Is no government waste and no inefficiency, no conflict and liberty is absolutely eternal. We will miss his sage advice, his blunt perspective and his steadfast wisdom. Doctor coburn served in this for 10 years from 20052015 but also served in the house of representatives for six years from 19952001, the one title he carried in both of those chambers was doctor. That was his preferred term. Thomas allen coburn was born in casper, wyoming in 1948. Doctor coburn graduated Central High School in 1966. In 1968 he married carolyn denton, the 1967 miss oklahoma, they had three daughters, 9 grandchildren. At Oklahoma StateUniversity Doctor coburn was an honor student, president of the Student Business Council graduating in 1970 with a bachelors degree in accounting. After a Family Business was sold, he worked at, he attended medical school at the university of oklahoma, received his medical degree with honors from 1983, interned at Saint Anthonys hospital inequality and in 1886, he founded the was go medicine practice which was still in operation today. His victory over melanoma as a young man inspired him to become a physician. He stated he wanted to give back because he had been given to. That battle with melanoma when he was a young man was not his last battle. As a physician his dedication to his patients was inexhaustible. Over his career he delivered 4000 babies and would often see 30 patients today in his office. After his election to the house of representatives in 1994 he would fly from washington dc every week, and would see his patients on weekends, a schedule he maintained for the entire six years he spent in the house. He was a doctor all the time. He was not uncommon to be in a conversation with someone, would ask how they are feeling, they picked up something in their demeanor that he felt was wrong. Mister coburn was a deacon, sunday School Teacher and in all the story i told you if youre looking for some element of politics in the background, you wont find it until 1994. His decision to run for congress in 1994 was a longshot. He narrowly won becoming the first republican to represent oklahomas second Congressional District in 73 years, went to congress as a man on a mission, he was determined to help solve the nations problems. His focus was not oklahoma. It was the nation. I remember asking him privately before i started serving in the house of representatives how he made a difference. His answer was there are two people that make a difference in congress, the person who studies and the committee chairman, study more than anyone else, now the issue and you can get it done. His tenacity on every issue was legendary. Politico one summarized it will saying a typical bill moving through the senate has a number of institutional hurdles to hear, subcommittee, committee, leadership and coburn. It is that last one you wont find in a textbook. The staff are devoted to the cause not necessarily because of him but because of the mission. What if his former staffers wrote this after doctor coburn past, he said we all her a lot of amendments, we lost a lot of votes. We highlight a lot of wasteful spending and helped a lot of people and over time we started changing how business was done. Bills that added new spending couldnt pass, duplication became part of the mexican. The practice of earmarking went away, paying attention to waste. This was one of the high profile reports out of washington each year. Over the years doctor coburn and his team highlighted trillions in questionable spending, any spending that proved to be classic federal wastefulness, duplicate of, fraudulent or purely ineffective likely made the list, the wasteful became an annual rallying cry for taxpayers frustrated by washington spending habits, phrases that are common in political conversations today like a bridge to nowhere, shrimp on a treadmill, term limits, earmarks were all battles he fought to win. Doctor coburn created an annual report in the decision from the Government Accountability office on government duplication. It seems like just another government report but that report that he passed in 2010 saved taxpayers 262 billion so far. Doctor coburn and his team were in the fights worth fighting but they were battling the Playing Field of ideas and policy proposals, not against people. In a town that wants to label everything left versus right, liberal versus conservative doctor coburn and his team didnt have criteria to meet those, they put together any ally, you didnt have to agree on everything but as long as you agreed on a couple things in front of you that is what mattered. The friendships forged in the fights that were genuine, true and certainly unique. The chief sponsor president obamas usaspending. Gov to increase transparency and government spending, a champion for aids patients. He was a tenacious fighter for Social Security disability fraud, eventually exposing 1 billion Social Security scam in West Virginia run by a lawyer, a kentucky lawyer who fought thousands of disability applications. He was a master of senate rules. Is clay present amendment is legendary and senate procedure. He was one of the unlikeliest members to vote for tarp in 2008. One of the hardest votes he took, looking at the facts in front of him, he thought it was the right thing to do. That is what it boiled down to. He opposed what needed opposition. He argued in private to resolve an issue rather than in public although he was not afraid to argue in public. After years of serving families as their physician, a task he continued on weekends even in the house of representatives the Senate Ethics committee ruled that doctor coburn was violating conflict of interest rules by holding an outside job, prohibited him from practicing medicine as a senator. Doctor coburn did not just start taking payment and did his work as a physician pro bono and the Ethics Committee rejected that plan and prohibited him from working pro bono even as a physician. Ironically i am now the chairman of ethics for the senate. Last time i visited with doctor coburn at his house in february, in the middle of our long great conversation, he said to me since you are the chairman of ethics why dont you get that rule changed and allow doctors to still Practice Medicine while they are in the senate. That is wrong, that needs to be fixed. Even in the end he was still working to write what was wrong. Many people know that when doctor coburn left the senate he spent his time trying to fix congress, still working on term limits and the balancedbudget amendment. If you have not seen it you should read some of the things his former staff wrote about doctor coburn after he passed away a few weeks ago. Any senator in this chamber could only wish that the staff looked up to us as much as his staff looked up to him. The best way to honor doctor coburn today was to remind this body what doctor coburn said when he walks out of this body, his Farewell Speech. Among the many things he said, he challenged the senate and senators, the senate was designed uniquely to force compromise. One senator had the power to stop everything for the first 100 years because it didnt but it didnt because compromise was the goal. Founders understood there were many differences between the states in size, geography, economy and opinions. The united the United States is one country based on the premise that many were more powerful than the one. As senators we have to follow this example. Then he said this. I have not always done that. I admit that freely to you but i should have. As senators we must follow the example, stand for our principles but look to find areas of agreement were compromise can be found to unite and move our country forward. Not all powers of the senators are exercised on the senate floor. Each member of the senate has unique role to participate and practice oversight old account government accountable. That is part of their duties. Except most often that is the part of our duties that is most ignored. True debate about National Priorities would come about if we did effective oversight. It is the senate one sale is the worlds greatest delivered of body where these different differences should be argued. Our differences should be revolved through civil discourse so they are not settled in the streets. Just as the constitution provides in a democracy while protecting rights of the individual, the senate must return to the principles to bring trust to the electorate and it can. The theme of his whole Farewell Speech centered around this one statement. We do not have one problem we cannot solve. There is nothing too big for us. They are all solveable. On this national day of prayer i believe it is entirely appropriate to pray for doctor coburns family, friends, former staff who will miss his friendship and his counsel. So will our nation. I pray that carolyn, their daughters and their families cherish the memories of the husband, dad, and grandfather, our state and nation will be forever grateful for your sacrifice. I pray that the task doctor coburn began would be completed for the sake of our liberty and our future and i pray that this body take the challenge he left on this floor to solve the hard problems. Th