Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) reportedly might block the 9/11 First Responders bill, or at least slow it down, according to Politico.
Politico reports that last night Coburn said “he wouldn’t allow the bill to move quickly, saying he has problems with parts of the bill and the process Democrats are employing.”
Though New York Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, both Democrats, have been predicting that the bill will pass, Coburn isn’t convinced, saying on Fox News today that passage of the bill is a “maybe, doubtful.”
He asked: “What happened to the money that’s already up there? They can’t give us any significant accounting for whether or not we spent it effectively,” adding that “this bill hasn’t even been through a committee.”
“This is a bill,” Coburn continued, “that’s been drawn up and forced through Congress at the end of the year on a basis to solve a problem that we didn’t have time to solve and we didn’t get done.”
“Their hearts are in a good place,” he said. “Their heads not in a good place. We can do this next year, and we should.”
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
Facebook Conversations
Questions about commenting with non-Facebook accounts like Yahoo, or other concerns? Click here to read the TPM Commenting FAQ.