Open NDAA: Shine a Light on the Defense Budget

Join the Open NDAA Campaign

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. 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 other proposals.

There's no good reason for SASC to mark up this bill in secret. On the House side, the NDAA markup is open to the public, and last year a SASC subcomittee conducted its markup in an open session.

A host of concerned organizations from across the ideological spectrum recently sent two letters to SASC committee 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. Please add your name to the growing list of signatories to the letters—with enough public pressure, we can bring a much-needed dose of transparency to the Senate's NDAA markup.

Join us here!