The Hill News

President Abraham Lincoln’s famous words “government of the people, by the people, for the people” don’t ring quite as true today as they did when he said them almost 150 years ago on a battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

As Congress prepares to debate another massive deficit-reduction package this fall, it should follow Lincoln’s foundational principle.  It can do so by ensuring that the deliberations of the bicameral “supercommittee,” created to accomplish this task, be conducted in open session under the watchful eye of the American people.

On August 5, I introduced legislation requiring the Super-Committee’s work be done in full view of the American people and the press. My bill mirrors legislation introduced in the Senate by my colleague, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.).

President Obama signed the Budget Control Act into law, which formally created the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction â€" a special 12-member committee evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. The Committee has until Nov. 23 to report back to Congress with recommendations of at least $1.2 trillion in additional budget savings over the next 10 years -- the single largest deficit cutting plan ever assembled.

{mosads}It remains unclear what specific recommendations the Joint Committee will make, but press reports indicate that tax reform and entitlement reform are on the table.

The supercommitte's work - from start to finish - should be in open session.  No more closed-door meetings or smoke-filled rooms where special interests flourish and the American people suffer.

Once the deficit reduction plan is ready, federal law mandates that it move quickly to the House and Senate floors for a straight up-or-down vote.  Given! the size and magnitude of the plan, along with the fact that it will receive unprecedented expedited treatment in the Congress, the committee’s work sessions must be held in full view of the public. The public and the press have a right to see this process unfold.

In 2009, the Congress was in the midst of trying to finalize President Obama’s massive health care proposal. I introduced legislation (H.Res. 847) expressing the sense of the House that the final negotiations over this bill should be conducted in open public sessions so that the American people could watch how that final bill was put together.

Unfortunately, my resolution was never brought to the House floor for debate and a vote, and in fact the final health care law was riddled with special deals and agreements that benefitted certain interests at the expense of the American people.

For example, individual senators from Connecticut and Louisiana were all able to carve o! ut sweetheart deals when the final version of the health care ! law was written. In sponsoring this new legislation for the supercommittee, I am trying to avoid a repeat of that spectacle.

The time is now for Congress to recommit itself to the core principles upon which our democratic form of government was founded.

Approving my legislation and moving the biggest deficit reduction package ever created through the legislative process in full view of the American people is an opportunity within our reach. Let’s seize it.