Grinch Holds Lou Gehrig (ALS) Patients Hostage! |
I nominate Tom Coburn (R-OK) for the 2007 Grinchiest Congresscritter.
(Photo courtesy of his
official Senate page.)
ALS patients nation wide are being held hostage this Christmas by a Grinch on Capitol Hill. His name is Tom Coburn, Senator from Oklahoma. The Wall Street Journal posted the front-page article on Dec. 21st.
Leon Peek is a friend of mine who was diagnosed with ALS in 2004. He sent me an email today about Coburn's hold on Senate bill 1382.
Leon Peek, an ALS patient diagnosed in 2004, says:
This Senator worked late while others adjourned for the Holidays. His scrooge style mission was to place a "hold" on selected bills, a procedural maneuver that allows a single senator to prevent a bill from being passed quickly without a roll-call vote or floor debate. The bill held hostage is the ALS Registry Act S.1382. This legislation would authorize the establishment of an ALS Registry at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The House of Representatives passed the bill on Oct.16, 2007 by an overwhelming 411-3 vote. The Senate H.E.L.P. Committee favorably reported the Senate version of the bill on Nov. 14, 2007 and more than two-thirds of the Senate has cosponsored the bill. The ALS Registry Act is needed to build on projects underway at the CDC and supported by the Congress and the Administration.
The Wall Street Journal:
This month, Dr. Coburn sent out a letter encouraging senators to talk to him about legislation they wanted to complete. That had some Democrats muttering about a "tyranny of one." Last week, Senate Democrats took to the floor complaining about Republican tactics, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called "obstruction on steroids." They pointed to the lack of action in several areas stymied by Dr. Coburn, including the Lou Gehrig bill.
On Tuesday afternoon, when most senators were preparing to leave Washington for the holiday recess, Tom Coburn was declaring his intention to stick around.
"The floor's going to be open," said the 59-year-old Oklahoma Republican. "I'm going to have to be here...to try to stop stuff."
Stopping stuff is Sen. Coburn's specialty.
(emphasis mine)
Like, lots of stuff is going to be passed in that one minute that Webb has the floor open! Riiiiiggghhhht!
Leon, again:
This bill was drawn up and introduced by Congressman Elliot Engel, N.Y. in 2004. When this bill finally becomes law it may take the CDC two years to collect the first of its ALS data. My question for Senator Coburn would be to tell me how many ALS patients would die in this five-year period. If we had the ALS Registry Act we would know the facts and much more Senator.
ACTION ITEMS
Leon and I are asking DailyKos members to contact your our congresscritters to put pressure on Coburn's hold.
Leon is also contacting the Des Moines Register to ensure Iowans know about Coburn's action on this bill. ALS is a hit-'em-at-home topic because ALS patient Rob Borsellino, a journalist at the Register, died in May 2006. I would like to see the Register inundated with LTEs, so I ask DailyKos members to please help in that endeavor.
Wikipedia:
Rob Borsellino (June 20, 1949 - May 27, 2006), was a newspaper columnist who achieved celebrity status throughout the state of Iowa before his death in May 2006. His columns for the Des Moines Register, which appeared three times weekly, became wildly popular due to Borsellino's colloquial writing style and ability to tell a story straight from the heart. His columns appeared several times in such publications as USA Today, Chicago Tribune, and The Washington Post, and some of his columns were published in the 2005 book So I'm Talkin' To This Guy... (ISBN 1-888223-66-9).
What is ALS?
ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and is better known as Lou Gherig's Disease.
ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with no known cause or cure. It effects adults of all ages and is completely indiscriminatory of color, race or gender. The nerves that operate the voluntary muscles begin to sicken and die, the muscles begin to atrophy, leaving the patient paralyzed, speechless, unable to swallow and eventually breathless. ALS March-of-Faces
There are numerous activist groups involved with this debilitating disease. Leon Peek is a board member of ALS March-of-Faces. Disclaimer: I am also involved with this group, as webmaster and as a volunteer.
I will update this diary with links to more organizations.
Please help us get this bill off Coburn's hold list.
Update [2007-12-24 11:28:28 by Scubaval]:
Coburn, in 2005:
"I am currently caring for many high-risk patients including some who have multiple sclerosis and other debilitating conditions," Coburn wrote the committee. "I simply cannot abandon those patients. I trust that the committee can imagine how abruptly terminating my practice would violate my medical ethics."
WaPo article "Ethics Panel Finds Conflict With Senator's Job as Physician"