Washington, D.C. — 

U.S. Senator John Thune (R-S.D.), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today issued the following statement regarding U.S. Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) decision to leave the Senate at the end of the year:

“The American taxpayer has never had a better friend than Tom Coburn. Tom has been a courageous and too often lonely voice for fiscal responsibility and limited government. In word and action, he challenges us every day to be better Senators. I'm proud to serve with him as a colleague and to have him as a friend. Tom has always exemplified the citizen legislator. And while I'm disappointed he will be leaving us at the end of the year, I know how much he looks forward to returning home to his family and to his beloved Oklahoma.”