Sen Coburn holds up millions of dollars for Haiti

[butterfly77]

Last spring, the United States pledged nearly $1.2 billion in emergency aid to Haiti following its tragic earthquake that left hundreds of thousands of people dead and many more homeless.

Yet the Associated Press (AP) reports today that “not a cent of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived” to Haitians who badly the need the aid. This summer, both the House and the Senate passed a bill that would make $917 million available for Haiti reconstruction aid. Yet Congress must also pass an authorization bill that directs exactly how the money will be spent, and thus far, the U.S. Senate has failed to do.

The AP conducted its own investigation of why the Senate has failed to pass the authorization bill, and it discovered that a single senator “pulled it for further study.” After calling dozens of senators’ offices, the AP discovered that the senator holding up the bill is Tom Coburn (R-OK). Coburn spokeswoman Becky Berhardt explained that the reason he is holding up the bill is because he objects to the creation of a senior Haiti coordinator — a position that would cost a paltry $5 million over five years — when the United States currently has an ambassador to the country:

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/29/coburn-haiti-earthquake-objection/

[AtomicKitten]

1. Disgraceful. Now Haiti is dealing with a cholera outbreak.

Shame on that *&%#@(% assclown. :mad:

[bigdarryl]

2. thats old news Joe Madison spoke about this three weeks ago

[butterfly77]

3. I know but,,

I want to make sure people don't forget or those who didn't get it the first time. Some people have to be reminded about issues over and over and over..

Coburn is an asshole and I want to make sure people know it when he shows up on tv trying to pretend as though he feels for them..

[CanonRay]

4. Good Christian man!

[Kaleva]

5. Unreced. Has already been debunked in an earlier thread.

" Foreign Policy's Josh Rogin writes that Coburn is actually not responsible for holding up all Haitian reconstruction aid because the $1.15 billion is already appropriated to help Haiti, unrelated to Coburn's hold on an authorization bill -- "authorization bills, like the one that Coburn objects to, are useful for setting out Congressional direction on how money should be spend, but aren't strictly necessary to the disbursement of the funds. The appropriations bills are the ones that actually spend the money."

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/29/coburn-haiti-earthquake-objection/

""Senator Coburn's hold is not related to the $1.15 billion pledge made by the administration in March," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told The Cable. He explained that the State Department and Congress are still working on how exactly to spend the money, totally apart from Coburn's hold on the separate authorization bill."

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/10/18/jon_stewart_was_wrong_coburn_is_not_holding_up_the_haiti_relief_money