WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture spent $19 million in 2006 sending staff to conferences in such places as Las Vegas, Orlando and Hawaii, Sen. Tom Coburn said.
Among the trips were one to attend a “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” seminar in Las Vegas and others to Australia for conferences on fungus and crawdads, said Coburn, R-Muskogee.
In all, the agency sent 21,000 employees to 6,719 conferences in 2006 at a real cost of $19 million and “an unknown cost to taxpayers in lost productivity,” a report by Coburn states.
“At a time when millions of Americans are being forced to tighten their belts, it is obscene that politicians in Washington are refusing to rein in wasteful spending,” he said Monday.
Coburn, the top Republican on the Senate’s federal financial management subcommittee, has been proposing cuts to agency travel for conferences since coming to the Senate in 2005. He authored an amendment to the recently passed farm bill to require the Agriculture Department to post details on conference travel online.
Coburn said federal agencies spent more than $2 billion on conferences from 2000 through 2006. The Agriculture Department spent $90 million on conferences in that time, he said.
And he said the report issued Monday is the first in a series of agency oversight reports he plans to release.
“Whether it is sending 270 employees in one year to Mickey Mouse’s house in Orlando, attending 28 separate 2006 conferences in Hawaii, or spending a quarter-of-a-million dollars on Las Vegas resort-based conferences, these USDA trips have the appearance of a ‘spring break’ mentality,” he said.
The response from USDA officials
USDA spokesman Keith Williams said, “In total, the cost of conferences is approximately 0.02 percent of USDA’s total expenditures, and when used appropriately, conferences can have a tremendous public benefit.
“Examples include our annual Civil Rights Partners’ Meeting, where minority farmers from across the country are given the opportunity to interact with high-level officials; and meetings to facilitate food aid to disaster victims and developing nations.
“Recently, USDA completed a review of its conference policy. To help contain expenses and continue educating our employees, the department has revised its policies, including the implementation of an online training system.
“This past year, over 1 million courses were completed by employees at USDA.”
“At a time when millions of Americans are being forced to tighten their belts, it is obscene that politicians in Washington are refusing to rein in wasteful spending.”
Former Democrat state Rep. Randall Erwin on Thursday was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly steering state funds to a phony nonprofit and receiving kickbacks from its owner, southeast Oklahoma businessman Steven Phipps.
The indictment alleges that Erwin, former Democrat state Rep. Mike Mass and another, unnamed person were involved in the conspiracy to steer state funds to the Rural Development Foundation. The third, unnamed alleged co-conspirator is former Democrat state Rep. Jerry Hefner, a source close to the investigation confirmed.
Money from the phony nonprofit foundation was then funnelled to Indian Nation Entertainment, a company owned by Phipps, the indictment alleges. Erwin, Mass and Hefner used their influence to have INE gaming machines placed in Indian casinos, according to the indictment. Phipps then periodically paid the three an agreed upon percentage of gross profits from the machines in cash, the indictment alleges.
The indictment does not say how much was paid to the former lawmakers.
Conviction of any of the seven counts in the indictment is punishable by 5 to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 to $500,000 each, U.S. Attorney Sheldon Sperling said.
Phipps is the former business partner of former longtime state Sen. Gene Stipe.
Stipe’s brother, Francis, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud, witness-tampering and engaging in an illegal monetary transaction. The charges included an allegation that Francis Stipe engaged in an illegal monetary transaction that directly dealt with a $48,000 kickback paid to Mass and drawn on Gene Stipe’s account.
Republican state senators unanimously voted to designate Sen. Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, to be the next President Pro Tempore of the Oklahoma State Senate. The President Pro Tem is the Senate’s top leader.
“I am honored and humbled by the confidence my colleagues have shown by entrusting me with the leadership of our caucus,” stated Coffee.
“Senate Republicans have the issues on our side, and we are confident that Oklahomans will make history in 2008 by electing the first-ever Republican majority to the Senate. As Republicans have already shown while sharing power in the Senate the past two years, we are ready and able to lead the Senate in bringing positive and innovative changes to Oklahoma,” Coffee said.
Under the rules of the Senate Republican Caucus the remainder of the Senate GOP’s leadership team will be chosen following the general election this November.
Coffee currently serves as Co-President Pro Tempore under the power sharing agreement that governs the evenly divided State Senate. As part of the Senate’s power sharing arrangement, Coffee became the first Republican in history to serve as the Senate’s President Pro Tempore in July 2007.
The Senate has 24 Republicans and 24 Democrats, but a net gain of a single seat in 2008 would make the GOP the Senate’s majority party for the first time in Oklahoma history.
Republicans have had a net gain of at least two State Senate seats every in election since 2000, netting three seats in 2000; two seats in 2002; two seats in 2004; one seat in a May 2006 special election; and two more seats in the 2006 general elections. Conversely, it has been 18 years since Democrats last had a net gain of seats in the State Senate.
Hillary Clinton has defeated media darling and uberliberal front-runner Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. The win keeps alive Clinton’s slim hopes for winning the White House.
Clinton was winning 55 percent of the vote to 45 percent for her rival with 80 percent of the vote counted, and she hoped, likely in vain, for significant inroads into Obama’s overall lead in the competition for delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
“It’s a long road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and it runs right through the heart of Pennsylvania.” Clinton said at a victory rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
Despite being outspent by almost a 7-to-1 margin by the Obama campaign, Clinton scored her Pennsylvania victory by winning the votes of blue-collar workers, women and white men in an election where the economy was the dominant concern.
The NBA’s board of governors approved Friday the relocation of the Seattle Supersonics to Oklahoma City.
The board voted 28-2 in favor of the relocation. The two teams that voted against relocation were Dallas and Portland. However, city officials in Seattle said Thursday that they aren’t worried about the vote, focused instead on battling team owners in court.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said he’s not worried about the board of governors’ vote in New York on Friday because city officials expect the proposal to be approved. Nickels said his focus is in litigation.
However, Sonics’ owner Clay Bennett fired back at the city of Seattle earlier this week, saying the city is simply trying to “increase the financial bleeding” by making the Sonics play in Key Arena for the remainder of the team’s lease. That lease runs through the 2009-10 NBA season.
The last two NBA team moves passed on a combined vote of 59-to-1. They included the Hornets relocating from Charlotte to New Orleans and the Grizzlies from Vancouver to Memphis.
Bennett could write a huge check to avoid the courts, a windfall Seattle might not be able to refuse. The city already has rejected Bennett’s offer of $26 million to settle the lease agreement.
Bennett wanted Washington taxpayers to help pay for a $500 million arena, but legislators balked at the idea. The state used tax money to build Safeco Field for baseball’s Mariners and Qwest Field for the NFL’s Seahawks.
It’s a Red trend in Oklahoma, and seems even State Senator and Democrat opponent to our very own Senator Jim Inhofe knows it… can you figure out which of these things is exactly like the other?
UPDATED! 4/17/08… Andy Rice spotted at some sort of rally or something… who cares, it’s the tie we want!
Here’s Andrew talking to some constituents…
Here’s Andrew introducing some legislation…
In this picture Andrew is buying cookies…
Andrew on TV…
And some nice portrait shots…
We ask our always astute readers: which of these things is exactly like the other?
The Oklahoma State House and State Senate both voted today to override Governor Brad Henry’s veto of a bill that would require an ultrasound before allowing an abortion in the State.
It is the first gubernatorial veto overridden by the State Legislature since the administration of former Governor David Walters.
“I want to thank my Senate and House colleagues for taking a stand for the unborn and for the sanctity of life by overriding this unconscionable veto,” said Senator Todd Lamb, R-Edmond.
Governor Henry said he based his veto on the factually inaccurate assertion that the bill forces victims of rape and incest to view an ultrasound of their unborn baby.
Either Henry decided to use his veto pen without being full informed, or he is lying about the reasoning behind his choices. The Editors ask you to be the judge.
UPDATE: Since posting this video, The Oklahoman published a fine editorial on Coburn’s little exchange with Sen. Domenici (R-NM). We are so proud of our state’s junior senator that we wanted to update this story with that editorial.
During a debate prior to the 2004 election for U.S. Senate, then-candidate Tom Coburn told an audience of business leaders he wouldn’t apologize for swimming against the current while he was in Congress. “The fact is, we need more people to challenge the establishment in Washington,” he said.
Coburn is now more than halfway through his first term in the Senate, and there’s no sign he has tired of being that body’s leading irritant, particularly when it comes to questioning how the federal government spends our money.
The latest clash came last week during debate over a huge bill that dealt with public parks, land and water studies, and other items. For several weeks, Coburn, R-Muskogee, had been holding up action on the bill, which was actually a combination of more than 60 bills, because of concerns about some of the costs. The bill had broad support in the Senate and eventually received overwhelming approval.
But before that happened, Coburn sparred with veteran Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico over the financial impact of the bill. Domenici said it would generate millions of dollars over four years; Coburn said it would cost hundreds of millions. Domenici took a jab at Coburn, saying he was “a phenomenon, but he isn’t that great.”
The Oklahoman’s Chris Casteel reports that riled Coburn, who later said getting scolded for not doing business “the way we’ve always done it” wouldn’t keep him from working to reduce the country’s debt. “The way we have always done it has us bankrupt!” he hollered.
From our friends at Powerlineblog.com comes one of the most succinct and honest assessments of Barack Obama’s verbal assualt on values voters, gun owners, and small-town America. While many on the far-left will cry foul, The Editors at RedOklahoma think the Powerlineblog.com headline asks a valid question - Is Obama’s campaign over? The answer is doubtful, but he’s candidacy definitely took a hit in what the liberals on the coasts like to call “fly-over country.”
I don’t see how anyone known to have uttered these words can be elected President:
“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Barack Obama’s arrogance has been evident for some time, and it’s no shock, perhaps, to learn that that he shares this bigoted opinion, common among urban liberals, of people who live in “small towns.” But to actually express it, in public, at a campaign event, is stunningly stupid. Nevertheless, Obama did it.
Do these comments sound a little like the attitude of a certain “Gramscian Organic Intellectual” running for the Senate here in Oklahoma? You tell us…
(NOTE to the Editor: Please place this response to your article about me as prominently as you’ve placed your smear campaign on your blog).
All:
I have been made aware of this blog site and the vicious lies and rumors that have been made about me, both personally and as Vice Chair of the Oklahoma Republican Party.
When “sources” make statements and then want to be protected by the First Amendment, be leary… very leary. These same tactics are being used by the left-leaning liberal media to smear the names of good people, especially Republicans. It’s a shame that editors, even of blog sites, are willing to publish rumors and “leaks”.
When I ran for Vice Chair of the Oklahoma Republican Party, I made 2 promises – to represent all Republicans and to work with whoever was elected as Chair. I have continued to keep both of these promises, regardless of personalities or who someone voted for.
One of the rumors you are spreading is that I am “running for State Chair”, which is not true. My focus has been, and will continue to be, getting voters registered as Republican, recruiting candidates, helping organize our party, training volunteers, and encouraging everyone to work hard. Election day 2008 is quickly approaching and we must remain focused on our efforts.
Throughout my 20 years of service to the Republican party, I have seen too many intra-party squabbles keep us from focusing on what we need to do to win elections. We should be focusing our energy and enthusiasm on why we are Republicans and working together for the common issues. Using blog sites as gossip mills, to start rumors, or call names is not productive!
It will take all of us helping Republican candidates with our resources (time and/or money), for us to be successful in November 2008. Let’s not loose sight of our goal - electing Republicans.
Cheryl Williams
Vice Chair
Oklahoma Republican Party
P.S. Just for the record, I voted for Fred Thompson on my absentee ballot in early January 2008.
The Oklahoma State House and State Senate both voted today to override Governor Brad Henry’s veto of a bill that would require an ultrasound before allowing an abortion in the State.