US Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)
A deal between Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress to temporarily extend authorizations for both the Federal Aviation Administration and surface transportation programs has hit a snag. And that snag is Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).
Coburn is blocking the Senate from moving on to a combined FAA-highway bill approved Tuesday by the House. He’s objecting to long-standing language in the surface transportation funding bill, known as SAFETEA-LU, that directs 10 percent of some of the bill’s funds to non-road projects. About 60 percent of funds under that provision, known as Transportation Enhancements, go to biking and pedestrian projects. Other uses range widely.
The Oklahoma budget hawk took to the Senate floor Wednesday to list some of the projects that may be funded under under what the highway bill designates as “enhancements.” They include a simulator at a Corvette museum in Kentucky and “White Albino Squirrel Sanctuary.” Coburn complained that such projects are a waste of transportation dollars at a time when the country faces both deep deficits and crumbling roads and bridges.
“There ought to be a time in which we say enough’s enough,” Coburn said.
Any individual senator can object to consent requests that let the Senate operate more quickly. Coburn’s objection could force Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to go through procedural motions that would require days to pass the FAA-transportation extension deal.
That’s not uncommon in the slow-moving Senate. But the problem here is that the FAA’s current authorization expires on Friday. Failure to approve a temporary FAA reauthorization by then would mean another shutdown, one both parties intended to avoid.
Coburn’s objection clearly irritated Reid, who on Thursday suggested the Oklahoma Republican was trying to act as “a dictator” in the Senate.
Coburn offered two ways around a potential FAA shutdown Friday: 1) separate the FAA and highway bills, pass the FAA bill and let the House do the same; or 2) amend the combined package before the Senate to take out the “enhancements.”
Negotiations continue.
Stay tuned.
Related stories
Senator Tom Coburn is exactly right. Stop spending money on things that are not completely necessary. Approve spending for transportation. If you folks will approve the spending and allow the engineers not politicians to make the decision about and how the money will be spent things will begin to improve. The very reason I left working for a State Department of Transportation years ago and began a private Consulting Engineering practice is because people without the proper knowledge tell those who have training and education how to do a job they (people without proper knowledge) do not know how to do.
I believe we should be looking at the balance between work that needs to be done (priority of need) and the depth and breadth jobs that can be created by the work. WE MUST CREATE JOBS in the USA. Lean in that direction and more funding will become available for more projects to address our many infrastructure needs.
I agree with Senator Coburn, 10% is too much money for these “non critical” type of projects when the country is facing so much funding pressure. Spend the money of pavement preservation and bridge rehabilitation first. Otherwise it’s like spending money on landscaping instead of repairing the leak in the roof of your house.
I wonder what airline or airlines Coburn is getting “help” from. You realize that THEY pocket the tax not paid and meanwhile he sticks it to the President by killing jobs.
Try being a Statesmen, senator. Sometimes you got to eat something you don’t like.
PLEASE SENATOR COBURN !
THINK OF THE UNEMPLOYED SIGN REPAIRMAN.
HE’S JUST IN DIRE NEED OF SOME RELIEF EVEN IF IT IS NOT A LONGTIME JOB.
SINCERELY,
BOB CARLEO,(81 YRS OLD,RETIRED CIVIL ENGINEER)
92-6 = jobs win