Today, ATR and CFA sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid, urging them to post the Department of Defense Appropriations bill online for 72 hours before scheduling a vote on the legislation. The DOD appropriations bill is the last funding bill Congress has yet to pass and is likely to be the vehicle for several other objectionable bills, including the debt limit and other authorizations. From our alert:
In light of your promises regarding transparency and accountability as it relates to the legislative process, we write to urge you to refrain from scheduling a vote on the defense appropriations bill package, which is set to contain a multitude of unrelated provisions, until after the final version of the package has been made available to taxpayer scrutiny for a substantial period of time – ideally more than five days, but no less than 72 hours.
As this defense bill is the proverbial “last train leaving the station” it is set to be larded up with a multitude of provisions the majority wants to quickly pass before year’s end. As negotiators have worked through the weekend, the entirety of Congress and the American people have yet to learn the details of this package which no doubt will be extremely costly, and is expected to contain several other problematic provisions taxpayers have a right to scrutinize.
Click here to see the entire letter.