Senator McCaskill on Right to Know Act

(Washington) U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri initiated a rarely-used Senate procedure to try to force passage of the bipartisan Taxpayer Right to Know Act.

The bill calls for the federal government to make public the details, costs, and performance metrics of every federal program above $1 million.

McCaskill took to the Senate floor to attempt a ‘live’ unanimous consent request, which was blocked by New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.

McCaskill introduced the legislation last year with Republican Senators James Lankford of Oklahoma and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and it was unanimously approved by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The legislation would have created a publicly accessible online database of financial data and performance metrics for every federal program above $1 million.

It would have also required agencies to identify the number of employees working on and provide a description of the beneficiaries served by every federal program.