May 22, 2014
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515  

Dear Representative,  
    
You are currently considering H.R. 4435, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015.  On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to vote on the following amendments:

• Amendment No. 135, offered by Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kans.), which would creates a moratorium on the insourcing of previously contracted activities within the Department of Defense (DOD).  Exceptions would be made if the activity was “inherently governmental”, and thereby should never have been contracted out in the first place; and if DOD would employ a “reverse A-76” to itemize specific costs saved to the taxpayer should the DOD be able to perform the commercial activity more efficiently for the taxpayer.
   
• Amendment No. 151, offered by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), which would provide authority to the military services in working with civic organizations to charge the public a nominal fee to attend a military-sponsored Air Show or Open House on military bases, to help off-set the O&M costs the base incurs during these times of defense sequester reductions.
   
• Amendment No. 204, offered by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) which would amend section 4202 of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 to make the authority to use simplified acquisition procedures for certain commercial items permanent, rather than reauthorizing this provision every three years.
   
• Amendment No. 205, offered by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Gerry Connolly, which would contains the provisions of H.R. 1232, the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act.
   
• Amendment No. 211, offered by Reps. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), which would encourage the Air Force to consider identified energy efficiency improvements in a timely and comprehensive manner.
   
• Amendment No. 250, offered by Reps. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) and Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), which would require GAO to conduct a study on the effects of the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative on small businesses.  An agency’s justification of a strategic sourcing solicitation shall be published prior to the issuance of a solicitation.
   
• Amendment No. 269, offered by Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), which would maximize competition in design-build contracts. Streamline process.
   
• Amendment No. 307, offered by Reps. Mick Mulvaney and Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.), which would codify criteria developed by OMB in 2010 to clarify when military spending should be designated as contingency operations and properly be part of the Overseas Contingency Operation budget.
   
• Amendment No. 320, offered by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), which would delay relinquishment or agreeing to any proposal relating to the relinquishment of the responsibility of NTIA over Internet domain name system functions by the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information until GAO submits a report to Congress on the role of the NTIA with respect to the Internet domain name system.

                                            CCAGW opposes the following amendments to H.R. 4435

• Amendment No. 122, offered by Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.), which would prohibit DOD from using funds to close commissary stores.
   
• Amendment No. 179, offered by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), which would increase the authorization for Impact Aid by one additional year.
   
• Amendment No. 243, offered by Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), which would allocate $10 million to develop additional financial literacy training programs for incoming and transitioning service members, which would be funded by offsetting the $15.1 billion shipbuilding account and a $902.2 million nuclear weapons refurbishment account.  The federal government already funds more than 50 financial literacy programs.

I urge you to vote, as CCAGW has suggested, on the above amendments.  All votes on H.R. 4435 will be among those considered in CCAGW’s 2014 Congressional Ratings.

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW