A summary of the Coburn amendments

 An amendment to remove $11.3 million for an Corps of Engineers' project in California

Read a summary of Division 19 of the Coburn amendment.  The amendment would remove $11,300,000 for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Sacramento Riverbank Protection Project in California.

An amendment to remove $176 million for reconstruction of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport, Miss.

This amedment was withdrawn.

Read Dr. Coburn's "Dear Colleague" letter on this amendment to remove $176 million for reconstruction of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport, Miss.  The local congressman says the damage done to the home by Hurricane Katrina was $80 million to 90 million.

An amendment to remove $500 million for Northrop Grumman

This amendment was defeated, 47-52.

 Read "Plaintiff Northrop Grumman Corporation's Opposition to Defendenat Factory Mutual's Motion to Dismiss."

 Read "Court's order denying motion to dismiss."

Read Dr. Coburn's "Dear Colleague" letter on his amendment to strip a $500 million provision for business disruption to Northrop Grumman.  Read a letter from the Defense Contract Management Agency urging no payments be made to Northrop Grumman if the payment can be recovered through the company's insurance carrier.

The Senate voted Thursday against tabling the second division of Dr. Coburn's amendment (seafood promotion strategies) by a 44-to-51 vote and then accepted the amendment by voice vote.  Savings to the U.S. taxpayer:  $15 million.

By a 49-to-48 vote, the Senate on Wednesday agreed to table the first division of Dr. Coburn's amendment to the emergency supplemental appropriations bill.  Click here to see the vote total.

To ensure debate on these projects, Dr. Coburn exercised a rarely-used floor procedure called the “clay pigeon” strategy.  This strategy has been used only once before in Senate history.  In short, a Senator tosses out one amendment that gets broken down or divided into many pieces that must be considered.

Dr. Coburn used this strategy to help ensure the American people could hear a full and open debate about a few of the items in the bill that may not be true emergencies related to either the War on Terror or hurricane recovery effort.  Among the 100 plus questionable items in the bill, Dr. Coburn’s clay pigeon amendment only targeted 19 items, which should allow the Senate to complete consideration of these items within a few days. 

The total savings from the “clay pigeon” amendment will be $2,680,850,000.

1. Railroad relocation in Mississippi                                       $700 million                   Defeated, 48-49
2. Seafood promotion strategies                                              $15 million                     Accepted 
3. Driver’s license facility in Macon, GA                                   $100,000                        Withdrawn
4. Business disruption expenses                                            $500 million                   Defeated, 47-52
   for private shipbuilders (Northrop Grumman)
5. FHA emergency relief backlog table                                    $594 million                   Withdrawn
6. Three-year study of shrimp, reef fishery profitability         $20 million                      Withdrawn
7. AmeriCorps/National Civilian Community Corps             $20 million                      Withdrawn
8. Procurement of V-22 Osprey                                                 $230 million                   Withdrawn
9. American River (Common Features) project in CA          $3.3 million                     Withdrawn
10. Electronic logbooks for fishing vessels                              $10 million                      Withdrawn
11. Armed Forces Retirement Home                                         $176 million                    Withdrawn
12. Vessel monitoring systems                                                   $10 million                      Withdrawn
13. New England toxic red tide                                                     $20 million                      Withdrawn
14. South Sacramento Streams project in CA                           $6.25 million                  Withdrawn
15. Temporary marine services centers                                      $50 million                     Withdrawn
16. Replacement of private fisheries infrastructure                   $90 million                     Withdrawn
17. Employ fishers and vessel owners                                        $25 million                     Withdrawn
18. Replace damaged fishing gear                                               $200 million                  Withdrawn
19. Sacramento Riverbank Protection project in CA                   $11.3 million                 Pending