i encourage us all to join in this effort to create an environment that will support a full economic recovery. i yield the floor. we lost a great statesman and former senator tom coburn of oklahoma. a family physician who delivered more than 4,000 babies, he was known as doctor tom and oklahoma. but in washington, he was called doctor though because of his fierce opposition to add more red ink to the national debt. having served ten years in the senate before retiring in 2014 the year i was elected i never had the honor to serve alongside

doctor coburn. nonetheless the leadership and efforts to eliminate government waste and overreach continues to be an inspiration to me and to many others. you cannot find waste in any part of the federal budget, and it's what i like toda call legendary. hetake for example the shrimp oa treadmill and of course there was the bridge to nowhere. every federal agency in washington feared the notoriety of the annual report of government access to key lead

the fight that ended congressional earmarks that are known as these projects in white letters of credit for creating new government programs, doctor coburn took on the thankless job of trying to unravel the duplicate event overlapping program and redundant inefficient democracy. ithe government accountability office with the gao. i think the head of the gao said it best and they will for a long

time. it's making the government more efficient in other important ways. there are ten different agencies with 23 different overlapping fragmented definitions for sexual violence. to the efforts to clarify the definition and improve data collection so that we can address this issue head on. another co-authored with none other than senator barack obama

put all federal expenditures online so the taxpayers can simply googled to find out how their tax dollars are being spent. since the freedom of information act the public website usa spending .gov is hoping to keep washington accountable for every cent is spent. the splurging on unnecessary things like tons of tater tots, $4.6 million on crab legs and lobster and even a foosball

table. when i heard this outlandish spending, i embraced my inner tom coburn and took action in the use of her lucid spending spree tom coburn wasn't afraid to work across the aisle to find compromise without compromising his principles or values. there is no better example than theth friendship he struck up wh president obama. they were on opposite sides of every major issue during their time in washington. yet that they would regularly call to offer encouragement to president obama and pray for him and his family. the two of them could be spotted hugging and laughing together at

the state of the union address. at the time when the focus too often is on what separates rather than unites us these or relationship goals we should aspire to achieve with one another our hearts and prayers are with doctor coburn's wife caroline and his daughters and, grandchildren as they grieve his never bewhile he can coreplaced we can take comfort knowing he has made this world a better place and that the legacy he left behind in the words roland foster who is now on my staff and the legacy he left behind and doers and the crusade

he championed continues. and with that, mr. president, i will yield the floor to my colleagues from indiana. >> the senator from indiana. >> thank you for that beautiful testimony. while i was running for the senate was asked who my heroes were in the senate doctor coburn was a force of nature. ivas a conservative stalwart no matter the pressure and with whomever would stand regardless of party doctor coburn's entire career was a profile in courage. he believed so strongly that

america's best wisdom wasn't housed on wall street, pennsylvania ave. but on main street among the small business owners, doctors, families and workers who keep the country going. he blasted the path for conservative outsiders to take onng washington on everything fm national debt to term limits to the broken healthcare system and if it was an inspiration for me to leave my business and run for the senate his bedside manner was often rushed but on the tough issues like any good doctor, he told people what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear.

our tiring national debt to him wasn't just a thorn in the side, it was a supreme failing and is one of the few truths in the recent decades, senator coburn had a badge of courage understanding that there's nothing commendable about spending. if there's one thing that can fix washington more than any other district term limits and accountability for congress. i made my pledge to only serve two terms as a trickster that my campaign is following his example by refusing to accept

the congressional attention. last year my built-in extensions optional passed the senate putting us one step closer to getting rids of this outdated tx payer funded altogether. no budget, no pay. the bill he championed in the edsenate was the first bill i introduced after taking office. it is a simple measure. congress doesn't need a paycheck until they b pass the budget and i'm proud to say it is now clear to the committee thanks to the work from that fellow conservative outsiders like senator rick scott and david perdue and as a family physician who continued to see patients even as he served in congress, doctor coburn always had a special passion for fixing our broken health care system.

he understood better than anyone that our health-care woes began as a fundamentally broken system in need of transparency. more choice per patient and market driven reforms to the decision-making back in the hands of americans and their providers. my bill is too low for the prescription drug prices and ensure every patient knows what they have to pay before they pay it introduced the invaluable input from doctor coburn. as we all should, he recognizes no matter how vast the distance between the position seems to be, health care is and always should be a bipartisan issue where compromise is necessary to help patients. in the summer of 18 i was honored he came to indiana to

campaign with me. i will never forget what he said to the young man from the crowd at one of the events what can i doed now if i want to be a senar one day? so you have something to say when you get there doctor coburn ushered in the era and the effects of which were only just now beginning to be realized. i think that we could get a much better product out of dc with more people like him whose beliefs come from the deep well of real-world experience.

he was more than just an inspiration for me and other conservatives that they leave the private sector and initiato business as usual in dc. most importantly, a conservative voice of our kind. i yield the floor.

>> ranking member of the house ways and means committee discussed the virus pandemic and economy at a virtual event hosted by the american council for capital formation. thanks