JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - U.S. Sens. Claire McCaskill and Jim Webb want the federal government to allow public access to records from a commission that investigated wartime contracts.
The two Democratic senators say the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan has decided to seal its records from public review for 20 years. But McCaskill, of Missouri, and Webb, of Virginia, want the U.S. archivist to disclose the records "as quickly as possible."
Webb and McCaskill sponsored the legislation that created the commission.
Earlier this year, the panel estimated that at least $31 billion and possibly as much as $60 billion has been lost to waste and fraud in contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The commission wrapped up its operations in September and transferred its records to the National Archives.