A provision requiring independent quarterly audits of a $4 billion infrastructure fund was in the committee draft of the spending bill. It is not in the version senators will vote on this week.
Aides from both parties said they did not know who removed it. A review of the bill’s revision history, obtained by Dispatch, shows the paragraph was deleted in a late-night edit labelled only “technical clean-up”.
“If it was a technical correction, it was a very large one,” said a Senate staffer who asked not to be named.
Budget watchdogs say the audits were the only independent check on how the fund would be spent. Without them, oversight would fall to the same agency that distributes the money. Supporters of the bill say audits can be added later. Opponents say later rarely comes.
