McCaskill Leads Historic Public Debate on National Defense Legislation

As the Senate begins its yearly debate on the National Defense Authorization Act—legislation that sets the nation’s military priorities and spending levels—U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today took the historic step of holding her portion of the mark-up in open, public session while addressing a host of critical issues.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has traditionally held all debate on the massive defense policy legislation in closed-door session, but McCaskill—an outspoken advocate for transparency—was successful last year in opening her panel’s considerations to the public. McCaskill opened her subcommittee’s work to the public once again today.

“The public deserves to be able to witness, understand and scrutinize the positions being advocated and the decisions being made by their elected leaders regarding the over half a trillion dollar defense budget,” said McCaskill, Chairman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Readiness. “We continue to gain votes every year, and I firmly believe that open mark-ups in the full Armed Services Committee are coming in the future.”

In her opening statement, McCaskill noted a range of issues dealing with the accountability and transparency that are addressed in the legislation, including:

·         Strengthening whistleblower protections provided to employees of government contractors who raise the alarm on waste, fraud, and abuse. As a former State Auditor and prosecutor, McCaskill has consistently championed stronger protections for whistleblowers as a means to better fight waste and misconduct.

·         McCaskill’s Wartime Contracting legislation, which would overhaul the federal government’s planning, management, and oversight of contracting during overseas contingency operations. McCaskill introduced the comprehensive legislation along with Senator Jim Webb (Va.) based on recommendations by the U.S. Commission on Wartime Contracting.

·         Instituting a lower cap on the amount of taxpayer money paid to executives of companies that contract with the government.

“These provisions should go a long way to improve oversight of Defense Department contracts and ensure that taxpayer money is not wasted,” McCaskill said.

McCaskill’s subcommittee has identified nearly $1 billion dollars of savings for taxpayers in their portion of the legislation this year. The wide-ranging National Defense Authorization sets specific budget and policy priorities for the Pentagon. The scope of the legislation spans from the war in Afghanistan to housing for our troops and their families.

McCaskill also noted that the legislation denies the Defense Department’s request for additional rounds of Base Realignment and Closure, stating, “At minimum, base closures are extraordinarily disruptive to local communities, so before we even consider authorizing another round of BRAC, Congress must have a much better understanding of how future BRACs would affect our budget, our national security interests and the communities that patriotically support bases around this country.”