February 25, 2014
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515  

Dear Representative,
        
During “Stop Government Abuse Week,” the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a series of bills that will eliminate or reform burdensome laws and regulations, as well as help increase transparency and accountability.  On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to support the following bills, the first four of which CCAGW has previously endorsed:

• H.R. 1232 - Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), which would increase the authority and responsibility of agency chief information officers, improve software asset management and optimization through software licensing auditing tools, encourage continued federal usage of cloud computing, provide for “approval by consent” of federal information technology (IT) contracts on which no action has been taken for 100 days, improve agency tracking operations and maintenance, and direct federal agencies to maintain their IT procurement practices in a technology and vendor neutral manner.

• H.R. 1423 - Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act, sponsored by Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.), which would increase accountability and transparency in government by requiring every federal agency to disclose basic cost and performance information about the programs that they administer.

• H.R. 3865 - Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act, sponsored by Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), which would prohibit, for one year, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from enacting any changes to the rules governing 501 (c)(4) organizations.

• H.R. 3308 - Taxpayer Transparency Act, sponsored by Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.), which would require federal agencies to include language in mass mailings for certain educational and advertising materials disclosing that the communication was produced and disseminated at taxpayer expense.

• H.R. 1211 - FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act, sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa, which would enhance the transparency of the federal government and improve responsiveness to FOIA requests.

• H.R. 1944 - Private Property Rights Protection Act, sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), which would prohibit state and local governments that receive federal economic development funds from using eminent domain over property to be used for economic development and prohibit the federal government from using eminent domain for the purpose of economic development.

• H.R. 2530 - Taxpayer Transparency and Efficient Audit Act, sponsored by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), which would require the IRS to provide a substantive response to any written taxpayer correspondence within 30 days of receipt, disclose to a taxpayer the details of any information shared with other government (state, local or federal) agencies, and conclude any audit of an individual taxpayer within one year after it is initiated.

• H.R. 2531 - Protecting Taxpayers from Intrusive IRS Requests Act, sponsored by Rep. Roskam, which would prohibit the IRS from asking a taxpayer any questions regarding their social, political, or religious beliefs.

• H.R. 3193 - Consumer Financial Protection and Soundness Improvement Act, sponsored by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.), which would take the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau out of the Federal Reserve System and transform it into an independent commission made up of five board members instead of a single director.

• H.R. 2542 – Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act, sponsored by Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), which would reform the regulatory process to ensure that all federal agencies appropriately consider the impact of their rules on small businesses.

• H.R. 2122 – Regulatory Accountability Act, sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), which would increase transparency in the regulatory process, offer affected entities the opportunity to weigh in regarding proposed regulations, and require agencies to write regulations so as to impose the least cost necessary.

• H.R. 2804 - All Economic Regulations Are Transparent Act, sponsored by Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.), which would require federal agencies to publish more timely information on the status and cost of planned new regulations.

• H.R. 899 - Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act, sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), which would increase oversight and accountability over unfunded mandates.

• H.R. 1493 - Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act, sponsored by Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), which would attempt to make sure that all citizens, especially those affected by a proposed regulation, have a meaningful opportunity to participate in the rulemaking process.

I urge you to support all of these bills.  All votes on these pieces of legislation will be among those considered in CCAGW’s 2014 Congressional Ratings.             

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW