Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn will seek to offset federal aid to victims of a massive tornado that blasted through Oklahoma City suburbs on Monday with cuts elsewhere in the budget.
“That’s always been his position [to offset disaster aid],” a spokesman told the Huffington Post Monday night. “He supported offsets to the bill funding the OKC bombing recovery effort.”
Coburn, who intends to retire in 2016, joined his fellow Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe (R) last year in supporting an amendment that would have substantially cut a package of $60 billion dollars intended for reconstruction of the East Coast in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. The measure eventually passed in two parts with most of the Senate Republican caucus in opposition, but not before New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and New York GOP Reps. Peter King and Michael Grimm offered scathing critiques that their party was abandoning stranded people in the wake of the storm.
