The Swine Line

As we’ve noted previously,  S. 3297, titled the “Advancing America’s Priorities Act,” commonly known as the “Coburn omnibus” is a package of thirty-six bills with a price tag of an estimated $10 billion that Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and others have placed procedural holds on, objecting to the fact that the Senate too often (94 percent) passes expensive and often duplicative bills without giving Senators floor time to debate or offer amendments. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) tried to push the bill through the Senate in late July, but was thwarted by Republicans that refused to allow anything to advance that didn’t address the need to increase domestic energy supplies.

Now, Reid is making plans to bring the omnibus back this week or next, and he has found an unlikely ally: Oprah Winfrey. The Hill reports,

The daytime TV star, who draws 44 million viewers weekly, was not seen as much of a political activist until she threw her support behind Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.).

Now Winfrey has squared off against Coburn, who has blocked S. 1738, the Combating Child Exploitation Act.

Winfrey asked her viewers Monday to call and write the Senate to demand their support for the legislation, sponsored by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden (Del.).

Winfrey, herself a victim of sexual abuse, has asked viewers to sign and send a letter posted on her website calling for action on the bill.

Oprah is missing the point. Coburn’s objection is not with the child exploitation bill, but rather with the unaccountable process of passing bills such as the S. 1079, the “Star-Spangled Banner and War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission Act,” without any opportunity for debate and amendment. If Oprah, Obama, and Biden (and any other co-sponsoring Senator) think that there is worthwhile legislation contained in the omnibus, they should have no problem letting Reid know that they support finding the time to debate a stand-alone bill to make their case (as Coburn has proposed). I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: isn’t this supposed to be “the world’s greatest deliberative body?”

Read CCAGW’s press release on the Coburn omnibus here.