The Senate approved the final version, 91-3, on Thursday night after passage in the House on Wednesday by a vote of 420-5. All five U.S. House members from Oklahoma supported the legislation. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill soon.
Coburn,Ray Ban Chicago, R-Muskogee, was among the senators who crafted the final version, and he has praised elements of the bill, including the new flexibility for firing senior officials in the Veterans Affairs Department and the restrictions he put on acquiring space for a .
But he tried to block the legislation Thursday afternoon because of the amount of new money authorized primarily for new facilities and health care professionals to clear a backlog of cases.
In remarks on the Senate floor,Ray Ban Wayfarer Glasses Frames, Coburn said, “Since 2009, the VA budget has increased 58.7 percent. (There has been) a 40 percent increase in the number of providers, with a 17 percent increase in the number of veterans using those providers.
“The problem is not money at the VA. The problem is management, accountability and culture. So we are going to borrow $12 billion from our children and reward the poor behavior.”
In an interview, Coburn said he was pleased that he had revised the parameters of the proposed Tulsa clinic.
Coburn complained in June that VA officials ,Ray Ban Sunglasses Sale.
“I got it down to reasonable dollars and reasonable square footage,” he said.