Washington Watch: Coburn Stirs It Up
Tom Coburn: Senator Tom Coburn continues to stir it up on Capitol Hill. Oklahoma's junior senator now calls to account the U. S. Department of Agriculture's expenditures for conferences and travel.
Coburn says the USDA spent $19 million in 2006 sending staff to conferences in such places as Las Vegas, Orlando and Hawaii. Among the trips were one to attend a “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” seminar in Las Vegas and others to Australia for conferences on fungus and crawdads, said Coburn.
In all, the agency sent 21,000 employees to 6,719 conferences in 2006 at a real cost of $19 million and “an unknown cost to taxpayers in lost productivity,” a report by Coburn states. “At a time when millions of Americans are being forced to tighten their belts, it is obscene that politicians in Washington are refusing to rein in wasteful spending."
Coburn, the top Republican on the Senate’s federal financial management subcommittee, has been proposing cuts to agency travel for conferences since coming to the Senate in 2005. He authored an amendment to the recently passed farm bill to require the Agriculture Department to post details on conference travel online.
Coburn said federal agencies spent more than $2 billion on conferences from 2000 through 2006. The Agriculture Department spent $90 million on conferences in that time, he said.
“Whether it is sending 270 employees in one year to Mickey Mouse’s house in Orlando, attending 28 separate 2006 conferences in Hawaii, or spending a quarter-of-a-million dollars on Las Vegas resort-based conferences, these USDA trips have the appearance of a ‘spring break’ mentality,” he said.
Tom Cole: Congressman Tom Cole has been under fire from some after three GOP congressional race losses to Democrats. Some insiders suggested Cole was about to be shown the door at the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee he chairs, but others say that's just a knee-jerk reaction to a situation Cole didn't create, and GOP leaders are lining up in support of Cole. House Minority Leader John Boehner, reacting to unrest within the House GOP caucus over the string of special election losses and tough prospects for November, said Wednesday he will name two members to conduct a “performance audit’’ of the party’s recent losing campaigns. Sources who attended the closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference said Boehner also named Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, to head up a special fund-raising effort for targeted races this fall. The NRCC is way behind its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in cash on hand and in fund-raising efforts. The minority leader also told the caucus that even though most state primaries are over, he and Cole will get more involved in the remaining ones by trying to head off divisive and potentially expensive primary fights for House nominations.
Cole has been under fire from House Republicans for the three special election defeats that began in March, when the party lost the Illinois 14th District seat of retired Speaker J. Dennis Hastert to Democrat Bill Foster. It continued this month with defeats in Louisiana’s 6th District and Mississippi’s 1st District — both once GOP bastions. Boehner, who has had run-ins with Cole over fund-raising and candidate recruitment, now expresses confidence in Cole, who was elected by the full GOP Conference.
J. C. Watts: There's been considerable blog chatter about the former 4th District congressman as a possible running mate for John McCain. Forget it, for a lot of reasons. The last thing McCain needs is a tie to another lobbyist, which Watts is. McCain needs a large swing state connection and Watts obviously doesn't have that. But...Watts easily could wind up in a top spot in a McCain Administration.
Dan Boren: The 2nd District Democrat was a rock star at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, last week. A new member of the NRA's board of directors, Boren was given a key spot on the speaker's schedule at the NRA's opening general session and received a rousing ovation from the 8,000-10,000 session attendees both before and after his remarks. Chris Cox, head of the NRA Institute of Legislative Action, praised Boren as a patriot whose rock-solid, long-standing support of the 2nd Amendment is an example of American values. To see and hear Boren interviewed on the NRA News show "Cam & Company" by Cam Edwards, Ginny Simone and Mike McCarville, go to http://www.nra.org/, click on "Browse Archives," then click on "2008 Annual Meeting" and then click on "Page 3."
Coburn says the USDA spent $19 million in 2006 sending staff to conferences in such places as Las Vegas, Orlando and Hawaii. Among the trips were one to attend a “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” seminar in Las Vegas and others to Australia for conferences on fungus and crawdads, said Coburn.
In all, the agency sent 21,000 employees to 6,719 conferences in 2006 at a real cost of $19 million and “an unknown cost to taxpayers in lost productivity,” a report by Coburn states. “At a time when millions of Americans are being forced to tighten their belts, it is obscene that politicians in Washington are refusing to rein in wasteful spending."
Coburn, the top Republican on the Senate’s federal financial management subcommittee, has been proposing cuts to agency travel for conferences since coming to the Senate in 2005. He authored an amendment to the recently passed farm bill to require the Agriculture Department to post details on conference travel online.
Coburn said federal agencies spent more than $2 billion on conferences from 2000 through 2006. The Agriculture Department spent $90 million on conferences in that time, he said.
“Whether it is sending 270 employees in one year to Mickey Mouse’s house in Orlando, attending 28 separate 2006 conferences in Hawaii, or spending a quarter-of-a-million dollars on Las Vegas resort-based conferences, these USDA trips have the appearance of a ‘spring break’ mentality,” he said.
Tom Cole: Congressman Tom Cole has been under fire from some after three GOP congressional race losses to Democrats. Some insiders suggested Cole was about to be shown the door at the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee he chairs, but others say that's just a knee-jerk reaction to a situation Cole didn't create, and GOP leaders are lining up in support of Cole. House Minority Leader John Boehner, reacting to unrest within the House GOP caucus over the string of special election losses and tough prospects for November, said Wednesday he will name two members to conduct a “performance audit’’ of the party’s recent losing campaigns. Sources who attended the closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference said Boehner also named Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, to head up a special fund-raising effort for targeted races this fall. The NRCC is way behind its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in cash on hand and in fund-raising efforts. The minority leader also told the caucus that even though most state primaries are over, he and Cole will get more involved in the remaining ones by trying to head off divisive and potentially expensive primary fights for House nominations.
Cole has been under fire from House Republicans for the three special election defeats that began in March, when the party lost the Illinois 14th District seat of retired Speaker J. Dennis Hastert to Democrat Bill Foster. It continued this month with defeats in Louisiana’s 6th District and Mississippi’s 1st District — both once GOP bastions. Boehner, who has had run-ins with Cole over fund-raising and candidate recruitment, now expresses confidence in Cole, who was elected by the full GOP Conference.
J. C. Watts: There's been considerable blog chatter about the former 4th District congressman as a possible running mate for John McCain. Forget it, for a lot of reasons. The last thing McCain needs is a tie to another lobbyist, which Watts is. McCain needs a large swing state connection and Watts obviously doesn't have that. But...Watts easily could wind up in a top spot in a McCain Administration.
Dan Boren: The 2nd District Democrat was a rock star at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, last week. A new member of the NRA's board of directors, Boren was given a key spot on the speaker's schedule at the NRA's opening general session and received a rousing ovation from the 8,000-10,000 session attendees both before and after his remarks. Chris Cox, head of the NRA Institute of Legislative Action, praised Boren as a patriot whose rock-solid, long-standing support of the 2nd Amendment is an example of American values. To see and hear Boren interviewed on the NRA News show "Cam & Company" by Cam Edwards, Ginny Simone and Mike McCarville, go to http://www.nra.org/, click on "Browse Archives," then click on "2008 Annual Meeting" and then click on "Page 3."Labels: Dan Boren, Government Waste, J. C. Watts, NRA, NRCC, Tom Coburn, Tom Cole, USDA
posted by Mike McCarville @ 10:28 AM
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