley Rogers "Brad" Carson is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2005.-Background:...
, a Democrat who had succeeded him in the 2nd District and was giving up his seat after only two terms. During the Senate campaign, Coburn said that the "homosexual agenda" was the biggest threat to American freedom.
Coburn emphasized fighting "pork" and "corruption" in Washington. His focus on "cutting spending" and his reputation for fighting the practice of awarding federal dollars to "special interest causes" won him many supporters who disagreed with him on other issues.
He also promised to maintain his medical practice in Muskogee and return there during the weekend as he had while serving in the House.
In the election, Coburn won by a margin of 53% to Carson's 42%. While Carson routed Coburn in the heavily Democratic 2nd District, Coburn swamped Carson in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and the closer-in Tulsa suburbs. Coburn won the state's two largest counties, Tulsa and Oklahoma, by a combined 86,000 votes — more than half of his overall margin of 166,000 votes.
Coburn's Senate voting record is as conservative as his House record. Coburn has a reputation for stalling measures in the Senate, to the chagrin of members of both major parties.
Committee assignments
After taking office in January 2005, Coburn, along with fellow conservative Sam Brownback, was selected to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Coburn is a rare non-attorney on the Judiciary Committee.
On April 19, 2007, Coburn became the first Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to call for the firing of Attorney General Alberto GonzalesAlberto Reynaldo Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic and Mexican-American to serve as United States Attorney General...
as a result of the controversyThe dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy is a United States political scandal initiated by the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys on December 7, 2006 by the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice. Congressional investigations focused on whether the...
concerning the dismissal of eight United States AttorneyUnited States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
s.
Senator Coburn is a member of the following committees:
- Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
The United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions generally considers matters relating to health, education, labor, and pensions...
- Subcommittee on Children and Families
The Senate Health Subcommittee on Children and Families is one of the three subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Health-Jurisdiction:The Subcommittee's jurisdiction includes Head Start, the Family Medical Leave Act, child care and child support, and other issues involving children, youth,...
- Subcommittee on Retirement and Aging
The Senate Health Subcommittee on Retirement & Aging is one of the three subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Health-Jurisdiction:The Subcommittee has oversight over many issues including: Pensions, the Older Americans Act; elder abuse, neglect, and scams affecting seniors; long-term care...
- Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
The United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland security concerns, as well as the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and...
- Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security
- Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Ranking Member)
- Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight is one of the six subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs...
- Committee on the Judiciary
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a standing committee of the United States Senate, the upper house of the United States Congress...
- Subcommittee on the Constitution (Ranking Member)
- Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs is one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee.-Jurisdiction:Jurisdiction: Oversight of the Department of Justice's Criminal Division; Drug Enforcement Administration; Executive Office of the U.S. Attorneys; Violence...
- Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security
The United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security is one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee.-Jurisdiction:...
- Committee on Indian Affairs
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is a standing committee of the United States Senate charged with oversight in matters related to the American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples. A Committee on Indian Affairs existed from 1820 to 1947, after which it was folded into the...
- Select Committee on Intelligence
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the Federal government of the United States who provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches...
Since April 2007, Senator Coburn has been holding the Federal Employee Protection of Disclosures Act (S.274) from becoming law. This bill relates to so-called "whistleblowing," and would effectively reverse the Supreme Court's decision in Garcetti v. CeballosGarcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 , is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the First Amendment free speech protections for government employees. The plaintiff in the case was a district attorney who claimed that he had been passed up for a promotion for criticizing the...
, 04-473. (Coburn has also placed a hold on final Senate consideration of a measure passed by the House in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings to improve state performance in checking the federal watch list of gun buyers.)
Iraq War appropriations
On May 24, 2007 the US Senate voted 80-14 to fund the war in Iraq. Coburn voted nay. On October 1, 2007 the US Senate voted 92-3 to fund the war in Iraq. Coburn voted nay. In February 2008, Coburn said, "I will tell you personally that I think it was probably a mistake going to Iraq."
Abortion
Coburn opposes abortion. In 2000 he sponsored a bill to prevent the Food and Drug AdministrationThe Food and Drug Administration is a Government agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is responsible for regulating and supervising the safety of foods, tobacco products, dietary supplements, Medication drugs, vaccines, Biopharmaceutical, blood transfusion,...
from developing, testing or approving the abortifacientAn abortifacient is a substance that induces abortion. Abortifacients for animals that have mated undesirably are known as mismating shots.Common abortifacients used in performing medical abortions include mifepristone, which is typically used in conjunction with misoprostol in a two-step approach...
RU-486. On July 13, the bill failed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 182 to 187. On the issue, Coburn sparked controversy with his remark, "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life." He noted that his great-grandmother was raped by a sheriff and in the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings concerning Samuel AlitoSamuel Anthony Alito, Jr. is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and has served on the court since January 31, 2006....
, said his grandmother was a product of that rape.
On September 14, 2005, during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, Coburn began his opening statement with a critique of Beltway"Inside the Beltway" is a phrase used to characterize parts of the real or imagined American political system. It refers to the Capital Beltway , a beltway that encircles Washington, D.C., and is meant to invoke matters that are important primarily within the offices of the Federal government, its...
partisan politics while, according to news reports, "choking back a sob." Coburn had earlier been completing a crossword puzzleFor the common puzzle, see CrosswordCrossword Puzzle was the second to last album made by The Partridge Family and was not one of the most popular albums. It was released in 1973 and did not produce a U.S. single. This album was finally released on CD in 2003 on Arista's BMG Heritage label...
during the hearings, and this fact was used by The Daily ShowThe Daily Show, known in its current incarnation as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn...
to ridicule Coburn's pathosPathos is one of the three modes of persuasion in rhetoric . Pathos appeals to the audience's emotions. It is a part of Aristotle's philosophies in rhetoric...
. Coburn then began his questioning by discussing the various legal terms mentioned during the previous day's hearings. Proceeding to questions regarding both abortion and end-of-life issues, Coburn, who noted that during his tenure as an obstetrician he had delivered some 4,000 babies, asked Roberts whether the judge agreed with the proposition that "the opposite of being dead is being alive."
{{cquote|You know I'm going somewhere. One of the problems I have is coming up with just the common sense and logic that if brain wave and heartbeat signifies life, the absence of them signifies death, then the presence of them certainly signifies life.
And to say it otherwise, logically is schizophrenicSchizophrenia , from the Greek roots skhizein and phrēn, phren- is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality...
. And that's how I view a lot of the decisions that have come from the Supreme Court on the issue of abortion.}}
Fiscal conservatism
Coburn made several attempts in 2005 to combat pork barrelPork barrel is a derogatory term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district...
spending in the federal budget. The best-known of these was an amendment to the fiscal 2006 appropriations bill that funds transportation projects. Coburn's amendment would have transferred funding from the infamous Bridge to NowhereThe Gravina Island Bridge, commonly referred to as the "Bridge to Nowhere", was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects the town of Ketchikan, Alaska with Gravina Island, an island which contains the Ketchikan International Airport as well as 50 residents. The bridge was...
in AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
to rebuild Louisiana's "Twin Spans" bridge, which was devastated by Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States...
. The amendment was defeated in the Senate, 82-14, after Ted StevensTheodore Fulton Stevens is a former United States Senator from Alaska, serving from December 24, 1968, until January 3, 2009. Stevens was President pro tempore in the 108th and 109th Congresses from January 3, 2003, to January 3, 2007...
, the senior senator from Alaska, threatened to resign his office if the amendment was passed. Coburn's actions did result in getting the funds made into a more politically feasible block grantIn a federal system of government, a block grant is a large sum of money granted by the national government to a regional government with only general provisions as to the way it is to be spent...
to the State of Alaska, which can use the funds for the bridge or other projects.
Coburn is also a member of the Fiscal Watch Team, a group of seven senators led by John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
, whose stated goal is to combat "wasteful government spending".
On April 6, 2006, Coburn and Senators Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii...
, Thomas Carper and John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
introduced the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 is an Act of Congress that requires the full disclosure to the public of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds beginning in fiscal year 2007. The website opened in December 2007 as a result of the act, and is...
. The bill would require the full disclosure of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2007 on a website maintained by the Office of Management and Budget. The bill was signed into law on September 26, 2006.
Coburn and McCain recently noted that the practice of members of Congress adding earmarks (and thus, increasing government spending) has risen dramatically over the years, from 121 "earmarks" in 1987 to 15,268 earmarks in 2005, according to the Congressional Research ServiceThe Congressional Research Service , known as "Congress's think tank", is the public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a...
.
In July 2007, Coburn criticized pork barrel spending fellow Senator Ben NelsonEarl Benjamin "Ben" Nelson is the Senior U.S. Senator from Nebraska, where he was born and has lived for most of his life. Nelson is a Methodist. A Democrat, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000, and is now one of the leading conservative Democrats in the Senate...
had inserted into the 2007 defense spending bill. Coburn alleged that the earmarks would benefit Nelson's son Patrick's employer with millions in federal dollars and that the situation violated terms of the Transparency Act, which was passed by the Senate but had not yet been voted on in the House. Nelson's spokesperson said the Senator did nothing wrong. At that time, newspapers in Nebraska and Oklahoma noted that Coburn failed to blast very similar earmarks that benefited Oklahoma.
In 1997, Coburn introduced a bill called the HIV Prevention Act of 1997, which would have amended the Social Security ActSocial Security in the United States currently refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program....
. The bill would have required confidential notification of HIV exposure to the sexual partners of those diagnosed with HIV along with counseling and testing. The bill was endorsed by the American Medical Association and had over 100 co-sponsors. Coburn also offered an amendment that would have prohibited insurance companies from discriminating against someone who was tested for HIV, regardless of the result, and introduced a bill to expand AIDS coverage for those enrolled in Medicare. He was the primary House sponsor of the 2000 Ryan White CARE Act reauthorization that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
Presidential nominations
During the administration of George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
, Coburn spoke out against the threat by some Democrats to filibusterA filibuster, or "talking out a bill", is a form of obstruction in a legislature or other decision-making body whereby one attempts to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a proposal by extending a debate on that proposal....
nominations to judgeships and executive-branch positions. He took the position that no presidential nomination should ever be filibustered, in light of the wording of the ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America and the federal government of the United States...
. Coburn said: "There is a defined charge to the president and the Senate on advice and consent."
In May 2009 Coburn was the only U.S. Senator to vote against confirmation of Gil KerlikowskeRichard Gil Kerlikowske is the current Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position generally referred to as the United States "Drug Czar". He assumed office on May 7, 2009.-Personal:...
as the Director of the National Drug Control Policy.
Tobacco
Tom Coburn thinks tobacco should not have additional regulation by the FDA in addition to the current ATF oversight. "Tom Coburn is consistent in his free market philosophy and in his strict reading of what Congress can and can't do," according to the Tulsa WorldThe Tulsa World is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the second-most widely circulated newspaper in the state, after The Oklahoman. The World is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma...
and other sources
Additional quotes:
"Beyond the fact that a federal ban on tobacco would go against Coburn's basic philosophy, is the fact, that he was debating against the bill (to allow the FDA to regulate tobacco) in the first place."
Gun rights
Regarding the Second AmendmentThe Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects a right to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights...
, Coburn believes that it "recognizes the right of individual, law-abiding citizens to own and use firearms", and he opposes "any and all efforts to mandate gun control on law-abiding citizens". On the Credit CARD Act of 2009The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 or Credit CARD Act of 2009 is a federal law passed by the United States Congress and signed by President Barack Obama on May 22, 2009...
, which aimed "...to establish fair and transparent practices relating to the extension of credit under an open end consumer credit plan, and for other purposes.", Coburn sponsored an amendment that would allow concealed carry of weapons in national parks. The Senate passed that amendment 67-29.
Issues
Senator Coburn was involved in the Bush Administration's struggle with congress over whistleblower rights. The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow to government whistleblowers when, in the case of Garcetti v. CeballosGarcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 , is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the First Amendment free speech protections for government employees. The plaintiff in the case was a district attorney who claimed that he had been passed up for a promotion for criticizing the...
, 04-473, it ruled that government employeesThe term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
did not have protection from retaliation by their employers under the First AmendmentThe First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion", prohibiting the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech and infringing on the freedom of the...
of the Constitution. The free speech protections of the First Amendment have long been used to shield whistleblowers from retaliation by whistleblower attorneys.
In response to the Supreme Court decision, the HouseThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
passed H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Act of 2007. President George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
, citing national securityNational security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the nation-state through the use of economic, military and political power and the exercise of diplomacy.Measures taken to ensure national security include:...
concerns, promised to vetoA veto, Latin for "I forbid", is used to denote that a certain party has the right to stop unilaterally a piece of legislation. In practice, the veto can be absolute A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is used to denote that a certain party has the right to stop unilaterally a piece of legislation....
the bill should it be enacted into law by Congress. The Senate's version of the Whistleblower Protection Act (S. 274) was approved by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on June 13, 2007. However, it has yet to reach a vote by Senate as a hold has been placed on the bill by Senator Coburn.
Coburn's hold effectively prevents passage of the bill, which has broad bipartisan support in the Senate. According to the National Whistleblower Center, Coburn's hold is an example of a right-wing Senator enacting President Bush's agenda while frustrating a majority.
Senator Coburn's Web site features a news item about United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
whistleblower Mathieu Credo Koumoin, a former employee for the U.N. Development Program in West Africa, who has asked U.N. ethics chief Robert Benson for protection under the U.N.'s new whistleblower protection rules.
The Web site has a link to the "United Nations Watch" of the Republican Office of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental AffairsThe United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland security concerns, as well as the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and...
' Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security, of which he is the ranking minority member. Coburn's Web site also features a tip line for potential whistleblowers on government waste and fraud.
Allegations of non-consensual sterilization and Medicaid fraud
A sterilizationSterilization is a surgical technique leaving a male or female unable to reproduce. It is a method of birth control. For non-surgical causes of sterility, see infertility.Common sterilization methods include:...
Coburn performed on a 20-year-old woman, Angela Plummer, in 1990 became what was called "the most incendiary issue" of his Senate campaign. Coburn performed the sterilization on the woman during an emergency surgery to treat a life-threatening ectopic pregnancyAn ectopic pregnancy is a complication of pregnancy in which the fertilized ovum is developed in any tissue other than the uterine wall. Most ectopic pregnancies occur in the Fallopian tube , but implantation can also occur in the cervix, ovaries, and abdomen...
, removing her intact fallopian tubeThe Fallopian tubes, named after Gabriel Fallopius , also known as oviducts, uterine tubes, and salpinges are two very fine tubes lined with ciliated epithelia, leading from the ovaries of female mammals into the uterus, via the utero-tubal junction.- Fallopian Tube :The tube connects the ovary to...
as well as the one damaged by the surgery. The woman sued Coburn, alleging that he did not have consent to sterilize her, while Coburn claimed he had her oral consent. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed with no finding of liability on Coburn's part.
The state attorney general claimed that Coburn committed Medicaid Medicaid is the United States health program for eligible individuals and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is managed by the states. Among the groups of people served by Medicaid are certain...
fraud by not reporting the sterilization when he filed a claim for the emergency surgery. Medicaid did not reimburse doctors for sterilization procedures for patients under 21, and according to the attorney general, Coburn would not have been reimbursed at all had he not withheld this information. Coburn says since he did not file a claim for the sterilization, no fraud was committed. No charges were filed against Coburn for this claim.
Schindler's List television broadcast
As a congressman in 1997, Coburn protested NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
's plan to air the R-ratedThe Motion Picture Association of America's film-rating system is used in the U.S. and its territories to rate a film's thematic and content suitability for certain audiences...
Academy AwardThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
-winning Holocaust drama Schindler's ListSchindler's List is a 1993 American drama film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel Schindler's Ark by...
during prime time. Coburn stated that, in airing the movie without editing it for television, TV had been taken "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity." He also said the TV broadcast should outrage parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere. Coburn described the airing of Schindler's List on television as "...irresponsible sexual behavior...I cringe when I realize that there were children all across this nation watching this program."
Since the film deals mainly with the HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as The Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany,...
, many people showed disgust with this statement, including a number of fellow Republican Congressmen who criticized Coburn in their speeches. Coburn apologized after heavy criticisms "to all those I have offended" and clarified that he agreed with the movie being aired on television, but stated that it should have been on later in the evening. In apologizing, Coburn said that at that time of the evening there are still large numbers of children watching without parental supervision, and stated that he stood by his message of protecting children from violence, but had expressed it poorly. He also said, "my intentions were good, but I've obviously made an error in judgment in how I've gone about saying what I wanted to say."
He later wrote in his book Breach of Trust that he considered this one of the biggest mistakes in his life and that, while he still feels the material was unsuitable for an 8 p.m. television broadcast, he handled the situation poorly.
Use of Senatorial 'hold' privilege
Coburn has used the special holdA secret hold is a parliamentary procedure within the Standing Rules of the Senate within the United States Senate that allows one or more Senators to prevent a motion from reaching a vote on the Senate floor...
privilege to prevent several bills from coming to the Senate floor. The hold privilege is allowed by Rule VII of the Senate Standing Rules. The practice is generally used to form consensus on questionable legislation and has come under fire for its procedural secrecy. Coburn has actively exercised the privilege and has earned a reputation for his liberal use of the procedural mechanism.
Rachel Carson commemoration
On May 23, 2007, Coburn threatened to block two bills honoring the 100th birthday of Rachel CarsonRachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and nature writer whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
. Coburn called Carson's work "junk scienceJunk science is a term used in U.S. political and legal disputes that brands an advocate's claims about scientific data, research, or analyses as spurious. The term may convey a pejorative connotation that the advocate is driven by political, ideological, financial, or other unscientific...
", proclaiming that Silent SpringSilent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin in September 1962. The book is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement....
"was the catalyst in the deadly worldwide stigmatization against insecticides, especially DDTDDT is one of the most well-known synthetic pesticides. It is a chemical with a long, unique, and controversial history....
."
Advancing America's Priorities Act
In response to Senator Coburn's repeated holds on legislation, Senator Harry ReidHarry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada and a member of the Democratic Party. He has been the Senate's Majority Leader since January 2007....
introduced the Advancing America's Priorities Act, {{USBill|110|S|3297}}, in July 2008. S. 3297 combined several bills which Senator Coburn had blocked into what became known as a "Tomnibus" bill, a reference to omnibus billAn Omnibus bill is a single document that is accepted in a single vote by a legislature but contains amendments to a number of other laws or even many entirely new laws...
s used to combine several individual bills into one piece of legislation. The bill included health care provisions, new penalties for child pornography, and several natural resources bills.
Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act
Coburn opposed parts of the legislation creating the Lewis and Clark Mount HoodMount Hood, called Wy'east by the Multnomah tribe, is a stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc of northern Oregon. It was formed by a subduction zone and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States...
Wilderness, which would add protections to wild lands in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Senator Coburn exercised a one-vote hold on the legislation in both March and November 2008 and decried the required $10 million for surveying and mapping as wasteful. The Mount Hood bill would have been the largest amount of land added to federal protection since 1984.
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
According to The Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993. Its chief print rival is the Boston Herald....
Coburn had blocked passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination ActThe Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 , is an Act of Congress in the United States designed to prohibit the improper use of genetic information in health insurance and employment...
(GINA), objecting to provisions in the bill that allow discrimination based on genetic information from embryos and fetuses. Recently, the embryo loophole was closed, and Tom Coburn reevaluated his opposition to the bill. Senator Coburn had holds on 90 other bills in the 110th Congress. However, he voted in favor of an earlier version of GINA which passed unanimously in the Senate in 2005. By April 2008, Senator Coburn lifted his hold on the bill after some provisions of GINA were changed.
Affiliation with The Family and John Ensign
Senator Coburn is affiliated with a religious organization called The FamilyThe Fellowship is an international organization founded in 1935, which since at least 1969 has been led by Douglas Coe. Its members include scores of U.S. Senators, members of Congress, White House and other executive branch officials, high-ranking military officers, corporate executives, the heads...
. Senator Coburn lives in one of the Family's dormitories when in Washington, D.C. with Senator John EnsignJohn Eric Ensign is the junior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since January 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party and the former chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee....
, another Family member and longtime resident of the C Street Center who admitted he had an extra-marital affair with a staffer in 2009. The announcement by Ensign of his extramarital affair brought public scrutiny of the Family and its connection to other high ranking politicians including Senator Coburn.
Senator Coburn, together senior members of the Family, attempted to intervene to end Ensign's affair in February 2008, prior to the affair becoming public, including by meeting with the husband of Ensign's mistress and encouraging Ensign to write a letter to his mistress breaking off the affair. Senator Ensign was driven to Federal Express from C Street Center to post the letter, shortly after which Ensign called to tell his mistress to ignore it.
Senator Coburn refuses to speak about his involvement in Ensign's affair or his knowledge of the affair well before it became public on the grounds of alleged "privilege" due to his separate status as a licensed physician in the State of Oklahoma (OB/GYN) and an ordained deacon. However, bioethicist Jacob Appel recenty challenged this assertion of physician-patient privilegePhysician-patient privilege is a legal concept, related to medical confidentiality, that protects communications between a patient and his or her doctor from being used against the patient in court. It is a part of the rules of evidence in many common law jurisdictions...
on the grounds that Coburn is not licensed in the District of Columbia and had acquired his knowledge outside of his work as a physician.
Miscellany
Even though President Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii...
and Senator Coburn are nearly polar opposites on most political matters, the two of them are personally friendly and have worked together on certain issues like political ethics reform legislation.
Prior to the 2009 BCS gameThe 2009 FedEx BCS National Championship Game was an American football game played at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on January 8, 2009, and saw the Florida Gators face the Oklahoma Sooners, as determined by the BCS Rankings to decide the BCS National Championship. Television coverage...
between the Oklahoma SoonersThe 2008 Oklahoma Sooners football team represented the University of Oklahoma in the college football season of 2008-2009. It was the 114th year of season play for the Sooners. The team was led by head coach Bob Stoops, a two-time Walter Camp Coach of the Year award winner, who has a contract...
and the Florida GatorsThe 2009 Florida Gators football team represents the University of Florida in the college football season of 2009. The team is coached by Urban Meyer and play their homes games in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The Gators are coming off of a national championship during the 2009 college football bowl...
, Coburn made a bet over the outcome of the game with Florida senator Bill NelsonClarence William "Bill" Nelson is the senior U.S. Senator from Florida. Nelson is a member of the Democratic Party. Nelson became the second sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the as a Payload Specialist during NASA mission STS-61-C...
; the loser had to serenade the winner with a song. The Gators defeated the Sooners and Coburn will sing Elton JohnSir Elton Hercules John, CBE is an English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist.In his four-decade career, John has sold more than 200 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single, Candle in the Wind 1997, has sold over 37 million copies, becoming the...
's "Rocket Man"Rocket Man " is a song composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and originally performed by John. It is loosely based on the short story "The Rocket Man" in Ray Bradbury's book The Illustrated Man, and echoes the theme of David Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity"...
" to Nelson, a former astronaut.
Electoral history
{{ushr|Oklahoma|2|}
}: Results 1994–1998
!|Year
!
!|Democrat
!|Votes
!|Pct
!
!|Republican
!|Votes
!|Pct
!
!|3rd Party
!|Party
!|Votes
!|Pct
!
|-
|1994
|
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} |{{nowrap|Virgil R. Cooper}}
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} align="right" |75,943
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} |48%
|
|{{Party shading/Republican}} |{{nowrap|Tom A. Coburn}}
|{{Party shading/Republican}} align="right" |82,479
|{{Party shading/Republican}} |52%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|1996
|
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} |{{nowrap|Glen D. Johnson}}
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} align="right" |90,120
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} |45%
|
|{{Party shading/Republican}} |Tom A. Coburn
|{{Party shading/Republican}} align="right" |112,273
|{{Party shading/Republican}} |55%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|1998
|
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} |{{nowrap|Kent Pharaoh}}
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} align="right" |59,042
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} |40%
|
|{{Party shading/Republican}} |Tom A. Coburn
|{{Party shading/Republican}} align="right" |85,581
|{{Party shading/Republican}} |58%
|
|{{Party shading/Independent}} |Albert Jones
|{{Party shading/Independent}} |IndependentIn politics, an independent is a politician who is not affiliated with any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do not feel that any major party addresses...
|{{Party shading/Independent}} align="right" |3,641
|{{Party shading/Independent}} align="right" |2%
|
{{end box}}
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em ; font-size:95%"
|+ Oklahoma Senator (Class III) results: 2004
!|Year
!
!|Democrat
!|Votes
!|Pct
!
!|Republican
!|Votes
!|Pct
!
!|3rd Party
!|Party
!|Votes
!|Pct
!
|-
|2004
|
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} |Brad CarsonBradley Rogers "Brad" Carson is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2005.-Background:...
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} align="right" |596,750
|{{Party shading/Democratic}} |41%
|
|{{Party shading/Republican}} |Tom A. Coburn
|{{Party shading/Republican}} align="right" |763,433
|{{Party shading/Republican}} |53%
|
|{{Party shading/Independent}} |Sheila Bilyeu
|{{Party shading/Independent}} |IndependentIn politics, an independent is a politician who is not affiliated with any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do not feel that any major party addresses...
|{{Party shading/Independent}} align="right" |86,663
|{{Party shading/Independent}} align="right" |6%
|
{{end box}}
External links
Official sites
{{CongLinks | congbio = c000560 | fec = S4OK00174 | opensecrets = N00005601 | votesmart = CNIP8018 | ontheissuespath = Senate/Tom_Coburn.htm | | legistorm = 22/Sen_Tom_Coburn.html | surge = 946 | govtrack = 400576 | findagrave = }}
- Profile at SourceWatch
SourceWatch is an internet site that is a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy . It was created by the CMD's research director, Sheldon Rampton...
CongresspediaCongresspedia was a wiki that ran from April 2006 to March 2009, designed to hold information on the workings of the U.S. Congress. It was fully contained within SourceWatch, a larger wiki meant to document the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. The Congresspedia portion of...
- Collected news and commentary from The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Coburn, Thomas
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|us-hs}}
{{USRSB
|state=Oklahoma
|district=2
|before=Mike SynarMichael Lynn "Mike" Synar was an American Democratic politician who represented Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district in Congress for eight terms.-Early life and career:...
| years=1995 – 2001
| after=Brad CarsonBradley Rogers "Brad" Carson is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2005.-Background:...
}}
{{s-par|us-sen}}
{{U.S. Senator box
|state=Oklahoma
|class=3
|before=Don NicklesDonald Lee Nickles is an American businessman and political leader who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 until 2005. He was a fiscal and social conservative.-Early life:...
| start=2005
| alongside=Jim InhofeJames Mountain "Jim" Inhofe is an American politician from Oklahoma. A member of the Republican Party, he currently serves as the senior Senator from Oklahoma. He is among the most vocal global warming skeptics in Congress...
}}
{{s-prec|usa}}
{{s-bef|before=Jim DeMintJames Warren "Jim" DeMint has been a U.S. Senator from South Carolina since 2005. He had previously represented South Carolina's 4th congressional district from 1999 to 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party....
R-South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a U.S. state that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was...
}}
{{s-ttl|title=United States Senators by seniority|years=68th}}
{{s-aft|after=John ThuneJohn Randolph Thune is the Republican junior U.S. Senator from the state of South Dakota.Born and raised in South Dakota, Thune attended college at Biola University in California before returning to his home state to obtain a graduate degree at the University of South Dakota. He worked as a...
R-South DakotaSouth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. South Dakota was carved out of the southern half of the Dakota Territory and admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889...
}}
{{end box}}
{{OK-FedRep}}
{{USSenOK}}
{{OKRepresentatives}}
{{Current Oklahoma statewide political officials}}
{{Current U.S. Senators}}
{{Persondata
|NAME=Coburn, Thomas Allen
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Medical doctor, politician
|DATE OF BIRTH=March 14, 1948
|PLACE OF BIRTH=CasperCasper is the only city in and the county seat of Natrona County, Wyoming, United States. With a population of 49,644, Casper is the second largest city in Wyoming, according to the 2000 census...
, WyomingWyoming is a state in the Western United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountain West, while the easternmost section of the state includes part of a high elevation prairie region known as the High Plains. While the tenth largest...
, United States of America
|DATE OF DEATH=
|PLACE OF DEATH=
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coburn, Tom}}