| SEN. COBURN TO
OFFER OPTION TO CAREGIVER'S BILL
Coburn will offer two ways of paying
for veterans' care: eliminating military construction projects in
their home states or cutting the United States' contribution to
the United Nations.
NOTE from Larry Scott, VA
Watchdog dot Org ... For background on the veterans'
caregiver's bill and Sen. Coburn's block on it ... refer to this
article ... here ...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfnov09/nf110609-5.htm
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Sen. Tom Coburn offers vet bill
option
BY CHRIS CASTEEL
http://www.newsok.com/sen.-tom-coburn-offers-vet-bill-option/a
rticle/3417444?custom_click=headlines_widget
WASHINGTON — Facing
strong criticism for holding up a bill to help disabled veterans,
Sen. Tom Coburn said he plans on Monday to offer senators two
ways of paying for the veterans’ care: eliminating military
construction projects in their home states or cutting the
United States’ contribution to the
United Nations.
The Senate is expected to vote
Monday on a proposal by Coburn that would require the veterans’
bill’s costs to be offset with cuts in a pending bill to fund
military construction, Veterans’ Affairs and other agencies.
 Coburn’s
proposal would also require that all veterans, not just ones hurt
after 9/11, be included in the program to help caregivers.
Coburn suggested Friday that
senators could eliminate all of the military construction projects
that weren’t requested by
President Barack Obama’s administration and make other cuts to
pay for the caregiver aid if that is indeed a higher priority. He
said the bill includes 96 military construction earmarks worth
$633 million.
"Every member of the
United States Senate wants to help our veterans who have
sacrificed so much in defense of our freedom,” Coburn said Friday.
"This motion gives senators an opportunity to put their words into
action. Our veterans have made hard choices and we need to do the
same.”
Coburn also said he would offer
a separate proposal to cut U.S. funding to the United Nations,
which is more than $4 billion a year, to pay for the disabled
veterans bill. No agreement has been made for a vote on that
proposal.
Coburn has come under heavy fire
from Senate leaders and veterans groups for single-handedly
holding up the bill to provide aid to caregivers. But Coburn has
said that bill supporters should come up with a way to fund the
bill, rather than adding the costs to the nation’s deficit.
Senate leaders had been hoping
to pass the bill under unanimous consent, rather than bringing the
bill up for debate and amendments. But Senate rules allow for a
single senator to object, and Coburn objected, as he has done on
numerous other bills that leaders tried to pass by the same method
in the last few years.
"I’ve never met a veteran who
said they served to help politicians get re-elected, avoid hard
choices and pass on crushing debt to future generations,” Coburn
said. "If we don’t start making hard choices, and stop making
excuses, our veterans won’t have a country left to defend.”
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TOPICS:
veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs,
Sen. Tom Coburn, caregiver's bill |
