Tag Archives: Senator Coburn

Articles of Interest

DHS Numbers Don’t Pencil Out

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By Breaking News

Last fall, Senator Coburn sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding an explanation by the end of November for the agency’s reported purchase of massive quantities of ammunition. Yesterday, Dr. Coburn released correspondence that he finally received from DHS purporting to explain the purchases.

First, here’s what was disclosed by DHS: As of November 2012, it had over 263 million rounds of ammunition on hand. The agency said it was purchasing an additional $37 million of ammunition in this fiscal year, but did not give the actual number of rounds. Using the prior year’s cost per round of approximately 35 cents, it appears that DHS is adding another 105 million rounds on top of the 263 million on hand, minus rounds consumed in training and operations this fiscal year.

Using this 363 million round figure, the agency’s explanation for its large purchases can be assessed. For Immigration (ICE), DHS claims that 1,000 rounds per firearm per year are necessary for training. Assuming training of 250 rounds per quarter, this estimate seems reasonable.

The Federal Protective Service or “FPS” (the agency charged with protecting federal facilities owned or leased by the General Services Administration) also uses “1000 rounds of ammunition per firearm per year for quarterly qualifications and training.” Again, another reasonable number.

Read more at Restoring Liberty. By Joe Miller.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Articles of Interest

Gun Control: Tom Coburn Holds The Keys To Obama’s Agenda

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

WASHINGTON — As President Barack Obama gets set to barnstorm outside the Beltway in hopes of salvaging his gun policy reforms, the prospects of passing legislation of significance rests firmly on a single Republican lawmaker. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) finds himself at the epicenter of the gun debate as it enters a critical stage in the next few weeks.

Coburn’s unwillingness to endorse a background check compromise has frustrated Democrats, who spent weeks negotiating legislative language with him. But he has conspicuously kept lines of communication open with the gun bill’s chief author, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). In the process, Coburn has become a veritable funnel for legislative activity. Reform advocates feel they need Coburn’s blessing in order to get a significant number of Republican votes, mainly because Republicans are deferring all entreaties to him.

“I think there are a bunch of Democrats who want to get a bill and a bunch of Republicans who don’t want a bill at all,” said Third Way’s Jim Kessler, a longtime gun control advocate who has been pushing background check legislation on the Hill. “And then there are a bunch of Republicans and Democrats who want to do a bill that won’t be as strong as Democrats want. All of them have said Tom Coburn is going to do the negotiations for us. When we visited Republican offices to talk about it a bunch of them have said, ‘We know Senator Coburn is negotiating on this and we will wait to see what he does.'”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

News, Politics, Government

Senate Confirms Robert Bacharach to the United States Court of Appeals

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By Jennifer Palmieri

This evening the Senate confirmed Robert Bacharach to the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Oklahoma. Judge Bacharach waited 263 days for a Senate floor vote, only to be approved overwhelmingly, by a vote of 93-0. Not only was Judge Bacharach supported by the two Republican Senators from Oklahoma, he was recommended to the White House for this judgeship by Senator Coburn in October 2011. Yet, early last summer, Senate Republicans blocked Judge Bacharach from even getting an up or down vote – the first successful filibuster of a judicial nominee who had bipartisan support in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In short, Republicans recommended Robert Bacharach for this important position, endorsed him publicly, supported him nearly unanimously out of the Judiciary Committee, then blocked him from getting a vote – and now, after almost a year of pointless delay, joined in unanimously confirming him. Even Senator Coburn, himself a participant in this partisan chicanery, called this “stupid.”

Unfortunately this is not a unique case. On February 13, the Senate confirmed William Kayatta for the First Circuit from Maine. His nomination languished for 300 days, yet he was easily confirmed with 88 Senators supporting him. And next up is Richard Taranto for the Federal Circuit, whose nomination has been pending for 333 days.

To put this obstruction in some perspective, the average wait time for President George W. Bush’s federal appellate judicial nominees, from Committee vote to confirmation, at this point in his presidency was 35 days. By contrast, the average wait time for President Obama’s federal appellate judicial nominees has been 147 days.

Today, there are 14 judicial nominees pending before the Senate, most of whom were approved by the Judiciary Committee unanimously and several of whom would fill judicial emergency seats. An additional 21 nominees are pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee. These 35, highly-qualified nominees signify the President’s unprecedented commitment to a judiciary that reflects the nation it serves: 17 are women; 6 are African American; 6 are Hispanic; 4 are Asian American; and 5 are openly gay.

The Senate should move to confirm all of the judicial nominees pending before it. These nominees deserve immediate consideration by the full Senate, and the interest of justice demands it.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at The White House