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Sen. Coburn objects to bipartisan disaster-loan legislation |
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By Elana Schor
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Posted: 07/18/07 08:12 PM [ET] |
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) objected to unanimous passage of a bipartisan disaster-loan bill yesterday, citing concerns with the measure’s financial safeguards.
Small Business Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a vocal advocate for hurricane recovery in her state, blasted Coburn for holding up the bill, which the Bush administration and several GOP senators have endorsed.
“This bill has been fully vetted, has bipartisan support, and we’ve taken care to make changes to address every single concern raised,” Kerry said in a statement. “Yet here we are today with Republicans blocking the very tools we need in Washington to get aid out to disaster victims quickly without red-tape bureaucracy.”
The conservative freshman frequently uses the Senate’s member prerogatives to slow legislation he deems fiscally irresponsible. In that vein, Coburn is concerned that the disaster-loan bill encourages banks to make risky loans by offering a government guarantee of 85 percent for defaults, spokesman John Hart said.
Coburn also sees the potential for member earmarking to spread to business-loan approvals if the bill passes, giving Congress more leeway ultimately to define the nature of domestic disasters. Hart also cited the lack of offsets in the bill and a provision he dubbed “no ski resort left behind,” which would assess the government’s ability to offer economic-injury loans to companies “adversely affected by a lack of snowfall.”
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