Tulsa World: Senate approves veteran health bill, rejects Coburn amendment

Home > News > Article

Comment

RSS

Bookmark

Senate approves veteran health bill, rejects Coburn amendment

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn. Tulsa World File

By JIM MYERS World Washington Bureau
Published: 11/19/2009 2:52 PM
Last Modified: 11/20/2009 5:38 AM

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate approved a bill Thursday to provide benefits to certain disabled veterans and their caregivers after rejecting an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn, who had been blocking action on the measure.

The vote against the Coburn amendment was 32 to 66.

Key provisions of the legislation would provide a stipend and other benefits to caregivers for severely wounded veterans as well as ensure equal access to female veterans and expand service to veteran in rural areas.

One of Coburn's main objections was that the bill, which he said would cost $3.7 billion over five years, was not paid for, and he said he had offered its sponsors a list of other areas that could be cut to offset the measure.

He said his amendment would take a percentage of the money now going to the United Nations, which he described as a wasteful, corrupt organization.

Coburn also criticized the bill for excluding certain benefits to veterans from previous wars.

Veterans should be treated the same, he said.

Democrats warned that taking money away from U.N. peace-keeping efforts would increase the chances of war in a number of areas of the world and, in the end, cost the U.S. more.

They also defended the bill's approach on its benefits, but Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said he would work with Coburn to expand the eligibility. Providing benefits to veterans is an obligation of lawmakers, Democrats argued.

By JIM MYERS World Washington Bureau

Comment

RSS

Bookmark

Reader Comments

Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "Senate OKs bill to help veterans," which was published on 11/20/2009. So far, 77 comments have been made.