Senate Sunshine

A coalition of organizations is urging the Senate Armed Services Committee to make the unclassified portion of its annual defense authorization bill mark-up hearing open to the public again.

"The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) last year authorized more than $662 billion of taxpayer dollars for FY 2012, but was drafted and debated behind closed doors in the Senate Armed Services Committee," according to a Project On Government Oversight statement released this morning. The statement further reads:

The "Open NDAA" campaign urges Senators to shine a light on the defense budget by making the draft bill and amendments available in advance of the markup, as well as opening the mark-up -- or committee votes -- to the public.

Because the NDAA is one of the few bills passed annually, it attracts many proposals, some of which would be considered by other committees -- and some have been very controversial.

For the past few years, the SASC has voted to close the entire markup for the NDAA -- instead of closing only the portions of the session dealing with classified information. Last year, 17 senators voted to close the markup and 9 voted against closing the mark-up.

Consequently, POGO today sent thank-you letters to the committee members who in the past have called on re-opening the mark-up process to the public, and a separate letter to those panel members who voted for keeping the mark-up closed urging them to change their minds.