Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, in March, our country lost a great statesman and my fellow ``squealer,'' former Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. A family physician who delivered more than 4,000 babies, he was known as ``Dr. Tom'' in Oklahoma, but in Washington he was called ``Dr. No'' because of his fierce opposition to adding more red ink to the national debt.

Having served just 10 years in the Senate before retiring in 2019, the year I was elected, I never had the honor to serve alongside Dr. Coburn. Nonetheless, his leadership and his efforts to eliminate government waste and overreach continues to be an inspiration to me and to many others.

``If you cannot find waste in any part of the Federal budget,'' he once commented, ``it can only be for one reason--you haven't looked.'' Many of the outlandish examples he exposed are now what I call legendary. Take, for example, the shrimp on a treadmill, and of course there was the ``bridge to nowhere.''

Every Federal agency in Washington feared the notoriety of being called out in Dr. Coburn's annual report of government excess known as the waste book. He led the fight that ended congressional earmarks that were known as pork projects. While others got credit for creating new government programs, Dr. Coburn took on the thankless job of trying to unravel the maze of duplicative, overlapping programs and redundant and inefficient bureaucracy.

The law he authored requiring the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, to identify duplication within Federal programs has saved our taxpayers more than $260 billion to date. I think the head of GAO said it best; that this law is ``the gift that keeps on giving, and it will for a long time.'' This effort is not just saving money; it is making government more efficient in other important ways.

An egregious example found that as a result of Coburn's duplication law, there are 10 different agencies with 23 different overlapping and fragmented definitions for sexual violence. If we can't even define the problem, how are we going to stop it, folks? That is why I am proud to say that I have joined Senator Ron Johnson's efforts to clarify the definition of sexual violence and improve data collection so that we can address this issue head on.

Another law Coburn authored with none other than then-Senator Barack Obama put all Federal expenditures online so that taxpayers could simply Google to find out how their tax dollars are being spent. Hailed as the greatest government transparency reform since the Freedom of Information Act, the public website, USAspending.gov is helping to keep Washington accountable for how every cent is spent. If you go on the website today you can find ridiculous examples of binge-buying bureaucrats who are ringing up tens of billions of dollars of last- minute, unnecessary purchases at the end of a fiscal year, splurging on unnecessary things like tons of Tater Tots, $4.6 million on crab legs and lobster, and even a foosball table. When I heard of this outlandish spending, I embraced my inner Tom Coburn and took action, putting forward a bill to end Washington's year-end, use-it-or-lose-it spending sprees.

Folks, Tom Coburn was not afraid to work across the aisle to find compromise without compromising his principles or values. There is no better example than the friendship he struck up with President Obama. The two were elected to the Senate the same year, and they were on opposite sides of nearly every major issue during their time in Washington. Yet Dr. Coburn would regularly call to offer encouragement to President Obama and pray for him and his family. The two of them could even be spotted hugging and laughing together at the State of the Union Address.

At a time when the focus too often is on what separates rather than unites us, these are relationship goals we should all aspire to achieve with one another if we hope to tackle the unprecedented problems now facing our Nation.

Our hearts and prayers are with Dr. Coburn's wife Carolyn and his daughters and grandchildren as they grieve his loss. While he can never be replaced, we can all take comfort knowing Tom Coburn has made this world a better place and that the legacy he left behind endures through many of his staff members as well, such as Roland Foster, who is now on my staff. The legacy he left behind endures and the crusade he championed continues.

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