Tom Coburn | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2011 | |
| Ranking Member of theSenate Homeland Security Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2013 – January 3, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Susan Collins |
| Succeeded by | Tom Carper |
| United States Senator fromOklahoma | |
| In office January 3, 2005 – January 3, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Don Nickles |
| Succeeded by | James Lankford |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromOklahoma's2nd district | |
| In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2001 | |
| Preceded by | Mike Synar |
| Succeeded by | Brad Carson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Thomas Allen Coburn (1948-03-14)March 14, 1948 Casper, Wyoming, U.S. |
| Died | March 28, 2020(2020-03-28) (aged 72) Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, includingSarah |
| Education | Oklahoma State University (BS) University of Oklahoma (MD) |
Coburn speaks toElena Kagan at her Supreme Court confirmation hearing Recorded June 28, 2010 | |
Thomas Allen Coburn (March 14, 1948 – March 28, 2020) was an American politician andphysician who served as aUnited States senator fromOklahoma from 2005 to 2015. ARepublican, Coburn previously served as aUnited States representative from 1995 to 2001.
Coburn was an obstetrician who operated a private medical practice inMuskogee, Oklahoma. He was elected to theUnited States House of Representatives in1994 as part of theRepublican Revolution. After being re-elected twice, Coburn upheld hiscampaign pledge to serve no more than three consecutive terms and did not seek re-election in2000. In2004, he returned to political life with a successful run for the United States Senate. Coburn was re-elected to a second Senate term in2010 and kept his pledge not to seek a third term in 2016.[1] In January 2014, Coburn announced that he would resign before the expiration of his final term due to a recurrence of prostate cancer.[2] He submitted a letter of resignation toOklahoma GovernorMary Fallin, effective at the end of the113th Congress.[3]
Coburn was afiscal andsocial conservative known for his opposition todeficit spending,pork barrel projects,[4][5][6] andabortion. Described as "the godfather of the modern conservative austerity movement",[7] he supportedterm limits,gun rights and thedeath penalty,[8] and opposedsame-sex marriage andembryonic stem cell research.[9][10] Many Democrats referred to him as "Dr. No" due to his frequent use of technicalities to block federal spending bills.[11][12]
After leaving Congress, Coburn worked with theManhattan Institute for Policy Research on its efforts to reform theFood and Drug Administration,[13] becoming a senior fellow of the institute in December 2016.[14] Coburn also served as a senior advisor toCitizens for Self-Governance, where he was active in calling for aconvention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution.[15][16][17]
Coburn was born inCasper, Wyoming, the son of Anita Joy (née Allen) and Orin Wesley Coburn.[18] Coburn's father was anoptician and founder of Coburn Optical Industries, and a named donor toO. W. Coburn School of Law atOral Roberts University.[19]
Coburn graduated with aBachelor of Science in accounting fromOklahoma State University,[20] where he was also a member ofSigma Nu fraternity. In 1968, he married Carolyn Denton,[20] the 1967Miss Oklahoma;[21] their three daughters are Callie,[22] Katie andSarah, a leading operaticsoprano.[23] One of the top ten seniors in the School of Business, Coburn served as president of the College of Business Student Council.[24]
From 1970 to 1978, Coburn served as a manufacturing manager at the Ophthalmic Division of Coburn Optical Industries inColonial Heights, Virginia. While Coburn was manager, the Virginia division of Coburn Optical grew from 13 employees to over 350 and captured 35 percent of the U.S. market.[24]
After recovering from an occurrence of malignantmelanoma, Coburn pursued a medical degree and graduated from theUniversity of Oklahoma Medical School with honors in 1983.[20] He then opened Maternal & Family Practice in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and served as a deacon in aSouthern Baptist Church. During his career inobstetrics, he treated over 15,000 patients, delivered 4,000 babies and was subject to onemalpractice lawsuit, which was dismissed without finding Coburn at fault.[25][26] Together Coburn and his wife were members of First Baptist Church of Muskogee.[27]
Asterilization Coburn performed on a 20-year-old woman, Angela Plummer, in 1990, became what was called "the most incendiary issue" of his Senate campaign.[28] Coburn performed the sterilization on the woman during an emergency surgery to treat a life-threateningectopic pregnancy, removing her healthy intactfallopian tube as well as the one damaged by the surgery. The woman sued Coburn, alleging that he did not have consent to sterilize her, while Coburn claimed he had her oral consent. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed with no finding of liability on Coburn's part.[29]
The state attorney general claimed that Coburn committedMedicaidfraud by not reporting the sterilization when he filed a claim for the emergency surgery. Medicaid did not reimburse doctors for sterilization procedures for patients under 21 and according to the attorney general, Coburn would not have been reimbursed at all had he disclosed this information. Coburn says since he did not file a claim for the sterilization, no fraud was committed. No charges were filed against Coburn for this claim.[10][26][30][31]
In 1994, Coburn ran for theHouse of Representatives inOklahoma's 2nd congressional district, which was based in Muskogee and included 22 counties in northeastern Oklahoma. Coburn initially expected to face eight-term incumbentMike Synar. However, Synar was defeated in a runoff for the Democratic nomination by a 71-year-old retiredprincipal, Virgil Cooper. According to Coburn's 2003 book,Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders, Coburn and Cooper got along well, since both were opposed to the more liberal Synar. The general election was cordial since both men knew that Synar would not return to Washington regardless of the outcome. Coburn won by a 52%–48% margin, becoming the first Republican to represent the district since 1921.[32]
Coburn was one of the mostconservative members of the House. He supported "reducing the size of thefederal budget," wanted to makeabortion illegal and supported the proposed televisionV-chip legislation.[33]
Despite representing a heavily Democratic district and PresidentBill Clinton's electoral dominance therein, Coburn was reelected in 1996 and 1998.[34][35]
In the House, Coburn earned a reputation as a political maverick due to his frequent battles withHouse SpeakerNewt Gingrich.[36] Most of these stand-offs stemmed from his belief that the Republican caucus was moving toward thepolitical center and away from the more conservativeContract With America policy proposals that had brought the Republicans into power in Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years.[37]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotes interview with Coburn onBreach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders, November 23, 2003,C-SPAN |
Coburn endorsed conservative activist and former diplomatAlan Keyes in the2000 Republican presidential primaries.[38] Coburn retired from Congress in 2001, fulfilling his pledge to serve no more than three terms in the House. His congressional district returned to the Democratic fold, as attorneyBrad Carson defeated Andy Ewing, a Republican endorsed by Coburn. After leaving the House and returning to private medical practice, Coburn wroteBreach of Trust, withghostwriter John Hart, about his experiences in Congress. The book detailed Coburn's perspective on the internal Republican Party debates over the Contract With America and displayed his disdain for career politicians. Some of the figures he criticized (such as Gingrich) were already out of office at the time of the book's publishing, but others (such as former House SpeakerDennis Hastert) remained influential in Congress, which resulted in speculation that some congressional Republicans wanted no part of Coburn's return to politics.[39]
During his tenure in the House, Coburn wrote and passed far-reaching pieces of legislation. These include laws to expand seniors' health care options, to protect access to home health care in rural areas and to allow Americans to access cheaper medications fromCanada and other nations. Coburn also wrote a law intended to prevent the spread ofAIDS to infants.The Wall Street Journal said about the law, "In 10 long years of AIDS politics and funding, this is actually the first legislation to pass in this country that will rescue babies." He also wrote a law to renew and reform federal AIDS care programs.[12] In 2002, PresidentGeorge W. Bush chose Coburn to serve as co-chair of thePresidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA).[40]
During his three terms in the House, Coburn also played an influential role in reforming welfare and other federal entitlement programs.[12]
As a congressman in 1997, Coburn protestedNBC's plan to air theR-ratedAcademy Award-winningHolocaust dramaSchindler's List duringprime time.[41] Coburn stated that, in airing the movie without editing it for television, TV had been taken "to an all-time low, withfull-frontal nudity, violence and profanity."[42][43] He also said the TV broadcast should outrage parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere. Coburn described the airing ofSchindler's List on television as "irresponsible sexual behavior. I cringe when I realize that there were children all across this nation watching this program."[44]
This statement met with strong criticism, as the film deals mainly withthe Holocaust.[45] After heavy criticism, Coburn apologized "to all those I have offended" and clarified that he agreed with the movie being aired on television, but stated that it should have been on later in the evening. In apologizing, Coburn said that at that time of the evening there are still large numbers of children watching without parental supervision and stated that he stood by his message of protecting children from violence, but had expressed it poorly. He also said, "My intentions were good, but I've obviously made an error in judgment in how I've gone about saying what I wanted to say."[46][47][48]
He later wrote inBreach of Trust that he considered this one of the biggest mistakes in his life and that, while he still felt the material was unsuitable for a 7 p.m. television broadcast, he handled the situation poorly.[49]
After three years out of politics, Coburn announced his candidacy for the Senate seat being vacated by four-term incumbentRepublicanDon Nickles. FormerOklahoma City MayorKirk Humphreys (the favorite of the state and national Republican establishment) and Corporation CommissionerBob Anthony joined the field before Coburn. However, Coburn won the primary by an unexpectedly large margin, taking 61% of the vote to Humphreys's 25%. In the general election, he facedBrad Carson, the Democrat who had succeeded him in the 2nd District and was giving up his seat after only two terms.[50]
In the election, Coburn won by a margin of 53% to Carson's 42%. While Carson routed Coburn in the generally heavily Democratic 2nd District, Coburn swamped Carson in theOklahoma City metropolitan area and the closer-inTulsa suburbs. Coburn won the state's two largest counties, Tulsa andOklahoma, by a combined 86,000 votes, more than half of his overall margin of 166,000 votes cast.[51]
Coburn's Senate voting record was as conservative as his House record.[11]
Coburn was re-elected in 2010. He received 90% of the vote in the Republican primary and 70% in the general election. While he already planned on not seeking a third term in the Senate due to his self-imposed two-term term limit, on January 16, 2014, Coburn announced he would resign his office before his term ended at the end of the year due to his declining health.[52]
On April 29, 2014, Coburn introduced theInsurance Capital Standards Clarification Act of 2014 (S. 2270; 113th Congress) into the Senate and it passed on June 3, 2014.[53]
Coburn used theSenate hold privilege to prevent several bills from coming to the Senate floor.[54] Coburn earned a reputation for his use of this procedural mechanism.[54] In November 2009 Coburn drew attention for placing a hold on aveterans benefits bill known as the Veterans' Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act.[55][56] Coburn also placed a hold on a bill intended to help end hostilities inUganda by theLord's Resistance Army.[57]
On May 23, 2007, Coburn blocked two bills honoring the 100th birthday ofRachel Carson. Coburn called Carson's scientific work "junk science," proclaiming that Carson's landmark bookSilent Spring was "the catalyst in the deadly worldwide stigmatization againstinsecticides, especiallyDDT."[58] Democratic SenatorBenjamin L. Cardin ofMaryland had intended to submit a resolution celebrating Carson for her "legacy of scientific rigor coupled with poetic sensibility,"[59] but Coburn blocked it, saying that "the junk science and stigma surrounding DDT—the cheapest and most effective insecticide on the planet—have finally been jettisoned."[60]
In response to Coburn's holds,Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid introduced the Advancing America's Priorities Act,S. 3297, in July 2008. S. 3297 combined thirty-five bills which Coburn had blocked into what Democrats called the "Tomnibus" bill.[11][61] The bill included health care provisions, new penalties forchild pornography, and several natural resources bills.[62] The bill failed acloture vote.[63]
Coburn opposed parts of the legislation creating the Lewis and ClarkMount Hood Wilderness Area, which would add protections to wildlands inOregon,Washington, andIdaho.[64] Coburn exercised a hold on the legislation in both March and November 2008,[65][66] and decried the required $10 million for surveying and mapping as wasteful.[67] The Mount Hood bill would have been the largest amount of land added to federal protection since 1984.[67]
In March 2009, thosewilderness areas became protected under theOmnibus Public Land Management Act, which passed the Senate 73–21.[68]
According to theBoston Globe, Coburn initially blocked passage of theGenetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), objecting to provisions in the bill that allow discrimination based on genetic information from embryos and fetuses. After the embryo loophole was closed, Coburn lifted his hold on the bill.[69]
Coburn had initially blocked passage of the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, which would help to disarm the Lord's Resistance Army, a political group accused of human rights abuses. On March 9, 2010, Coburn lifted his hold on the LRA bill freeing it to move to the Senate floor after reaching a compromise regarding the funding of the bill,[70] and an eleven-day protest outside of his office.[71]
Coburn was affiliated with a religious organization calledThe Family. Coburn previously lived in one of the Family'sWashington, D.C. dormitories with then-SenatorJohn Ensign, another Family member and longtime resident of theC Street Center who admitted he had an extramarital affair with a staffer in 2009. The announcement by Ensign of his infidelity brought public scrutiny of the Family and its connection to other high-ranking politicians, including Coburn.[72]
Coburn, together with senior members of the Family, attempted to intervene to end Ensign's affair in February 2008, before the affair became public, including by meeting with the husband of Ensign's mistress and encouraging Ensign to write a letter to his mistress breaking off the affair.[73][74][75] Ensign was driven to a branch ofFedEx from the C Street Center to post the letter, shortly after which Ensign called to tell his mistress to ignore it.[73][74][75]
Coburn refused to speak about his involvement in Ensign's affair or his knowledge of the affair well before it became public, asserting legal privilege due to his statuses as a licensed physician in Oklahoma and a deacon.[76]
In October 2009, Coburn made a statement toThe New York Times about Ensign's affair and cover-up: "John got trapped doing something really stupid and then made a lot of other mistakes afterward. Judgment gets impaired by arrogance and that's what's going on here."[77]
In May 2011, the Senate Ethics Committee identified Coburn in their report on theethics violations of Ensign. The report stated that Coburn knew about Ensign's extramarital affair and was involved in trying to negotiate a financial settlement to cover it up.[78]
Coburn was involved in the Bush Administration's struggle with Congress overwhistleblower rights. In the case ofGarcetti v. Ceballos, theU.S. Supreme Court ruled thatgovernment employees who testify against their employers did not have protection from retaliation by their employers under theFirst Amendment of the Constitution.[79] Thefree speech protections of the First Amendment have long been used to shield whistleblowers from retaliation.[80]
In response to the Supreme Court decision, the House passed H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Act of 2007. Bush, citingnational security concerns, promised toveto the bill should it be passed by Congress. The Senate's version of the Whistleblower Protection Act (S. 274) was approved by theSenate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on June 13, 2007. However, that version failed to reach a vote by the Senate, as Coburn placed a hold on the bill; effectively preventing the passage of the bill, which had bipartisan support in the Senate.[81]
Coburn's website features a news item aboutUnited Nations whistleblower Mathieu Credo Koumoin, a former employee for the U.N. Development Program in West Africa, who has asked U.N. ethics chiefRobert Benson for protection under the U.N.'s whistleblower protection rules.[82] The site has a link to the "United Nations Watch" of the Republican Office of theSenate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security, of which he was the ranking minority member.[83] Coburn's website also features a tip line for potential whistleblowers on government waste and fraud.[84]
Coburn joined CongressmenSue Myrick (R-NC),Trent Franks (R-AZ),John Shadegg (R-AZ),Paul Broun (R-GA) andPatrick McHenry (R-NC) in a letter toIRS CommissionerDouglas H. Shulman on November 16, 2009, asking that theCouncil on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) be investigated for excessive lobbying and failing to register as a lobbying organization.[85] The request came in the wake of the publication of a book,Muslim Mafia, the foreword of which had been penned by Myrick, that portrayed CAIR as a subversive organization allied with internationalterrorists.[86]
On May 26, 2011, Coburn released a 73-page report, "National Science Foundation: Under the Microscope",[87][88] receiving attention fromThe New York Times,Fox News andMSNBC.[89][90][91]
Coburn was one of three senators who voted against theStop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act).[92] On February 3, 2012, Coburn released the following statement regarding the Act:
It's disappointing the Senate spent a week debating a bill that duplicates existing law and fails to address the real problems facing the country. The only way we can restore confidence in Congress is to make hard choices and solve real problems by doing things like reforming our tax code, repairing our safety net and reducing our crushing debt burden. Doing anything less will further alienate the American people and rightfully so.[93]
Coburn was a member of the following committees:
Coburn opposedabortion, with the exception of abortions necessary to save the life of the mother. In 2000, he sponsored a bill to prevent theFood and Drug Administration from developing, testing, or approving theabortifacientRU-486. On July 13, the bill failed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 182 to 187.[94] On the issue, Coburn sparked controversy with his remark, "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life."[8][95] He noted that his great-grandmother wasraped by a sheriff.[96]
Coburn was one of the original authors of the federalPartial-Birth Abortion Ban Act upheld by the United States Supreme Court inGonzales v. Carhart.[97] The act relied on an expansive view of theConstitution'sCommerce Clause, as it applies to "anyphysician who, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly performs apartial-birth abortion."[97] TheAct's reliance on such a broad reading of theCommerce Clause was criticized byIndependence Institute scholarDavid Kopel andUniversity of Tennessee law professorGlenn Reynolds, who noted that "[u]nless a physician is operating a mobile abortion clinic on theMetroliner, it is not really possible to perform an abortion 'in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce.'"[98] When Coburn later called Supreme Court nomineeElena Kagan "ignorant" due to her "very expansive view" of theCommerce Clause, his support for theAct was used by Kagan supporters who charged him with hypocrisy on the issue.[97]
On September 14, 2005, during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nomineeJohn Roberts, Coburn began his opening statement with a critique ofBeltwaypartisan politics while, according to news reports, "choking back a sob."[99] Coburn had earlier been completing acrossword puzzle during the hearings,[99] and this fact was highlighted byThe Daily Show with Jon Stewart to ridicule Coburn'spathos.[100] Coburn then began his questioning by discussing the various legal terms mentioned during the previous day's hearings. Proceeding to questions regarding both abortion and end-of-life issues, Coburn, who noted that during his tenure as an obstetrician he had delivered some 4,000 babies, asked Roberts whether the judge agreed with the proposition that "the opposite of being dead is being alive."
You know I'm going somewhere. One of the problems I have is coming up with just the common sense and logic that if brain wave and heartbeat signifies life, the absence of them signifies death, then the presence of them certainly signifies life. And to say it otherwise, logically is schizophrenic. And that's how I view a lot of the decisions that have come from the Supreme Court on the issue of abortion.[101]
Coburn was aclimate change denier, saying in 2013: "I am a global warming denier, and I don't deny that". He had previously describedclimate science as "crap". In 2011, Coburn introduced a bill with DemocraticMaryland SenatorBen Cardin, to end theethanol blenders' tax credit—a subsidy designed to encourage oil companies to blend more environmentally friendly ethanol into the fuels they sold to drivers.[102] Coburn asserted that climate change was a natural phenomenon, and that it was leading to a "mini-ice age".[103] In 2017, Coburn discussed theParis Agreement and denied the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming. He claimed thatsea level rise had been no more than 5 mm in 25 years, and asserted there was nowglobal cooling.[104]
The best-known of Coburn's amendments was an amendment to the fiscal 2006appropriations bill that funds transportation projects.[105] Coburn's amendment would have transferred funding from theBridge to Nowhere inAlaska to rebuildLouisiana's "Twin Spans" bridge, which was devastated byHurricane Katrina. The amendment was defeated in the Senate, 82–14, afterTed Stevens, the senior senator from Alaska, threatened to resign his office if the amendment were passed. Coburn's actions did result in getting the funds made into a more politically feasibleblock grant to the State of Alaska, which could use the funds for the bridge or other projects. The renovations for theElizabethtownAmtrak Station were cited by Coburn as an example ofpork barrel spending in the stimulus bill.[106]
Coburn was also a member of the Fiscal Watch Team, a group of seven senators led byJohn McCain, whose stated goal was to combat "wasteful government spending."[107][108]
On April 6, 2006, Coburn and SenatorsBarack Obama,Thomas Carper andJohn McCain introduced theFederal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.[109] The bill requires the full disclosure of all entities and organizations receivingfederal funds beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2007 on a website maintained by theOffice of Management and Budget. The bill was signed into law on September 26, 2006.[110]
Coburn and McCain noted that the practice of members of Congress addingearmarks had risen dramatically over the years, from 121 earmarks in 1987 to 15,268 earmarks in 2005, according to theCongressional Research Service.[111]
In July 2007, Coburn criticized pork-barrel spending that Nebraska SenatorBen Nelson had inserted into the 2007defense spending bill. Coburn said that the earmarks would benefit Nelson's son Patrick's employer with millions in federal dollars and that the situation violated terms of the Transparency Act, which was passed by the Senate but had not yet been voted on in the House. Nelson's spokesperson said the Senator did nothing wrong.[112] At that time, newspapers inNebraska and Oklahoma noted that Coburn failed to criticize very similar earmarks that had benefited Oklahoma.[113]
In 1997, Coburn introduced a bill called theHIV Prevention Act of 1997, which would have amended theSocial Security Act. The bill would have required confidential notification ofHIV exposure to the sexual partners of those diagnosed with HIV, along with counseling and testing.[114]
In 2010, Coburn called for a freeze on defense spending.[115] Coburn served on the Simpson-Bowles debt reduction commission in 2010 and was one of the only Republicans in Congress open to tax increases as a means of balancing the budget.[116]
In 2011 Coburn broke withAmericans for Tax Reform with an ethanol amendment that gathered 70 votes in the Senate. He said that anti-tax activistGrover Norquist's influence was overstated, and that revenue increases were needed in order to "fix the country."[117][118]
In 2012, Coburn identified less than $7 billion a year in possible defense savings and over half of these savings were to be through the elimination of military personnel involved insupply,transportation, andcommunications services.[119]
In May 2013, aftertornadoes ripped through his state, Coburn said that any new funding allocated for disaster relief needed to be offset by cuts to other federal spending.[120]
Coburn was a fierce critic of the plan to attempt to defund theAffordable Care Act byshutting down the federal government, saying that the strategy was "doomed to fail" and thatTed Cruz and others who supported the plan had a "short-term goal with lousy tactics".[7]
In regards to theSecond Amendment, Coburn believed that it "recognizes the right of individual, law-abiding citizens to own and usefirearms," and he opposed "any and all efforts to mandategun control on law-abiding citizens."[121] On theCredit CARD Act of 2009, which aimed "to establish fair and transparent practices relating to the extension of credit under an open-end consumer credit plan and for other purposes,"[122] Coburn sponsored an amendment that would allowconcealed carry of firearms innational parks. The Senate passed the amendment 67–29.[123]
Coburn placed a hold on final Senate consideration of a measure passed by the House in the wake of theVirginia Tech shootings to improve state performance in checking the federal watch list of gun buyers.[124] However, after theSandy Hook massacre in December 2012, Coburn (who had already announced he would not run for re-election) reversed himself and came out in support ofuniversal background checks.[125] Coburn partnered with Democratic members of the Senate such asCharles Schumer andJoe Manchin (to whose re-election campaign Coburn donated money[126]) to determine what a universal background check measure should look like. However, these talks ultimately broke down, and in April 2013, Coburn was one of 46 senators to vote against the amendment in its final form, defeating its passage.[127][128]
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Coburn voted against thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009,[129] and against theHealth Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.[130]
Coburn co-authored the Patients Choice Act of 2009[131] (S. 1099), a Republican plan forhealth care reform in the United States,[132] which required the U.S.Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to convene an interagency coordinating committee to develop a national strategic plan for prevention in its first section, and provided for health promotion and disease prevention activities consistent with such a plan, while seeking to terminate theAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality.[133] The act set forth provisions governing the establishment and operation of state-based health care exchanges to facilitate the individual purchase of private health insurance, and the creation of a market where private health plans compete for enrollees based on price and quality; it intended to amend theInternal Revenue Code to allow a refundable tax credit for qualified health care insurance coverage. The act also set forth programs to prevent Medicare fraud and abuse, including ending the use of social security numbers to identify Medicare beneficiaries.
During theadministration of President George W. Bush, Coburn spoke out against the threat by some Democrats tofilibuster nominations to judicial andExecutive Branch positions. He took the position that no presidential nomination should ever be filibustered, in light of the wording of theU.S. Constitution. Coburn said, "There is a defined charge to the president and the Senate on advice and consent."[134]
In May 2009, Coburn was the only Senator to vote against the confirmation ofGil Kerlikowske as theDirector of the National Drug Control Policy.[135]
Coburn opposedsame-sex marriage. In 2006, he voted in support of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban it.[136]
On May 24, 2007, the U.S. Senate voted 80–14 to fund thewar in Iraq, which includedU.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007. Coburn voted nay.[137] On October 1, 2007, the Senate voted 92–3 to fund the war in Iraq. Coburn voted nay.[138] In February 2008, Coburn said, "I will tell you personally that I think it was probably a mistake going toIraq."[139]
On December 15, 2014, Coburn stalled the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act aimed at stemming veteran suicides. The bill would require a report on successful veteran suicide prevention programs and allow theUnited States Veterans Administration to pay incentives to hire psychiatrists. Paul Rieckhoff, CEO ofIraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said that despite his reputation as a budget hawk, Coburn should have recognized that the $22 million cost of the bill is worth the lives it would have saved. "It's a shame that after two decades of service in Washington, Sen. Coburn will always be remembered for this final, misguided attack on veterans nationwide," he said. "If it takes 90 days for the new Congress to re-pass this bill, the statistics tell us another 1,980 vets will have died by suicide. That should be a heavy burden on the conscience of Sen. Coburn and this Congress." Speaking out against the legislation, Coburn said "I object, not because I don't want to save suicides, but because I don't think this bill will do the first thing to change what's happening," arguing that the bill "throws money and doesn't solve the real problem".[140]
After resigning from the Senate, Coburn joinedCitizens for Self-Governance as a senior advisor to the group's Convention of States project, which seeks to convene aconvention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution.[141][142] In 2017, he authored a book on the subject titledSmashing the DC Monopoly: Using Article V to Restore Freedom and Stop Runaway Government.[143]
Coburn was affiliated with theManhattan Institute for Policy Research, consulting on the institute's Project FDA, an effort to promote faster drug approval processes.[13] He also sat on the board of theBenjamin Rush Institute, a conservative association of medical students across 20 medical schools.[144] In 2016, he became a Manhattan Institute senior fellow.[14]
In 2013, Coburn received theU.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by theJefferson Awards.[145]
Despite their stark ideological differences, Coburn was a close friend of PresidentBarack Obama. Their friendship began in 2005 when they botharrived in the Senate at the same time.[146] They worked together onpolitical ethics reform legislation,[147] to set up an online federal spending database and to crack down onno-bid contracting at theFederal Emergency Management Agency in the wake ofHurricane Katrina. In April 2011, Coburn spoke toBloomberg TV about Obama, saying, "I love the man. I think he's a neat man. I don't want him to be president, but I still love him. He is our President. He's my President. And I disagree with him adamantly on 95% of the issues, but that doesn't mean I can't have a great relationship. And that's a model people ought to follow."[148]
Before the2009 BCS game between theOklahoma Sooners and theFlorida Gators, Coburn made a bet over the outcome of the game withFlorida SenatorBill Nelson—the loser had to serenade the winner with a song. The Gators defeated the Sooners and Coburn sangElton John's "Rocket Man" to Nelson, who had once flown into space.[149]
In November 2013, Coburn made public that he had been diagnosed withprostate cancer. In 2011, he had prostate cancer surgery while also survivingcolon cancer andmelanoma. His illness led him to resign from the Senate in 2015.[150][151][152]
Coburn died at his home in Tulsa on March 28, 2020, two weeks after his 72nd birthday.[37][153] A memorial service to honor his life was held a year later on May 1, 2021, at South Tulsa Baptist Church.[154]
| Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd party | Party | Votes | Pct | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Virgil R. Cooper | 75,943 | 48% | Tom Coburn | 82,479 | 52% | |||||||
| 1996 | Glen D. Johnson | 90,120 | 45% | Tom Coburn(incumbent) | 112,273 | 55% | |||||||
| 1998 | Kent Pharaoh | 59,042 | 40% | Tom Coburn(incumbent) | 85,581 | 58% | Albert Jones | Independent | 3,641 | 2% |
| Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd party | Party | Votes | Pct | 3rd party | Party | Votes | Pct | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Brad Carson | 596,750 | 41% | Tom Coburn | 763,433 | 53% | Sheila Bilyeu | Independent | 86,663 | 6% | ||||||||
| 2010 | Jim Rogers | 265,519 | 26% | Tom Coburn(incumbent) | 716,347 | 71% | Stephen Wallace | Independent | 25,048 | 2% | Ronald Dwyer | Independent | 7,807 | 1% |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromOklahoma's 2nd congressional district 1995–2001 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromOklahoma (Class 3) 2004,2010 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. senator (Class 3) from Oklahoma 2005–2015 Served alongside:Jim Inhofe | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Homeland Security Committee 2013–2015 | Succeeded by |
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