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American Legion ups pressure on Coburn

The American Legion is organizing a grassroots campaign in Oklahoma to try to persuade Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to lift his hold on S 1963, an omnibus veterans bill, so it can be approved and enacted.

“We are contacting Legionnaires in Oklahoma to inform them about how their senator is delaying the bill and what that means for veterans, especially seriously injured veterans and their families,” said Steve Robertson, the Legion’s national legislative director.

The idea is that Legionnaires in Oklahoma would be able to spread the word to bring pressure on Coburn to change his mind, Robertson said.

Coburn is using Senate procedures to delay a vote on the Veterans’ Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act because he wants to be able to offer an amendment that would pay for the new caregiver benefits, which would include monthly stipends, health care, counseling and other services.

Senate leaders do not want to allow the amendments, hoping to pass the bill quickly before Veterans Day, but Coburn — using rights available to every senator — has been able to prevent this from happening.

Robertson said he has spoken with Coburn’s staff about releasing the hold on the bill, to no avail, because Coburn’s top concern is reducing deficit spending.

“Veterans are not the reason for the federal deficit,” Robertson said. “There are other ways for Sen. Coburn to attack the deficit, if that is what he wants, without holding up this bill.”

Robertson said the grassroots campaign targeted at a single senator is not unprecedented. “Twenty years ago, when I first came to Washington, there were holds on bills all of the time, and we fought them,” he said. “We are just doing the same thing now.”

Senate aides, speaking on the condition of not being identified, said it appears unlikely that the Senate will take up S 1963 before Veterans Day, and that even if the Senate passed the measure, new benefits for caregivers could not take effect until the House passes an identical measure.

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