During the course of the meeting some concerns were raised over legislation that while has been considered by Congress before has never had such widespread support and the ability to pass. The meeting was brief and very little was actually said about the “sunset commissions”, but that would not be the last time I heard about them. Yesterday I went to an emergency Sunset Commission meeting to discuss what action needed to be taken to prevent the acts from passing. Contrary to a friend of mine’s belief that the “sunset” legislation were based on Congress’ debate on the actual time of sunset, these two acts give an unprecedented amount of power to a commission with the purpose of analyzing spending.

There are currently two acts, HR 5766 (Tiahrt Bill) and HR 3282 (Brady Bill) on the floor of the House. Shortly before that emergency meeting a remarkably fast mark-up of the bills had taken place, and conservative Republicans had quickly voted to bring the bills to the floor. The bills pose a threat because they would create a bipartisan committee that would have the power to get rid of necessary government programs. These commissions take power away from Congress and do not allow enough time for programs to be analyzed by Congress before they are destroyed (one of the acts says that if Congress does not reauthorize the programs within 30 days of getting it from the commission, the program is terminated). The meeting I attended was arranged with the sole purpose of deciding on an agenda of how to proceed. A list of targeted House members was created and different organizations agreed to call Congressman to try to sway their votes and prevent this legislation from passing.

With only a week till this legislation comes to the floor, me and other organizations have been making calls to House offices trying to predict the outcome of these two bills. Next Tuesday I am doing a mail drop on the hill, and hopefully will do a small part in protecting non-profit programs from being destroyed by these acts.