“Imagine that someone is put in charge of your personal budget, and authorizes all of your spending money for food, clothes, rent, and fun. Now, imagine that person decides your budget in secret, without taking any input from you. Sounds like a terrible idea, right?

“Well, that’s exactly what the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) is doing with taxpayer dollars by marking up the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in secret.

“Tell SASC members to vote against marking up the NDAA behind closed doors.

“The NDAA is a bill that last year authorized more than $662 billion in spending—primarily for the Department of Defense. It is one of the few bills that is passed annually, and therefore has become a magnet for pork and other proposals.

‘There’s no good reason for SASC to mark up this bill entirely in secret. Last year a SASC subcommittee marked up its portion of the bill in public. And the House Armed Services Committee marks up its version of the NDAA out in the open, posting the text of the bill online 24 hours in advance. The Committee can easily vote to move into an executive session before discussing classified information.

“Tell SASC to follow the House’s example and open the NDAA to the public.

‘This week, as part of a campaign called Open NDAA, a host of organizations from across the ideological spectrum sent two letters to SASC members: one thanking those who support open markups, and another urging those who don’t support open markups to do the right thing, and vote against conducting the NDAA markup in a closed session this year. The Open NDAA campaign is also asking SASC to post draft bills and amendments online before voting.”

(SOURCE: Project on Government Oversight)