Kent Conrad: “I am pleased that Senator McCain is joining me today in submitting a bipartisan Senate resolution to strengthen fiscal…”

“I am pleased that Senator McCain is joining me today in submitting a bipartisan Senate resolution to strengthen fiscal responsibility and restore some common sense to the consideration of conference reports in the Senate. Last November the Senate received an omnibus appropriations conference report that totaled 3,646 pages. It included nine different appropriations bills, seven of which had never been debated, amended or voted on by the Senate. It spent more than $388 billion. And it also included a miscellaneous title with several extraneous provisions that had nothing to do with appropriations. Like the appropriations titles, many of these non-appropriations items had never been considered in the Senate. Even though the vast majority of the Senate had never had a chance to review these provisions, the conference report was rushed to the Senate floor just hours after a handful of members and their staff had finished their work putting it together behind closed doors. Throughout the day, I and several members of my staff read and analyzed the provisions of this bill. During the examination, we discovered a particularly egregious provision. It would have allowed an agent of the Chairman of the House or Senate Appropriations Committee to look at the tax return of anyone in America. And, further, it would have allowed them to release the private information contained in those returns without any civil or criminal penalty.…”