[Senate Document 113-28]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
TRIBUTES TO HON. TOM COBURN
Tom Coburn
U.S. SENATOR FROM OKLAHOMA
TRIBUTES
IN THE CONGRESS OF
THE UNITED STATES
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
S. Doc. 113-28
Tributes
Delivered in Congress
Tom Coburn
United States Congressman
1995-2001
United States Senator
2005-2015
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 2015
Compiled under the direction
of the
Joint Committee on Printing
CONTENTS
Biography.............................................
v
Farewell Address......................................
vii
Proceedings in the Senate:
Tributes by Senators:
Ayotte, Kelly, of New Hampshire................
9
Begich, Mark, of Alaska........................
26
Bennet, Michael F., of Colorado................
10
Boxer, Barbara, of California..................
33
Burr, Richard, of North Carolina...............
19
Carper, Thomas R., of Delaware.................
17
Chambliss, Saxby, of Georgia...................
10
Coats, Daniel, of Indiana......................
25
Collins, Susan M., of Maine....................
15
Coons, Christopher A., of Delaware.............
7
Cornyn, John, of Texas.........................
3
Durbin, Richard J., of Illinois................
6
Enzi, Michael B., of Wyoming...................
30
Flake, Jeff, of Arizona........................
22
Graham, Lindsey, of South Carolina.............
28
Hatch, Orrin G., of Utah.......................
28, 33
Hoeven, John, of North Dakota..................
9
Inhofe, James M., of Oklahoma..................
24
Isakson, Johnny, of Georgia....................
24
King, Angus S., Jr., of Maine..................
22
Leahy, Patrick J., of Vermont..................
32
Manchin, Joe, III, of West Virginia............
21
McCain, John, of Arizona.......................
7
McConnell, Mitch, of Kentucky..................
12
Reed, Jack, of Rhode Island....................
5
Schumer, Charles E., of New York...............
21
Sessions, Jeff, of Alabama.....................
26
BIOGRAPHY
Tom Coburn, M.D., was elected to the U.S. Senate on
November 2, 2004. Dr. Coburn and his wife, Carolyn, a
graduate of Oklahoma State University and former Miss
Oklahoma, were married in 1968 and have three children and
seven grandchildren. They are members of First Baptist
Muskogee.
Dr. Coburn's priorities in the Senate included reducing
wasteful spending, protecting liberty, balancing the
budget, improving health care access and affordability,
protecting the sanctity of all human life--including the
unborn--and representing traditional, Oklahoma values. As
a citizen legislator, Dr. Coburn pledged to serve no more
than two terms in the Senate and to continue to care for
patients. He was a member of the Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and
Urban Affairs. Dr. Coburn also served as ranking member of
the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
As a Senator, Dr. Coburn offered more amendments than
any of his colleagues. He offered amendments to eliminate
funding for the ``Bridge to Nowhere,'' the ``Woodstock
Museum'' in New York, and countless other special
interests earmarks sponsored by Members of both parties.
Dr. Coburn also worked to make government more accountable
and transparent. In 2006, he teamed up with then-Senator
Barack Obama to create http://www.usaspending.gov/, an
online database of all Federal spending.
Dr. Coburn issued over 50 oversight reports during his
10 years in the Senate, taking a closer look at nearly
every aspect, mission, and department of the Federal
Government. Washington bureaucrats feared being called out
in his annual ``Wastebook,'' which highlighted the most
outrageous government spending of the year that spared no
agency from scrutiny, questioning, or ridicule.
Before his election to the Senate, Dr. Coburn
represented Oklahoma's Second Congressional District in
the House of Representatives from 1995 through 2001. He
was first elected in 1994, then reelected in 1996 and
1998, becoming the first Republican to hold the seat for
consecutive terms. Dr. Coburn retired from Congress in
2001, fulfilling his pledge to serve no more than three
terms in the House.
In 1970, Dr. Coburn graduated with an accounting degree
from Oklahoma State University. One of the top ten seniors
in the School of Business, Dr. Coburn served as president
of the College of Business Student Council. From 1970 to
1978, Dr. Coburn served as manufacturing manager at the
Ophthalmic Division of Coburn Optical Industries in
Colonial Heights, VA. Under his leadership, the Virginia
division of Coburn Optical grew from 13 employees to more
than 350 and captured 35 percent of the U.S. market.
After the family business was sold, Dr. Coburn changed
the course of his life by returning to school to become a
physician. Again he emerged as a leader, becoming
president of his class at the University of Oklahoma
Medical School where he graduated in 1983. He then did his
internship in general surgery at St. Anthony's Hospital in
Oklahoma City and family practice residency at the
University of Arkansas, Fort Smith.
Dr. Coburn returned to Muskogee where he specialized in
family medicine, obstetrics, and the treatment of
allergies. Dr. Coburn has personally delivered more than
4,000 babies.
Dr. Coburn also is a three-time cancer survivor.
Farewell to the Senate
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, following in the traditions
of the Senate, I come to the floor to speak about my
experience in the Senate. Unfortunately, this will not be
the last time I speak, much to the chagrin of many of you,
as I have some adamant opposition to some of the things we
are doing.
But I nevertheless will try to put in context some of my
feelings and thoughts about the great privilege that has
been granted to me by the people of Oklahoma. We hear a
lot of speeches in this place. As Members who are elected,
it gets reflected on us, but nothing could be further from
the truth. Because the things that really make this place
operate are the people who work with us, the people who
support us, the people who help guide us, the people
behind the scenes who are both brilliant and committed and
dedicated to the founding principles of this country.
We all have them working for us. Yet they are rarely
recognized. So whether our accomplishments are big or
small, those accomplishments come through the work,
efforts, and labors of those who join with us as we come
here to try to make a difference. So I first wanted to say
there are a lot of people I need to say thank you to; from
our Parliamentarian Elizabeth to all of the staff who work
in the Senate, to the people who work at GAO, wonderful
people, CRS, the IGs, legislative counsel--they have
written thousands, I mean literally thousands of
amendments for me. They probably are going to have some
real mixed feelings about my departure. Then I have
personal staff--all tremendous--but one of whom I found to
be a phenomenal, brilliant person. His name is Roland
Foster. There is not anything he has ever forgotten. You
can ask him anything. He will find it. He knows it. So I
mention him. I have hundreds of others whom I could
equally speak about, from my former chief of staff Mike
Schwartz, who passed away from Lou Gehrig's disease, to
those in my office and staff who each knows what a
difference they make--they did--the Cloakroom staff and
the help we get from Laura Dove and David Schiappa and Mr.
Duncan on our side--same on the opposite side. We are only
able to function because of all the people who enable us
to do that. So with those thank yous, I actually wanted to
move to a different topic. The topic is believing in our
country. I tell people wherever I go: We do not have one
problem we cannot solve. There is nothing too big for us.
They are all solvable.
To prove that is my chairman, Tom Carper, on homeland
security. He has been a phenomenal chairman. He is not in
my party. We do not agree on everything, but the one thing
we agreed on was that we were going to work together to
solve problems. We have. We did not solve them all, but I
would suggest if we look at what has come through this
place, even in this dysfunctional place at this time, we
will see more coming out under his leadership than any
other pieces of legislation. Why is that? It is because
the focus was not about him, it was not about me, it was
about solving the problems of our country.
To those of you through the years whom I have offended,
I truly apologize. I think none of that was intended
because I actually see things differently. You see, I
believe our Founders were absolutely brilliant, far
smarter than we are. I believe the enumerated powers meant
something. They were meant to protect us against what
history says always happens to a republic. They have all
died.
So the question is, What will happen with us? Can we
cheat history? Can we do something better than was done in
the past? I honestly believe we can, but I do not believe
we can if we continue to ignore the wisdom of our founding
documents. So when I have offended, I believe it has been
on the basis of my belief in article I, section 8. I think
we can stuff that genie back into the bottle.
E pluribus unum. ``Out of many, one.'' But you do not
have one unless you have guaranteed the liberty of the
many. When we ignore what the Constitution gave us as a
guideline, to protect the individual liberties, to limit
the size and scope of the Federal Government so the
benefits of freedom and liberty can be expressed all
across this land, that is when we get back to solving our
problems.
I think about my father--he had a fifth-grade
education--a great believer in our country. He would not
recognize it today. The loss of freedom we have imposed by
the arrogance of an all-too-powerful Federal Government,
ignoring the wisdom and writing of our Founders that said,
``Above all, we must protect the liberty of the individual
and recognize that liberty is given as a God-given
right.''
So my criticism isn't directed personally, it is because
I truly believe that freedom gains us more than anything
we can plan here. I know not everybody agrees with me, but
the one thing I do know is that our Founders agreed with
me.
They had studied this process before. They know what
happens when you dominate from a central government. This
didn't mean intentions are bad; the intentions are great.
The motivations of people in this body are wonderful, but
the perspective on how we do it and what the long-term
consequences are of how we do it really do matter.
We see ourselves today with a President whom we need to
be supporting and praying for, with an economy that is not
doing what it could be doing, and we need to be asking the
question, Why? Is there a fundamental reason? And there
is.
We are too much involved in the decisionmaking in the
economy in this country that inhibits the flow of capital
to the best return, which inhibits the growth of wealth,
which leaves us at a standard of living the same as what
we had in 1988. That is where we are, yet it doesn't have
to be that way.
I am going to read some words we have all heard before,
but they are worth rereading. ``We hold these Truths to be
self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights ...''
All of us. ``... that among these are Life, Liberty, and
the pursuit of Happiness.''
I look at legislation and say how does that have an
impact on those two things, and too often it has a
negative impact.
That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of
the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these Ends, it is the right of the People
to alter or abolish it.
I don't know where we are on that continuum, but I know
we are not where we were intended to be in the vision of
our Founders, and we are suffering, no matter where you
are in the country, as a consequence.
We established the Constitution to try to protect those
rights and to delineate those rights. We put in the
limitation of the government and outlined the rights of
each individual citizen upon which the government shall
not infringe. Yet what comes out of this body and this
Congress every day, to my chagrin, infringes those
guaranteed rights.
Every Member of the Senate takes the same oath and this
is where I differ with a lot of colleagues. Let me read
the oath, because I think it is part of the problem.
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and
defend the Constitution of the United States against all
enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith
and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation
freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of
evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the
duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help
me God.
Your State isn't mentioned one time in that oath. Your
whole goal is to protect the United States of America, its
Constitution and its liberties. It is not to provide
benefits for your State. That is where we differ. That is
where my conflict with my colleagues has come. It is nice
to be able to do things for your State, but that isn't our
charge. Our charge is to protect the future of our country
by upholding the Constitution and ensuring the liberty
that is guaranteed there is protected and preserved.
The magic number in the Senate is not 60, the number of
Senators needed to end debate, and it is not 51, a
majority. The most important number in the Senate is one--
one Senator. That is how it was set up. That is how our
Founders designed it, and with that comes tremendous
amounts of responsibility, because the Senate has a set of
rules that gives each individual Member the power needed
to advance, change, or stop legislation. That is a tool
that has to be mentored and refined and wise in its
application.
Most of the bills that pass the Senate never receive a
vote. We all know that. It is a vast majority of the
bills. They are approved by unanimous consent. It only
takes a single Senator to withhold consent to stop most
legislation.
There are many other rules and procedures a Member can
use. They are often referred to as arcane, but that is
only because they are rarely used. They are not arcane.
They were designed to protect liberty, to secure liberty,
to make sure that we don't all follow history and fail.
Every Senator has the power to introduce legislation
and, until recently, offer amendments.
No single Senator should be allowed to decide what the
rights of another Senator should be. That is tyranny. It
has nothing to do with the history and classics of the
Senate.
To exercise the rights we have been entrusted with, we
must respect the rights of others. That is the true power
of our Constitution. That is also the true power of the
Senate. It is what binds our Nation together, and it is
what is needed to make the Senate work properly again.
The Senate was designed uniquely to force compromise,
not to force gridlock--to force compromise. One Senator
had the power to stop everything for the first 100 years,
but it didn't because compromise was the goal.
Our Founders understood there were many differences
between the States--in size, geography, economy, and
opinions. They united the States as one country based upon
the premise that the many are more powerful than the one.
As Senators, we have to follow this example. I have not
always done that; I admit that freely to you. I should
have. As Senators, we must follow the example, stand for
our principles, but working to find those areas of
agreement where compromise can be found to unite and move
our country forward. My colleague Senator Carper has my
admiration because he has worked tirelessly the past 2
years to try to accomplish that.
Not all of the powers of the Senators are exercised on
the Senate floor. Each Member of the Senate has a unique
role to participate and practice oversight, to hold the
government accountable, and that is part of our duties,
except most often that is the part of our duties that is
most ignored.
To know how to reach a destination, you must first know
where you are, and without oversight--effective, vigorous
oversight--you will never solve anything. You cannot write
a bill to fix an agency unless you have an understanding
of the problem, and you can only know this by conducting
oversight, asking the tough questions, holding the
bureaucrats accountable, find out what works and what
doesn't, and know what has already been done.
Effective oversight is an effective tool to expose
government overreach and wasteful spending, but it also
markedly exposes where we lose our liberty and our
essential freedoms.
I have had some fun through the years, taken some
criticism for the waste vote--and it is opinion, I agree.
Everybody who has seen the ``Wastebook'' has a great
defense of why it is there. But the real question is will
we become efficient at how we spend the money of the
American people? This is a big enterprise. There is no
other enterprise anywhere close to it in size in the
world. It is not manageable unless we all try to agree to
manage it and have the knowledge of it.
I think there ought to be 535 ``Wastebooks'' every year,
and then we ought to have the debate about where we are
not spending money wisely and have the information at our
fingertips so we make great decisions because, quite
frankly, we don't make great decisions because we don't
have the knowledge. Then what knowledge we do have we
transfer to a bureaucracy to make decisions about it when
we should have been guiding those things.
True debates about national priorities would come about
if we did effective oversight. It is the Senate, once
hailed as the world's greatest deliberative body, where
these differences should be argued. Our differences should
be resolved through civil discourse so they are not
settled in the street.
Just as the Constitution provides for majority rule and
our democracy while protecting the rights of the
individual, the Senate must return to the principles to
bring trust of the electorate, and it can. Our Founders
believed that protecting the minority views and minority
rights in the Senate was essential to having a bicameral
legislature that would give us balance and not move too
quickly against the very fundamental principles upon which
this country was based--and not out of guessing, but out
of thorough knowledge of what had happened in the past. We
have to be very careful to guard both minority rights and
the rule of law.
There is no one who works in the Senate who is
insignificant, whether it is the people who serve us when
we have lunch, to the highest of the high. They all
deserve our ear. Each of us has value.
I end with one final comment. The greatest power I have
not used as a Senator, which I would encourage you to use
in the future, is the power of convening. You have
tremendous power to pull people together because of your
position.
To convene the opposite opinions--Chuck Schumer has been
great at that for me. When we have a difference, he wants
to get together, convene, and see how we work. That power
is the power that causes us to compromise, to come
together, to reach consensus. So my encouragement to you
is to rethink the utilization of the power of convening.
People will come to you if you ask them to come.
Again, I end by saying a great thank you to my family
for their sacrifice, a great thank you to the wonderful
staff I have, and a thank you to each of you for the
privilege of having been able to work for a better country
for us all.
I yield the floor.
(Applause, Senators rising.)
?
TRIBUTES
TO
TOM COBURN
Proceedings in the Senate
Monday, December 8, 2014
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, in the waning days of the
113th Congress it is a bittersweet moment as many of us
are saying goodbye--although not on a permanent basis but
at least in terms of our official relationships working
together as Senators--to so many of our good friends and
valued colleagues. Every other December we find ourselves
bidding farewell to some of the most admired and respected
Members of this Chamber. Today I want to say a few words
about three of these esteemed Members, starting with my
good friend, the senior Senator from Georgia [Mr.
Chambliss]. ...
I will close my remarks today on our retiring colleagues
by paying tribute to Dr. Tom Coburn. He is someone we have
all come to know and admire over 20 years as a relentless
fighter for limited government and conservative values
here in the Congress.
Tom can be a very charming guy, but I know he can also
be a pain in our side when he is determined to make sure
he gets a chance to get a vote on an important matter here
in the Senate. I think he is comfortable in both of those
roles. In fact, I know he is.
Tom Coburn is a man of strong principle, a man of great
integrity, and, perhaps just as important, a man of
remarkable humility. Our country has benefited greatly
from the wisdom and leadership Tom has provided during his
service in Congress--first in the House and then in the
Senate. I have been in the Senate now for a little more
than a decade, and during that time our colleague from
Oklahoma has done more than anyone else in this Chamber to
eliminate wasteful spending, expose fraud and abuse in the
Federal budget, and get our entitlement programs on a
sustainable path. Tom would be the first one to say that
job has just begun, but he has certainly given it
everything he has.
He has educated our Nation on the fiscal threat we live
under and what it means for our children and
grandchildren, and he has worked tirelessly to correct it.
He has done a remarkable job as the ranking member of
the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee,
as well as his service on the Intelligence and Banking
Committees.
Furthermore, Tom has been an unyielding force for
protecting liberty and improving access to affordable
health care by proposing positive patient-oriented
alternatives, and for these reasons and many more I am
grateful for his service.
But perhaps the thing he does not want to be remembered
for--but that has made such a profound impression on many
of us--is his courage and ability to deal with the fact
that he is a three-time cancer survivor. Even last week, I
know he was receiving treatment for this most recent
flareup, but he will be back here today. He will be doing
what he does best, and that is fighting for his principles
and perhaps causing more than a little bit of turbulence
in the process in this otherwise staid Chamber.
I know I speak for this entire Chamber when I say it is
an honor to serve with a man such as Tom Coburn. I know
this to be true because Tom is well respected on both
sides of the aisle.
In fact, when Time magazine named Tom 1 of the 100 most
influential people in the world in 2013, a friend of Tom's
and former Democratic Senator wrote:
The people of Oklahoma are lucky to have someone like
Tom representing them in Washington--someone who speaks
his mind, sticks to his principles, and is committed to
the people he was elected to serve.
The friend I am referring to who made those remarks is
none other than our President, Barack Obama, when he
served with Tom in the Senate. When the President said
that, he found out that Tom received a number of angry
letters from constituents that said he and President Obama
looked a little too chummy together, to which Tom
replied--and this is classic Tom Coburn, ``What better way
to influence someone than to love them.''
This serves as a testament to his character. You see,
Tom has an extraordinary ability not just to win the
respect of those who agree with him but the admiration and
respect of those who disagree with him as well. That is a
rare thing in politics and especially in today's society.
Nevertheless, Tom has spent his career promoting what is
good for the country while never wavering from his
personal conversations. Along the way he has racked up a
lengthy list of accomplishments that protect taxpayers and
increase transparency in government.
Tom's resume proves he has been a leader not only in
Congress but in every aspect of his life. For example, I
think many of our colleagues don't realize he had a
distinguished career in business and medicine before he
got here. Tom served as president of the school of
business student council while getting his accounting
degree at Oklahoma State University. Later he went back to
law school--excuse me, that was a Freudian slip he
wouldn't be happy with. Later he went back to medical
school, where he trained to become a physician and served
as president of his class at the University of Oklahoma
Medical School.
Tom has a lot to be proud of about his service in the
House and in the Senate. But, again, like all of us, he is
most proud of his family. He has been married to the
former Miss Oklahoma for nearly 50 years, and he and
Carolyn have three daughters and seven grandchildren.
Meanwhile, in his career as a physician, he has delivered
more than 4,000 babies, which perhaps explains the vote
totals in some of his elections, because I am sure many of
them have grown up to vote for him.
The things that I mentioned are only a few of Tom
Coburn's long list of notable achievements. Knowing Tom
and his work ethic, I have no doubt he will be giving 110
percent right up until the last minute he serves in the
113th Congress on January 3, 2015.
I wish Tom and his family the very best as they enter
the next season of life.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Mr. REED. Mr. President, I would like to take a few
minutes to salute my colleagues who are departing the
Senate at the end of this year with the conclusion of the
113th Congress: Mark Begich of Alaska, Saxby Chambliss of
Georgia, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Kay Hagan of North
Carolina, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Mike Johanns of Nebraska,
Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana,
Carl Levin of Michigan, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Jay
Rockefeller of West Virginia, Mark Udall of Colorado, and
John Walsh of Montana.
They have all worked hard, ceaselessly giving their
energy and considerable time and service to their
constituents, to their home States, and to our country. I
want to thank them for their service and for their
kindness to me over many years in so many cases. In
particular, I want to say a few words about these
colleagues. ...
Tom Coburn has always been passionate on the issues he
cares about. We have engaged in vigorous debate,
demonstrating, I hope, that principled disagreement can
lead ultimately to principled progress. My thoughts are
with him, particularly as he battles health issues, his
cancer. I hope and wish him success and much happiness as
he moves forward. ...
Along with all of my other colleagues who are leaving us
at the conclusion of the 113th Congress, let me thank them
for their service, their dedication to improving the lives
of Americans, and on a very personal level for their
friendship. I wish them all well.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Mr. DURBIN. I have some tributes here for my colleagues
who are retiring, leaving the Senate. It is a lengthy list
of tributes. ...
I want to say a word about three others on the other
side of the aisle who are retiring: Saxby Chambliss of
Georgia, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, and Mike Johanns of
Nebraska. I got to know them when I gathered with one of
these gangs, as they call them around here, to talk about
deficit reduction. We spent more time together trying to
explore the Federal budget in ways to reduce our deficit
in a thoughtful manner so that we really got to know one
another and respect one another.
There is a world of difference in our political values
and philosophies, but each of them in their own way made a
positive contribution toward making this a stronger
nation. ...
Senator Tom Coburn and I come from different parts of
the country and different ends of the political spectrum,
but we found there is a lot we agree on. I have always
believed, as Senators Paul Douglas and Paul Simon said,
that being a liberal doesn't mean you have to be a
``wastrel.'' Senator Coburn knows that being a
conservative and protecting America's economy demands more
than blind budget cutting. His nickname is ``Doctor No,''
but when it comes to wishing him well as he steps down
from the Senate, my colleagues join me in a resounding
``yes.'' ...
None of them is running for reelection so I can't hurt
them politically by saying that I regard each of these
Senators as friends. They showed political courage when
partisanship would have been easier.
I wish them the best in all their future endeavors.
Mr. COONS. ... As I close, I would also like to thank
those of our colleagues who will be leaving the Senate
after the New Year.
It is an incredible privilege to work in this Chamber
and to represent the people. Every day I am awed by the
dedication and talent of many of my colleagues, public
servants who come to work to fight for their States and
their government.
To those who are ending their service in the Senate,
know that I value your friendship and partnership. It has
been an honor to work with you, and I thank you for all
you have done for our Nation.
Mr. McCAIN. Today, I would like to offer words of
tribute to my departing colleague, Senator Tom Coburn,
whose service exemplifies standards of purposefulness,
integrity, and decency, to which we should all aspire and
whose example ought to inspire the service of new and
returning Senators alike.
I am going to miss an awful lot our colleague from
Oklahoma. I have always admired Tom for the strength of
his convictions and the courage and candor with which he
expresses them day after day. ``The No. 1 thing people
should do in Congress,'' Tom once said, ``is stay true to
their heart.'' No one in the history of this institution
has ever followed that injunction more faithfully than Tom
Coburn has.
Tom Coburn has an unshakable faith in the goodness of
America, and he has worked diligently with others when he
could and alone, if necessary, to make sure government
respects the people we serve--respects their hopes and
aspirations, their concerns and sacrifices. He has never
forgotten he is the people's servant first and last, and
they have never had a more genuine and determined
champion.
I think Tom has often acted as the conscience of the
Senate. He can be unmovable on matters of principle when
to do otherwise would harm or do no good for the country.
Tom Coburn is sometimes called ``Dr. No,'' affectionately
most, if not all, of the time. He has held up more
legislation that he thought ill served the public interest
than any other Member of this body. He even placed a hold
on one of his own bills that he thought no longer met his
high standard of accountability after it was reported out
of committee. I don't think the American taxpayer has ever
had a greater defender than Tom Coburn.
I like to think I have taken a few principled stands
when the situation has warranted it, and I have made
myself an occasional nuisance in service to what I thought
was a good cause. But I have never been so conscientious
that I felt obliged to defeat my own legislation. That is
a pretty high standard of personal responsibility to meet
and a character test of the first order. I am not sure
many of us would pass it. I wouldn't. But then, as all his
colleagues can attest, Tom Coburn is a person of the very
highest character. He possesses the highest virtues--
courage, humility, compassion--in an abundance. It has
been an honor to serve with him.
As principled as he is, as unwavering as he can be when
he believes it necessary, he has also been a brave and
determined proponent of compromise when he believed it
served the public interest, when it would help build a
more prosperous and secure society with more opportunities
for more people and brighter futures for our children.
We always have detractors. It comes with the job.
Whether Tom was standing on principle or seeking a
principled compromise, he stood up to criticism. He stood
up to pressure. He stood up to threats and insults and
whatever negative personal consequences he might suffer.
He stood up to whatever came his way to do what was right
for his country. He stood up for the American people, no
matter how difficult it was. What better can you say about
a public servant?
Tom and I worked together on a lot of things. We fought
together to end earmarks and opposed other forms of
wasteful spending. We worked together on oversight
projects for the stimulus bill and highway trust fund
spending. We also fought for a long time to let veterans
decide where they could best receive health care. We made
good progress on some issues and not enough on others, but
Tom Coburn was always an example and an inspiration to me.
If I could speak more personally, Tom has been more than
a paragon to me and to other Members of the Senate. He is
first and foremost a kind, considerate, and loyal friend--
a friend in good times and bad, a friend who brings out
the best in you because he believes in the best part of
you. I said earlier Tom Coburn sees the innate goodness in
the American people. He also sees it in his colleagues,
even when it isn't apparent to other observers.
We have shared happy times together, Tom and I, but Tom
has the instinct and the kindness to be the kind of friend
who is there when you need him--when you need him most, in
moments that aren't so happy.
We all lead pretty good lives here. We get the chance to
serve the greatest country in the world and, on occasion,
to make history. We are honored and feted and praised more
than we deserve. But as all human beings do, we have
moments of worry and doubt and disappointment. Tom always
has the knack for showing up when I need cheering up. He
has made the point over the years of being company when
you most need it.
Friendship is a virtue to Tom, and he means to live a
virtuous life. You could be working on something with him
or opposing each other on an issue, it doesn't matter. If
you need him, he will be there for you with a kind word, a
piece of advice, a little encouragement or just good
company. There are too few people like that in anyone's
life not to cherish the hell out of those who are. I
cherish my friendship with Tom Coburn, and I always will.
The Senate will be a poorer place without Tom Coburn to
set an example of public service for the rest of us. But
in gratitude to him for his leadership and friendship, I
will try a little harder to live up to his standards, and
I hope he will let me know when I fall short.
Ms. AYOTTE. Mr. President, I rise to thank my friend
Saxby Chambliss. Senator Coburn spoke about leadership. We
are very much going to miss Senator Coburn, Senator
Johanns, and Senator Chambliss in this body. ...
Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, in the new Congress we will
welcome 12 new Republican Senators, and that is wonderful.
They are great people. They are excited. They are
enthusiastic. I think they are going to do wonderful
things. So there are 12 new Republican Members coming into
the new Senate, and we are going to lose 3 of our
Republican colleagues. I am thinking, maybe that is about
the right ratio; it is about 4 to 1.
But these are three individuals who are unbelievable in
what they have been able to do in the relationships they
built, the friendships, and the work they have done on
behalf of the American people. So I am looking at that
statistic and I am thinking: Wow, these are three great
people who have done the work of many, and I think they
have laid the foundation in many ways for us to get to a
majority: Senator Johanns, Senator Coburn, and Senator
Chambliss. I think they have done a lot of that work
required for us to get to majority.
We have heard about the great Senator from Georgia. But
I think the things I am going to talk about for a minute
in regard to Saxby Chambliss apply to the two individuals
sitting here with him. They are cut from the same cloth:
Senator Coburn, Senator Johanns, true public servants.
People who ran for the right reason; people who serve for
the right reason. I think we could ask anybody in this
body on either side of the aisle, and they would tell us
that these three individuals served for the right reasons,
and served to the very best of their ability the American
people--not just the people of their State, but the
American people. They will be remembered long after they
are gone. They will be remembered because of the great,
wonderful people they are, for the relationships they have
built, and for that service. So I echo Senator Ayotte's
comments. ...
When we talk about Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, Mike
Johanns, it doesn't get any better than that. We will miss
them a lot.
I wish all three of them Godspeed, and may God bless you
in your next career.
ORDER FOR PRINTING OF SENATE DOCUMENT
Mr. BENNET. I ask unanimous consent that the tributes to
retiring Senators be printed as a Senate document and that
Senators be permitted to submit tributes until December
23, 2014.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, we have all just heard a
very moving, a very inspirational and what I consider a
motivational speech from our dear friend Tom Coburn.
Twenty years ago, in 1994, there were a bunch of wild
and crazy folks who got elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives. The Republicans took the majority for the
first time in 42 years. They ran on a Contract with
America and were led by a group of firebrand leaders. Tom
Coburn was in that group of folks who got elected in 1994
to the U.S. House. I was in that group. Senator Graham was
in that group. Senator Burr was in that group. Senator
Wicker was in that group.
There were a few Members of that class who became known
as real bomb throwers. Tom Coburn was a bomb thrower. Tom
Coburn would object for the sake of objecting to anything
that was going on. It didn't make any difference which
side of the aisle it was coming from. But let me tell you,
Tom Coburn matured into a class act, No. 1, which he
always was; and No. 2, he matured into a legislator second
to none.
Tom did not hesitate to object to any spending bill that
came from either party if Tom Coburn believed that was not
provided for in the Constitution and was something the
U.S. taxpayer should not be paying for. There is nobody
who has guarded the pocketbook of the taxpayers of the
United States like Tom Coburn.
It is remarkable that those of us who were elected with
Tom have had the opportunity to see him over the last 20
years take on major subjects that most veterans said, you
know, in the end, we are going to prevail. But guess what.
They never did. Tom Coburn, even though he may have lost a
vote from time to time, in the end, Tom Coburn prevailed.
Tom is one tough guy too. He has been through a lot
physically and, boy, what a survivor. I mean we think we
have issues to deal with. None of us can imagine what Tom
has gone through. When somebody comes up to me as I am
walking through an airport--and they will have seen Tom
Coburn on television--and they say, ``What about this guy
Coburn,'' there are two things that immediately come to
mind when I think of Tom Coburn, family and faith.
First, family. Tom and Carolyn have had such a solid
marriage. He tried to date her as an eighth grader and she
wouldn't go out with him. But he kept pestering her long
enough that she finally did and what a great marriage they
have had. They have three beautiful daughters and a
household of grandchildren whom he absolutely loves to
death and likes to spend time with, as opposed to being
here.
Second, Tom's faith. There is nobody I have ever met who
has a stronger faith than Tom Coburn. He exhibits it on
the floor, he exhibits it one on one, he exhibits it in
the Prayer Breakfast every Wednesday morning. He is one
person who has probably counseled more people in this
body, on both sides of the aisle, than anybody other than
the Chaplain.
On top of that, he is just a class act. He has been a
dear friend. We have spent many hours on the road
together, many hours on the golf course together, and many
hours socializing together. There is no finer individual
who ever served in the Senate than Tom Coburn. He is one
of the things I am truly going to miss about leaving here.
But actually, as we have already talked, we will probably
now spend more time together than ever since both of us
are retiring.
Tom, to you, I thank you for that great friendship and
also thank you for what you have done for my children and
my grandchildren. You are a great American and you have
served this country well.
God bless you.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, along with many of my
other colleagues, I pay tribute to one of the most decent
and principled men I have ever met, Senator Tom Coburn.
Washington is going to miss Tom, but the irony of that
is Tom really can't stand Washington. When he first got
here, the feeling appeared to be mutual. Some just didn't
know what to make of this doctor from Oklahoma--so
frequently on the losing end of lopsided votes, so often
pressing ahead on his own and never giving up. That was
apparent from his days in the House, when we hear he led
the only ``filibuster'' in the House anybody can ever
remember. He may have placed more holds than any
equivalent Senator in history. He apparently placed a hold
on his own bill once.
Fast forward to today. The pundit class has declared Tom
Coburn a card-carrying member of the establishment. The
rebel who once described himself as a kamikaze pilot has
now been branded, incredibly, with a scarlet ``E'' right
on his forehead. It may seem contradictory, but Tom always
fought smart battles--the kind you might lose today but
win later--and he forged an amazing bond with the people
he represents. For Tom that meant spending as much time
away from Washington as possible and making himself
available when he was home.
Tom published his address, and Oklahomans were never shy
about coming over to share their opinions. Tom was never
shy about sharing how he felt either. He believed his
constituents deserved the truth. He gave it to them
absolutely unvarnished, but he did it in a respectful way.
It reminds me of the two posters he has framed on either
side of his desk. One says: ``NO,'' N-O. The other says
``KNOW,'' K-N-O-W. That is Tom in a nutshell. It is why
Tom has made so many friends on both sides of the aisle.
It is why you can't flip on MSNBC most mornings without
seeing him.
I think Tom actually prefers these settings. It is a
challenge he relishes. Not only is Tom confident enough to
tangle with anyone, he usually wins, and he rarely makes
lasting enemies. It is a trait that has served him well,
particularly at the beginning of his career.
Tom first came to Washington representing a district
that was heavily Democratic. He won a close race that
year. I am told he also gained a friend, and that friend
was the Democrat he defeated. His opponent's grandson
actually ended up joining Tom's staff, which obviously is
a great honor.
But it is no picnic being on Tom's staff. Tom works his
staff hard. It is difficult even to take a sick day over
there. Tom has always got the stethoscope nearby. If the
doctor is in, so are you. Yet the people on Tom's team
seem to love him. ``Once a member of Coburn's family,
always a member.'' That is their motto.
It doesn't mean they love everything about him. Take his
handwriting; it is just what you would expect from a guy
named Dr. Coburn. It is absolutely awful--a mix of chicken
scratch, hieroglyphics, and vocabulary from the extra
credit section of an MCAT.
Back in the 1990s one staffer made the mistake of
letting Tom take a yellow highlighter back to Oklahoma.
Tom spent the entire weekend marking up a massive bill.
There were handwritten notes and questions in nearly every
margin. It took literally days to decipher any of it. It
was like something out of a Dan Brown novel. Needless to
say, an office ban on yellow highlighters was quickly
implemented.
So the legacy of Tom's former profession gets him in
trouble sometimes, but it remains the job he enjoyed most:
helping to deliver new lives into the world. It brings a
unique perspective to Tom's work in the Senate. It
instilled a lasting appreciation for life too.
Even though Tom has stopped delivering babies these
days, he still travels back to Oklahoma a lot. There is
nowhere he would rather be than his hometown of Muskogee,
and there is almost nothing he would rather be doing there
than mowing his lawn or eating a sandwich at his favorite
barbecue joint or sipping a cold Coors with olives. He
prefers these things over almost anything else, except
spending time with his grandkids and of course his wife
Carolyn.
Tom has known Carolyn since grade school. She has always
been the one to keep him balanced and grounded. She
doesn't care that he is a Senator. She frequently reminds
him of that too.
Carolyn is also the reason Tom is such good friends with
President Obama. Both men came to the Senate the same
year. At freshman orientation, Carolyn spotted Michelle
Obama from across the room. ``She looks like fun,''
Carolyn said. ``Let's sit next to her.'' The rest, as they
say, is history, and it is also remarkable. Because when
Tom announced his retirement, warm sentiments poured in
from across the political spectrum. It was a day--listen
to this--when Barack Obama and Jim DeMint found something
to agree on. It must have brought some joy to Tom at such
a difficult time.
As he departs the Senate, Tom will leave one battle
behind to confront another. We are sending him every best
wish in that fight. We are keeping him in our prayers. We
know he will prevail, but he is really going to be missed
around here. He is just the type of citizen legislator our
Founders envisioned.
Tom has poured over more oversight documents than anyone
cares to imagine. His ``Wastebook'' has become an annual
phenomenon. It helps drive the conversation on spending.
He has led on issues like HIV and malaria.
The Senate will lose a critical leader on intelligence
oversight when he leaves. Tom played an invaluable role on
the Intelligence Committee, where he brought a unique
blend of integrity, analytical rigor, and dogged
determination. He served our Nation selflessly, toiling
for hours every week in a secure hearing room, learning
many sensitive matters he could not discuss with others.
He worked closely with another extraordinary departing
colleague, Vice Chair Saxby Chambliss, to ensure that our
Nation's intelligence community retains the tools
necessary to defend our country.
If anyone thinks our Nation's classified programs aren't
overseen rigorously, they certainly haven't met Tom
Coburn. He brought a skeptic's eye and a professional
determination to the task. His probing lines of
questioning earned the respect of his colleagues and
helped the intelligence community craft stronger programs,
while also reminding us of the value of many other
intelligence activities.
Now, Tom has obviously done a lot to earn his reputation
as a hawk on the budget, too. His interest there was never
about the baubles of office. It is about solutions. That
is why Tom actually volunteered for Simpson-Bowles. That
is why he lobbied me to actually take him off--believe it
or not--of the Finance Committee.
You always know where Tom stands. I am told he was
overseas with a couple of other Senators when a government
minister launched into a finger-wagging harangue about our
country. Tom couldn't take it after he listened for a few
minutes. He cut him off, told the minister what he thought
of him, and caught the next flight home. So Tom is
literally one of a kind. We are not likely to see another
one like this guy.
Here is what former Senator Kyl had to say about him:
``Tom is like your conscience. You can try to ignore him,
but you know he's right even when you wish he weren't.''
Some people may think Tom is a member of the
establishment now, but the truth is Tom never changed.
Washington changed. America changed.
People recognize the wisdom of his ideas--about leaving
a better country to the next generation, about giving
Americans the freedom and the opportunity to achieve real
meaning and lasting happiness in their lives.
We are going to miss the Senator who actually likes to
get his hands dirty, who actually likes to legislate. We
are going to miss the Senator who is so devoted to
procedure that he sleeps next to Marty Gold's book, and we
are going to miss a friend who understands that honest
compromise is necessary to achieve anything in a
pluralistic society. We are all going to miss Tom a lot.
But he can retire with pride, and he should know that we
are sending him our best wishes for a speedy recovery and
a joyful retirement.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I was not at all surprised
as I listened to the words of our colleague Senator Tom
Coburn that he quoted extensively from the Declaration of
Independence and he referred to our Constitution--the
founding documents of our great country.
When America's Founders conceived of a nation of citizen
legislators, they had leaders like Senator Tom Coburn in
mind. Indeed, throughout his service in Congress, he has
remained a compassionate physician, a devoted husband and
father, a fierce defender of the rights enshrined in our
Constitution, and an unwavering opponent of excessive
spending.
Senator Coburn may be best known as our most diligent
fiscal watchdog, relentlessly hounding wasteful spending.
His annual ``Wastebook'' report is a call for transparency
and accountability in the Federal Government that has
guided oversight investigations and policy debates.
The aspect of his service in the Senate that deserves
just as much acclaim is his work on the Senate Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Select
Committee on Intelligence. Serving with Senator Coburn on
both of those committees for many years, I have seen first
hand his brilliance, his tenacity, and his determination
to strengthen our Nation and the safety of our people. He
has a keen understanding of the grave and ever-evolving
threats that our Nation faces.
As a citizen legislator, Senator Coburn leads by example
and with compassion. With his expertise as a physician, he
has been a leader in promoting wellness, disease
prevention, combating HIV/AIDS, and advancing biomedical
research. When it comes to fiscal responsibility, he walks
the walk, having returned more than $1 million from his
Senate office budget to the American taxpayers.
We have heard many descriptions of Tom Coburn today, but
the word I most associate with him is ``integrity.'' He is
a man of the utmost integrity, who always stands tall for
his principles and for what he believes in. He sets an
example for all of us who seek to serve the public.
On a personal note, I want to thank Senator Coburn for
hounding me into joining a Women's Prayer Breakfast that
meets each week and has introduced me to a number of
wonderful women from the House of Representatives who have
become my close friends as well as colleagues. I use the
word ``hound'' appropriately. He mentioned it to me so
many times that eventually I gave in and went to one of
those breakfasts, and, indeed, it has been a spiritually
enriching experience that I never would have had but for
Tom continuing to press me to attend.
This past January Senator Coburn announced his intention
to leave the Senate, due in part to his deepening health
problems--problems he has faced with extraordinary
courage. This somber news was counterbalanced by his
overarching concern, not for himself, but for his family
and for the people of his State and our Nation.
As he now returns to the life of a private citizen, I
wish him every success in combating his illness, and I
thank him for his truly extraordinary service to our
country. To quote from Scripture, I think everyone would
agree with these words when it comes to Tom Coburn: ``Well
done, good and faithful servant.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I have no prepared remarks. I
am trying to speak right from my heart, and my heart is
full.
I want to start off by thanking Tom for the very kind
comments he made about serving with me. We met 10 years
ago. He was that bomb thrower--still is a little bit--that
Saxby talked about when they were elected 20 years ago. I
was one of the people who came up, along with Lamar
Alexander, George Voinovich, and Mark Pryor, for an
orientation for new Senators so that when they got here we
could actually spend some time and teach the new guys and
gals the ropes.
I remember the first day we convened and put them all in
a big circle in Ted Stevens' office, a beautiful office
here in the Capitol, and out of those 3 days Tom and
Carolyn and Michelle and Barack began to bond and became
friends. I didn't know how close friends they were until
about 4 or 5 years ago. Barack Obama had given the State
of the Union Address. I was sitting on the Republican
side. There was a time when we actually went back and
forth to try to mix things up. The President finished his
speech, and there is no ropeline at those speeches. The
President came along to shake hands with people. I was
sitting next to Tom, and we walked down so we could say hi
to the President.
I will never forget what the President said to him. In
just the quiet between the two of them--they embraced, and
the President said to him, ``Are you still praying for
me?'' Very quietly, Tom Coburn said, ``Every night.''
Just like that--they didn't agree on everything, but
they were friends. They are friends, and they will always
be friends. I hope Tom and I will be as well.
I remember sitting up there where Cory Booker, our new
Senator from New Jersey, is sitting now, listening to Mike
Enzi talking about how he worked so well with Ted Kennedy,
one of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate, and Mike
Enzi, one of the most conservative--and how they got
extraordinary amounts of stuff done.
I just want to say that the legislation coming out of
our committee--and Senator Collins has led that committee
before--is moving through this body and the House--it is
really pretty amazing--to strengthen our cyberdefenses, to
take the chemical facility antiterrorism law that Susan
Collins authored and to make it better and make it real,
to better protect our Nation's information from attacks
from all over the world, to try to make our Postal Service
not just relevant and not just hanging on but actually
vibrant and real.
But that day, Mike Enzi talked about the 80/20 rule with
Ted Kennedy. He said, ``Ted Kennedy and I agree on about
80 percent of the stuff, and we disagree on 20 percent. He
and I decided to focus on the 80 percent we agreed on and
set aside the 20 percent we didn't agree on to another
day.''
I call that the ``Enzi rule,'' and that has helped guide
me here in the Senate, and it certainly has helped to
guide me in the work I have been privileged to do with Dr.
Coburn.
When I became chairman of the committee about 2 years
ago and Dr. Coburn was going to be the ranking member of
the committee, somebody asked me what it was going to be
like. ``How are you going to work with this guy?''
I said, ``It is going to be a little like a marriage.
You have to work at it every day. Everybody has to give
and meet somewhere in the middle.''
I love to ask people who have been married a long time
what the secret is for being married a long time. Some of
you have maybe heard me talk about this. I get some really
hilarious answers but also some really terrific and
insightful answers.
I think the best one I have ever gotten when I asked
what is the secret for being married 40, 50, 60, 70 years
is the two c's. It is not Coburn and Carper. It is the two
c's: communicate and compromise. That is not only the
secret for a vibrant, long marriage for two people; it is
a secret for a vibrant democracy.
I believe the reason why Tom and I have had this
partnership that I think has been productive is, one, we
surround ourselves with people--certainly for me--smarter
than us. The second thing is we believe in communicating,
we believe in compromising, and we believe in
collaborating. I think the American people are the
beneficiaries of that.
We have a reception later today for Tom, and I hope he
comes. We will have the opportunity to say some more
things, as well. He is not the kind of person who likes to
be praised, so this is probably punishment. There is a
verse in the Scriptures talking about heaping with praise,
pouring praise all over. This is probably a little like
that. But I want to close with this. His words on the
Bowles-Simpson Commission are for the ages, and I hope we
will never walk away from the lessons he showed us with
his courage in supporting that work and helping to craft
that work.
There are words in the Scriptures, in Matthew 25, that
talk about the least of these in our society. When I was
sick, when I was hungry, when I was thirsty, when I was
naked, when I was in prison--those are the questions. The
answer: If you have done it to the least of these, you
have done it also to Me.
Senator Coburn believes we have a moral responsibility,
a moral obligation to the least of these in our society.
He also believes we have a fiscal obligation, a fiscal
imperative to meet that moral obligation in a fiscally
responsible way. I think those two ideas guide him in his
work, and, frankly, it is an inspiration to me.
Last word. Leaders should be humble, not haughty.
Leaders should lead by our example, not ``do as I say''
but ``do as I do.'' Leaders should have the heart of a
servant. Leaders should have the courage to stay out of
step when everyone else is marching to the wrong tune.
Leaders ought to be committed to doing what is right, not
what is easy. Leaders should treat other people the way
they want to be treated. Tom has offended just about
everybody in this body, but he always comes back and
apologizes, and he has already done it here today. Leaders
should focus on excellence in everything they do. If it
isn't perfect, make it better. It is in the preamble of
the Constitution--``in order to form a more perfect
Union.'' That defines him. Finally, if you think you are
right and you know you are right, never give up. That is
what a leader should be about.
For the years he served here and for a long time before
that and for a long time to come, he has been that leader,
and I feel lucky to say he is my friend.
God bless you.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I feel surrounded by friends
and colleagues who are getting ready to leave, and being
part of that original class 20 years ago, there is one
thing that I have learned is unique in Washington. I am
next to two people who are voluntarily leaving. The
toughest decision a Member of Congress ever makes is to
leave this institution voluntarily. I know that for my two
friends and my third one, Mike Johanns, this was not easy.
It is not easy to stand here and know that in January they
are not going to be here any longer, because they are
truly friends, and that is tough.
To say that Tom Coburn can be intimidating I think is an
understatement, and I think that comes because his breadth
of knowledge based upon his experiences in life enables
him to be an expert on a lot of issues.
With that in mind, I remember the day Tom sat down--we
were leaving that week, and I said, ``What are you going
to do this weekend?'' And he said, ``Well, Sarah's future
fiance is coming to sit down with me to find out whether
he can marry my daughter.'' I looked at him and thought, I
would hate to be that young man.
Well, the truth is that Tom is a very intimidating guy.
He plays hard, and he plays to win.
There is not an individual I know who is more fair and
more compassionate than Tom Coburn. I remember the day the
Bush administration wanted to extend the PEPFAR Program--
the AIDS in Africa program--and when Tom found out that
they were going to relax the requirement on how many
people were treated and that more money would go to
education than to actually saving lives, he grabbed me and
he said, ``We can't let this stand. We've got to fight it.
We've got to change it.'' It was Tom Coburn who blocked
the reauthorization of President Bush's PEPFAR plan for 6
months--a Republican President, a Republican Senator. Why?
On principle.
Tom Coburn, if you didn't know it before this speech
today, has never done anything in this institution or in
life that wasn't based upon principle. No Member of
Congress should ever question whether he thinks he is
right because if he didn't think he was right, he wouldn't
fight so hard.
It is particularly difficult for me to say goodbye to
Tom. We truly are legislative partners. We fought a lot of
battles for a long time, and inherently we have a level of
trust in each other that I would actually sign on to
legislation that I had no idea what it did; I just knew
that in that foxhole he needed somebody he could count on,
and I knew when he signed on to something that I needed,
that there was always somebody there to cover my back.
The institution is losing something significant when we
no longer have that legislative expertise Tom Coburn
represents.
There are a lot of descriptions that people have used
today and that people will use in the future to describe
Tom Coburn, but I would boil it down to two words that I
think best describe him: Tom Coburn is a good man. In
every sense of the word, he is a good man. This
institution will lose a great leader when Tom Coburn
retires.
Godspeed, Tom.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Mr. SCHUMER. I will be very brief. I know people are
waiting to speak.
I guess it would surprise the world in general to know
that Tom Coburn and I are true friends, but we are. He is
a man of integrity above all.
You don't have to agree with someone--we probably
disagree on 90 percent of all the issues--to trust
someone's integrity, to trust someone's handshake, to
trust someone that if you make a good argument,
understanding their values, they will come along. That is
just what Tom Coburn has done time and time again with
this Senator from New York and countless others on the
other side of the aisle.
On so many issues where Tom was opposed, I said, ``Let's
just sit down and let me give you the logic and then you
will make your own judgment.'' I knew that would be good
enough. Sometimes it didn't work. Sometimes he disagreed.
But he always sat and listened. He always asked perceptive
questions, not ``gotcha'' questions. He was trying to
figure it out.
Of course the most well known was when we negotiated on
the Zadroga bill. Thousands of New Yorkers had rushed to
the Towers and gotten poison in their lungs and their
gastrointestinal systems, and we wanted to help them. We
thought they were just like our veterans. Tom knew it was
a big expense. He sat with us, listened, made suggestions
to make it leaner and trimmer, and then supported the
bill. So right now there are people alive throughout the
New York area, heroes, because of the integrity of that
man from Oklahoma.
Tom, I will miss you. This body will miss you.
Regardless of our ideological views and perceptions, we
will miss you. You are a great American.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. First of all, there is not a whole lot that
needs to be said that hasn't been said, but one thing I
want to say to my dear friend Tom Coburn is that he made
Washington happen for me, if you will. He made it more
tolerable. I had a hard time in transitioning. Tom reached
out. He saw that. We talked about this before, but Tom
made this place more palatable.
Tom, you have expanded my area of friendships with more
people than you know and the right type of people, and I
appreciate it I think more than you even know.
I will end with this, and I don't mean to say a lot. I
have been asked about Tom Coburn. How would I explain him?
Tom Coburn's got soul. I mean that from the bottom of my
heart, brother. You have soul, and I thank you for what
soul you brought to this place.
God bless.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. FLAKE. Fourteen years ago I entered the House of
Representatives. I had been elected, but before I took
office, I traveled to Washington, and Matt Salmon, the
Congressman I was replacing, said, ``Is there anybody you
want to meet?'' And I said, ``Tom Coburn.'' I had watched
from afar what he had done on the Appropriations Committee
and the stands he had taken, and I admired him. I went and
visited with him in his office while he was packing up his
stuff. I will never forget that. I have to say that today
I admire him even more than I did then, having watched him
go back into the private sector and then enter the Senate.
Columnist George Will said Tom Coburn was the most
dangerous creature that could come into the Senate. Why?
Because he is simply uninterested in being popular. I
think that is certainly true. But if he didn't care about
it, it happened anyway. I have news for Tom. As you can
see around, he has become popular. But one thing he never
managed to achieve, if he sought it, was becoming
partisan. When you hear those across the aisle lavish
praise on this man, realize that was never one of his
goals and never happened, much to his credit.
I thank you and your staff for your generosity over the
years to me and my staff and for what you have done for
this institution, for your colleagues, and for me
personally.
I yield back.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Mr. KING. Mr. President, I probably have known Tom for
the least length of time of anybody in this Chamber, and I
want to offer some comments from the perspective of only 2
years and really more like a year and a half since we
became friends and colleagues.
I have seen Senator Coburn in two contexts--one is
intelligence and the other is faith. He and I serve on the
Intelligence Committee. We sit directly across from each
other. That committee is generally a nonpartisan one, but
it is also one where all the meetings generally are
closed. There is no press. You can really take the measure
of someone when they ask questions and participate in a
debate in that forum.
His questions always struck me as the questions I wished
I had asked, and they struck me as the questions I am sure
the people of America would have wanted asked. They were
penetrating, they cut through obfuscation, and they were
always meaningful and helped us move toward the important
work that committee has to accomplish.
I have also become acquainted with him through our faith
and participation in the Wednesday Prayer Breakfasts, and
more recently, for reasons that I am not entirely sure, he
has invited me to join him on Tuesday evenings for dinners
on the other side of the Capitol that have been very
meaningful.
For the 9 years before I came here, I taught a course
called ``Leaders and Leadership,'' and I taught it at a
couple of colleges in Maine. I taught it really as much
for myself as for my students because I wanted to try to
understand what leadership was, and I thought if I signed
on to teach it, I would have to learn something about it.
Every year what we did was go through and discuss the
stories of great leaders throughout history, some well
known and some not so well known. We always started with
Ernest Shackleton. We talked about Eleanor Roosevelt and
Margaret Thatcher and Martin Luther King and Lincoln and
Churchill. We always tried to define the qualities that
make a leader, and there are lots of them--perseverance,
communication, vision, teamwork, trust--but the last one
on the list and the one that brings me back to Tom is
always character. It is an indefinable quality. You cannot
really put a specific definition to it, but people like
Lincoln had it, Ernest Shackleton had it, Joshua Lawrence
Chamberlain from Maine had it, Eleanor Roosevelt had it.
It involves a combination of qualities that Tom embodies,
and almost all of them have been mentioned here today--
integrity, intelligence, honesty, faith, belief in
principle, and daring to stand for principle. It is the
hardest thing to teach, but it is the easiest thing to
see. The reason I felt so privileged to get to know this
man for such a short period of time is that he has shown
me what character is all about.
Tom, it is one of the great joys of my life to have had
these 2 years to get to know you, if only slightly. It is
one of the great sadnesses of my life that it has only
been 2 years.
Godspeed, Tom. You have made a difference for this
country that we all love and honor and respect. Thank you
for your service and for sharing your great character with
all of us.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
Mr. ISAKSON. I was elected in a special election 16
years ago. I was No. 435 in the House of Representatives,
so I did what my father told me to do when I went into
business. He said, ``Son, sit in the back of the room,
listen to people who are smart, pay attention to them, and
do what the smart people do.''
After 2 weeks of listening to Tom Coburn, I said no
human being could know as much about everything as this
guy named Coburn. In 16 years, I have come to believe,
yes, there is one who knows about everything he speaks of,
and that is Tom Coburn.
Senator Coburn has been a great role model for me. The
Senator from Oklahoma has taught me many great lessons,
and I have learned a lot from him.
The greatest evangelists in life are those who witness
their faith, and Tom Coburn is a true witness for his
faith and has changed the lives of many people. I have
enjoyed, as much as anything, our walk with faith at the
Prayer Breakfasts, in private meetings, and what we have
shared together.
Last, every Christmas I try to give my grandchildren who
can read something to read as a little treasury to put in
their book to save so that when they grow up, they can
refer to great things and great historical statements that
have been made. I doubt if there has ever been a better
statement made on the floor of the Senate about our
heritage, our country, our future, and our hopes than Tom
Coburn has said today. It will be required reading for my
grandchildren this Christmas, and I can assure you that I
am a better man for having served with Tom Coburn, the
great Senator from the State of Oklahoma.
God bless you, Tom.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. INHOFE. The other Senator from Oklahoma.
I wish to make some unscripted comments, but sincere and
from the heart. I hope I am accurate when I say this, that
I think in some respect I discovered Tom Coburn. I suspect
that Tom and I are the only two who have ever been to
Adair, OK. I remember hearing that there was a
conservative doctor from Muskogee. I remember calling him
up at that time and asking him to run for the House of
Representatives, which he did. He kept his commitments and
did everything he was supposed to do. I always remember
that day.
As Senator Coburn knows, we have a place my wife and I
built on a big lake in Oklahoma back in 1962--a long time
ago. When I drive up there, I go through Adair, and I go
by that little sheltered area that is half torn down now.
They tore down the biggest bank in town. Every time I go
by there, I have to say I recall meeting for the first
time with a young doctor named Tom Coburn.
I regret to say there are times in our service together
when we have not been in agreement on specific issues, and
I think we have a characteristic in common. I think we are
both kind of bullheaded, which has created some temporary
hard feelings, but there is one thing that overshadows
that. Jesus has a family, and His family has a lot of
people in it. Some are here in this room. Tom Coburn and I
are brothers.
In the 20 years I have been here in the Senate, I don't
believe I heard a speech that was as touching and sincere
as the speech I heard from my junior Senator a few minutes
ago.
I really believe that in spite of all the things that
have happened--and there were some differences, but they
were minor--that he never ceased to be my brother, and I
want to ask the Senator right now to forgive me for the
times I have perhaps said something unintentionally that
was not always right and was not always from the heart.
But I want my junior Senator to know that I sincerely love
him and am going to be hurting with him with the troubles
he has right now, or might have in the future, and will
sorely miss him in this body.
I ask that the Record show that I sincerely love my
brother, Senator Coburn.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. COATS. I have been sitting here listening to the
respect and the emotion of people recognizing the service
of Tom Coburn. I don't have a prepared speech, but I
second everything that has been said about Tom.
My emotions well up in me when I think about Tom. Tom
exhibits the conviction that I wish I had more of, Tom
exhibits the commitment I wish I had more of, and he
exhibits the courage I wish I had more of.
I remember my very dear friend Chuck Olson made this
statement, ``Lord, show me the kind of person You would
like me to be and give me the strength to be that
person.''
I feel like God has given a gift to the Senate, and
certainly a gift to me, by simply saying, take a look at
Tom Coburn. Look at the qualities he exhibits and his
commitment to faith. He is a pretty good model to follow.
Thank you, Tom.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. BEGICH. I came down to give my farewell remarks, but
before I do, I have to make a comment about Senator
Coburn. Senator Coburn is absolutely what many people said
about his word. Yesterday was an example of that when he
resolved an issue.
There is always activity after the Senate, and I wish my
friend from Oklahoma the best.
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I would like to make some
remarks about Senator Coburn.
Tom Coburn is one of the more remarkable Senators who
have served in this body--certainly since I have been
here. He is a man with absolute courage, conviction, and
dedication to make this country better. He didn't come
here to go through the job and go through the motions; he
came here to invest his great skills and his great
intellectual ability and to pour his drive and effort into
making America a better place. It is very special. It is
unusual. I have not seen anything like it, as I said,
since I have been here.
I always had great reluctance to disagree or oppose
anything Tom offered. They were not always perfect, but
basically I opposed them so seldom because I agreed with
him time and time again. I always hated to vote no because
I knew he had studied the issue, understood it, and was
doing what he believed was right.
His whole philosophy and approach to government, had it
been more effectively followed by other Members of this
body, would have led us to a better country. To support
what he said, I think in a way, was supporting high ideals
for America.
I want to say I am going to miss him. People have no
idea how many times he has stopped or altered bad
legislation to make it better and less problematic and
more principled. He believes that ours is a
constitutionally limited government. He didn't just
believe that, he acted on it and has acted on it
consistently.
I understand, and I have no doubt of this--we don't need
to run a test--but I understand and have no doubt that he
has offered more amendments since I have been in the
Senate than any other Senator. They have been amendments
to stop waste, fraud, and abuse, to make the government
more efficient, leaner, to consolidate multiple programs
that should be consolidated for efficiency.
He has worked across the aisle on a host of issues. He
has sought bipartisan support for matters that are small
and large. It is remarkable. I have to say that we are
going to lose someone who is of great value. He would
easily have been reelected had he run again.
I remember him saying one time--and this is his
philosophy--if you want to be reelected, don't worry about
being reelected, just do the right thing, and you won't
have any difficulties. He never had any difficulties in
his election, because people trusted him. They knew every
day, night and day, long hours, whatever, he was working
to advance the common interest of our country. They
trusted that he was not seduced, bought out, compromised
by the powers that be in Washington, DC, and he remained
true to those who sent him here.
I would say this: Part of the strength he has--as a
matter of fact, maybe the greatest part of his strength is
his faith. He is intelligent, sophisticated,
knowledgeable, a scientist, a doctor, but a man of simple
Christian faith which impacts his life as much as anybody
in this body. He understands the true meaning of life, and
he gives himself to others in a most remarkable way.
Thank you, and colleagues, for the opportunity for me to
share these remarks. We are going to miss our friend Tom
Coburn, who is going to object to those bills that require
a lot of effort to make them better or stop some that are
so bad they cannot be passed. A lot of us are going to
have to pick up the slack.
Maybe Tom would say, ``What are you doing down here,
Jeff, wasting time talking about me when you ought to be
studying this bill and finding some of the bogus spending
that is in it? You should be spending your time fixing
it.''
But every now and then I think we should stop and
recognize an extraordinary life and an extraordinary
Senator.
I wanted to share these remarks.
I thank the Chair and yield the floor and suggest the
absence of a quorum.
Friday, December 12, 2014
Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I will now speak very briefly
about my retiring colleagues and then turn it over to the
Senator from Florida. I promise I will be brief.
Everybody will face retirement, voluntarily or
involuntarily. There will be a last vote to cast and a
last speech to make. Only God knows when that day comes
because we are all just one car wreck away from ending our
careers.
To the retiring Members, I have had the pleasure of
serving with you, and I know you all. You did what you
thought was best for our country and your State, and what
more could anyone ask? My good friend Mark Pryor, who
tried to find common ground at a time when it is hard to
find. Mary Landrieu, who would drill under the Capitol if
she thought it would help American energy independence. We
have good friends on the other side, and I will miss you,
and I wish you well. But I would like very briefly to
speak about four. ...
To Tom Coburn, when I grow up, I want to be like Tom. I
don't see that happening anytime soon, me growing up. Tom
Coburn has been at this for 20 years. We came in together.
He was one of the first people I met in the freshman class
of 1995--the 1994 Contract with America class. He was full
of ideas and determination from the first day I met him
until the very last day he leaves.
I cannot tell you, Tom, how proud I am to call you my
friend. You and Carolyn have become dear friends, and you,
my friend, have changed this body for the better. You had
an awesome staff, and you will be missed, but what you
contributed to the Senate will last long after I am gone,
and we will all be the better. ...
To all of you, Godspeed. I wish you nothing but the
best.
I am fortunate enough to go into my third term. To my
colleagues, as we go into the next Congress, let's try to
do better. I know we can. If we do, all boats will rise.
Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I pay tribute to my friend
Tom Coburn as he prepares to leave the Senate. For 10
years, Tom has served the people of Oklahoma as their
junior Senator. He is a man of principle and fierce
determination. He has shown himself willing time and again
to stand up to special interests and to fight for what he
believes in. He will be missed.
Senator Coburn was born in Casper, WY, in 1948, and was
raised in Muskogee, OK. His father Orin was a prominent
optician and the founder of Coburn Optical Industries. Tom
attended college at Oklahoma State University, where he
graduated with a degree in accounting. From 1970 to 1978
he was a manufacturing manager at his family's company.
After a bout with cancer, Tom returned to school to become
a physician, graduating in 1983 from the University of
Oklahoma Medical School. Following his residency, Tom
moved back to Muskogee to practice family medicine and
obstetrics. He has personally delivered more than 4,000
babies.
Senator Coburn began his career in public service in
1994, when he was elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives from Oklahoma. He served in the House for
6 years, then went back to Muskogee to resume his medical
practice. Three years later, in 2004, Tom was elected to
the U.S. Senate to fill the seat being vacated by retiring
Senator Don Nickles. Here in the Senate he has served with
distinction on a number of important committees, including
the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs,
of which he is the ranking member.
Since first arriving in Congress, Senator Coburn has
been a strong proponent of fiscal restraint. His efforts
to fight deficit spending, pork barrel projects, and
earmarks earned him the nickname ``Dr. No.'' I have always
thought this nickname was a compliment to Tom. It shows he
is willing to stand up against powerful interests in
defense of his principles, and that he takes seriously the
problems of unnecessary spending and long-term debt.
Passing a balanced budget amendment has been a priority of
mine for many years, and I have been glad to count Tom as
a strong ally in that effort.
I have also been fortunate to work with Senator Coburn
on a number of other issues during his time in the Senate.
Earlier this year, Tom and I, along with Senator Richard
Burr, introduced the Patient CARE Act, a market-based
alternative to Obamacare. Tom and I have also worked
together to fight waste and corruption at the Department
of Health and Human Services and to reinvigorate the
States' roles in meeting transportation, safety, and other
needs.
Madam President, Senator Coburn is an honorable and
steadfast man. He has served his country well. I wish him,
his wife Carolyn, and their family the very best.
Mr. ENZI. Madam President, at the close of each session
of Congress it is our tradition to take a moment to
express our appreciation and say goodbye to those of our
colleagues who will be retiring at the session's close. It
is always a bittersweet moment to reflect on the important
contributions our friends have made as they worked so hard
to represent their States and our Nation.
Such an individual is Tom Coburn and that is just one of
the reasons why we will miss him. Tom always has and
always will be a strong voice for conservative values and
principles. There are not many who can express their
beliefs with the same kind of clarity and power he brings
to the issues the Senate takes up for deliberations.
I will always believe that Tom has been so successful in
his career as a political leader and a doctor because he
began his life with one of the greatest of all
advantages--he was born in Wyoming, in Casper. That was
not all. He graduated from Oklahoma State University with
a degree in accounting. As an accountant myself I was not
surprised by that. His love of accounting, his fondness
for numbers and details, and his Wyoming birth all help to
explain his power of persuasion.
I am kidding about that but one thing that is true about
his background is how his love of numbers and his
understanding of budgets and accounting practices has
helped him to understand the financial problems we
currently face as a nation and the importance of taking
action to address them before they get so far out of hand
we will be jeopardizing the future of our children and our
grandchildren.
That would have never happened on Tom's watch.
Grandfathers are like that. With one eye on the bottom
line and the other on the future of our Nation, Tom has
developed an amazing knack for finding ways to cut waste
and save money, time, and effort. For Tom it is clear, if
it is worth doing at all, it is worth doing well.
His insight and his immediate grasp of the essence of so
many controversial and complicated issues has made him a
great asset on the committees on which he has served. His
willingness to get involved and lead on some pretty
difficult issues has enabled him to make a difference that
will be remembered around here for quite a while.
In our deliberations one of Tom's great weapons has been
his mastery and understanding of the facts surrounding his
positions on the issues we have taken up in committee and
on the floor. He is an excellent speaker and when he talks
we are all very attentive. The reason why is simple. If
you agree with him you want to know what his views are so
you will be able to strengthen your own arguments on the
bill with some of his reflections and recommendations. If
you disagree with him you will still want to hear him
speak so you will know what the toughest arguments are you
will be faced with during our deliberations.
No matter what side you are on, it is rare that anyone
has ever questioned his facts. They may not like them--but
you cannot avoid acknowledging them.
In addition, as a father, a grandfather, and a
physician, Tom has been an outspoken advocate on health
and medical issues. During his career he has worked to
increase the access of seniors to the health care services
they need. He has also been active in efforts to try to
control health care costs and protect the right to life of
the unborn.
He has such a strong kinship with the delegations of the
West because Tom has a strong and heartfelt understanding
of the challenges of our urban communities. I have often
said one of our great battles here in Washington is to
help our colleagues get a deeper understanding of the
difference in life in the large eastern cities and the
smaller rural communities of the West. It is a crucial
difference that must be understood to get a better sense
of what is needed to help both our rural and urban
communities to grow and prosper.
In the next session I know we will miss him, his
understanding of our conservative values and principles
and his commitment to this generation and the next--and
beyond. Tom knows that if future generations are to have
it as good as we have we will all have to learn to get
along with a little less.
Now Tom is closing that great chapter of his life that
contains his service in the House and the Senate. It has
not been easy. The House and Senate are very different
places in which to work--and make progress--but Tom has
managed to do it--and he has the results to show for his
efforts.
Thank you, Tom, for all you have done to make our Nation
a better place to live. We are grateful for your service,
for your vision for America and most of all, your
commitment to the future of Oklahoma and our Nation.
Please keep in touch with us. I am going to keep your
number on speed dial in my office so I'll have it when one
of those days comes along when I need a thoughtful word or
two for a debate or a committee session. As the saying
goes, facts are tough and powerful things and when it
comes to those issues in which he truly believes, so is
Tom Coburn.
Monday, December 15, 2014
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, while several Members of
this Senate class will be retiring this year at the end of
their terms, another Senator will also be taking his leave
of this Chamber, in the midst of his current term. For a
decade, Senator Tom Coburn has represented his
constituents in Oklahoma with steadfast dedication and
perseverance. He and I have not always agreed, but I have
always respected and admired his commitment to his
principles.
Senator Coburn has built a record and reputation as a
fiscal hawk, reminiscent in some ways of the role that the
late Senator Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio assumed for many
years in the Senate. Senator Coburn can be a tough
bargainer, and sometimes he has chosen not to seek or
accept compromise at all. But he also has shown the
ability to work across the aisle, whether on reducing
government spending or promoting transparency in
government. In the first Congress in which he served in
the Senate, he partnered with then-Senator Barack Obama
and others to author the Federal Funding Accountability
and Transparency Act, which established a public, online
database detailing Federal spending. For many years he
served as an active member of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, where we worked together on such policy issues
as patent reform, copyright protections, and support for
law enforcement.
Senator Coburn is a longtime public servant for the
State of Oklahoma. Members retire from Congress for a host
of reasons, and I know Senator Coburn's retirement has
been hastened. He has left his mark on this institution,
and I wish him, his wife Carolyn, their three daughters
and their grandchildren good health and all the best in
Tom Coburn's retirement from the Senate.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, as we wind down the final days
of the 113th Congress, it is a good time both to reflect
on the past and to look toward the future. I have been
very moved as I listened to the farewell speeches of our
departing Senators, and I wish I had time to pay tribute
to each one of them. They have all been wonderful
colleagues, and I enjoyed working with and getting to know
every one of them. I wish them all the very best in all
their future endeavors. They will most certainly be
missed. ...
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I wish to celebrate and thank
the 13 outgoing Senators who have worked tirelessly to
represent their home States in the Senate: Senator Mark
Begich, Senator Saxby Chambliss, Senator Tom Coburn,
Senator Kay Hagan, Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Mike
Johanns, Senator Tim Johnson, Senator Mary Landrieu,
Senator Carl Levin, Senator Mark Pryor, Senator Jay
Rockefeller, Senator Mark Udall, and Senator John Walsh.
I have worked side by side with these men and women for
years--some for decades--and witnessed first hand their
extraordinary commitment to public service and to the
people they so proudly represent.
Even when we didn't see eye to eye on every issue, I
always deeply respected and admired their service to our
Nation and their dedication to fight for what they believe
in.
It has been a privilege to serve alongside each and
every one of these extraordinary colleagues. I will miss
their leadership and their friendship, and I wish them all
the best as they embark on the next chapter.
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