Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is preparing for Round Three with Sen. Tom Coburn over a package of bills the conservative Republican has blocked — and some predict the fight won’t stop there.
Several Republican Senate aides say Reid is preparing to have Coburn (Okla.) removed from the Judiciary Committee. Meanwhile, a Senate Democratic source said leaders are looking to target Coburn for defeat in 2010, although the source acknowledges that’s a tall task given the senator’s popularity in a state that has become more Republican over the past few years.
{mosads}It appears that Reid, a former boxer in his youth, has reached the limits of his patience with Coburn, who has earned the nickname “Senator No” for his efforts to block the Democratic agenda.
Reid plans to reintroduce a package of bills that Coburn held up during the 110th Congress, deciding to pass it as one of the first orders of business of the 111th Congress.
The package is known unofficially as the “Coburn omnibus” because it includes dozens of bills — some dictating specific uses for federal land, others authorizing funds for earmarks, still others earmarking federal funds for local projects — that Coburn obstructed at some point.
Coburn says the bill contains $11 billion worth of unnecessary parochial spending.
“We thought we were going to get change with [President-elect] Barack Obama. This absolutely doesn’t represent change,” Coburn said in an interview Tuesday. “There are a ton of wasteful projects in here.”
Coburn is insinuating that Democrats are hypocrites. While Obama is taking a hard line against earmarks and warning members to keep them out of the stimulus, Reid is moving a separate package of bills loaded with pet projects for members.
When asked about that charge, Reid paused for several seconds before putting Coburn firmly in his place.
“Dr. Coburn wants to run the Senate. … He does not run the Senate,” Reid said during a sit-down interview with The Hill.
Regan Lachapelle, Reid’s spokeswoman, said Coburn has made false claims because the bill does not actually appropriate any spending.
Watchdog groups tracking federal spending disagree that spending authorizations are so different from earmarks.
“Authorization earmarks are earmarks that lobbyists salivate over because they put projects in the game that wouldn’t be there otherwise; it’s paving the way for future pork,” said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Reid’s aide argued, however, that Democrats have done significantly more than Republicans to combat problems associated with earmarks.
“Democrats have led the way to provide transparency in congressionally directed funding to prevent the types of abuse we saw during Republican control,” said Lachapelle. “Congress is a separate but equal branch of government, and it is our job to help fund local priorities. This legislation will help protect wilderness areas across the nation and has broad bipartisan support.”
Tensions between Reid and Coburn began to boil last April when Coburn objected during a routine voice vote on a bill Reid sponsored to study environmental causes of breast cancer.
{mospagebreak}“You cannot negotiate with Coburn — it’s just something that you learn over the years is a waste of time,” Reid declared at a news conference that month.
The prickliness of the relationship is well-known among senators.
“I’m sure it’s a frustrating one for Reid, but he has to recognize the senator has rights,” said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.).
{mosads}Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said that rank-and-file Democratic senators respect Coburn but that Democratic leaders view him with anything but affection.
“I suspect the guys who like to railroad everything through here are not happy with him,” Sessions said.
Coburn’s serial threats to filibuster small spending and authorization bills have delayed scores of bills that in past years would have passed the Senate without notice.
Last summer, Reid decided to overcome Coburn by bundling those bills in a single incentive-laden package that could develop the momentum needed to pass the Senate. Reid included popular legislation such as the Emmett Till Unsolved Crimes Act, a measure dealing with unsolved civil rights crimes, to increase the political pressure on Coburn.
When the package failed to pass, Reid marshaled a second effort in the fall. This time he added to the mix the Combating Child Exploitation Act, which had the strong support of daytime TV megastar Oprah Winfrey.
Winfrey, who draws more than 40 million viewers weekly, urged her fans to call senators and ask them to pass the child-exploitation measure. The package, however, got lost in the wash as lawmakers turned their attention to the growing financial crisis.
Several Republican aides and conservative activists predict that Reid will attempt to knock Coburn off the Judiciary Committee by cutting the apportionment of Republican seats on the panel. Coburn, the most junior Republican member, would lose his place if Democrats cut GOP seats.
Coburn has explored steps to stay on the panel, which has broad jurisdiction over legal issues — including abortion rights — and is tasked with vetting Supreme Court nominees. He and Brownback have discussed the possibility of Brownback giving up his Judiciary assignment so Coburn can remain in place.
Brownback confirmed those discussions with The Hill but declined to reveal any details.
Some Democrats would also like to put pressure on Coburn by targeting his 2010 reelection bid.
A senior Democratic source said leaders would look at targeting Coburn but added that the chances of beating him are small. The source noted that Coburn rates more popular than fellow Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe (R) in public surveys and that Democrats failed to defeat Inhofe in November, despite the favorable political environment for Democrats.
Bob Cusack contributed to this article.