* WaPo…

Two dozen House Republicans have agreed to privately detail their “legislative strategy” to party operatives, promising to offer “political justifications” for their goals in Congress.

The Daily 202 obtained a copy of the three-page contract that the National Republican Congressional Committee requires members to sign if they want to participate in its Patriot Program. The initiative, designed to protect potentially vulnerable incumbents, brings with it special attention and access to mounds of campaign cash. But strings are attached.

One of the 13 requirements is to submit an off-year “campaign plan” that includes: “Detailed, written legislative strategy that provides short-, intermediate-, and long-term legislative goals, including political justifications for those goals.” […]

The closely-held document offers a window into how much autonomy lawmakers often must forfeit to unelected Washington insiders. For instance, in exchange for reelection support, lawmakers must promise to exclusively use vendors sanctioned by establishment-aligned party chieftains, attend training sessions and raise six figures for the NRCC. They must also commit to holding a certain amount of cash-on-hand at the end of each fundraising quarter and limit their spending.

* The Schneider campaign followed up today…

Brad Schneider is calling for Republican Bob Dold to explain to voters why he signed a secret contract with the National Republican Congressional Committee that required he submit his legislative agenda in exchange for financial donations to his campaign.

Last week, the Washington Post reported that Republican House members in the NRCC’s Patriot Program, including Bob Dold, signed a lengthy contract with this Republican political committee. The contract, which is not disclosed to the public, requires members to detail out their legislative agenda, including “political justifications for those goals.”

In exchange for signing the contract, members will receive what the Washington Post described as “special attention and access to mounds of campaign cash.”

“This is an example of everything that’s wrong with Washington,” said Democrat Brad Schneider. “These backroom deals Bob Dold has signed raises issues of transparency, hypocrisy, and of ethics, and Bob Dold needs to explain these secretive agreements to voters.”

“How can Bob Dold claim to be an independent voice for the people of Illinois when he is signing secret contracts about legislative agendas with Republican leadership?” Schneider continued. “Getting reelected should never be more important than doing what’s right.”

The full NRCC Memo can be found here.

* Meanwhile, from Church World Service…

Representatives Bob Dold (IL-10) and Peter Roskam (IL-6) joined a group of more than a dozen Members of Congress today at a conference featuring the founder of Refugee Resettlement Watch, a blog the Southern Poverty Law Center has determined is funded in part by groups with white-supremacy and hate group ties.

“The business of hate has no place in our legislative process, let alone even gaining an audience with Members of Congress,” Church World Service President and CEO, the Rev. John L. McCullough said. “I would have thought better of these men and women elected to leadership.”

As the world continues to wrestle with a panoply of humanitarian needs unfolding as Syrians flee violence, Church World Service has called on the U.S. government to break its silence and dormancy by opening the door to 200,000 refugees in the coming federal fiscal year, including at least 100,000 Syrians.

“The U.S. has been staggeringly silent in this crisis, and we must do much more,” CWS Immigration and Refugee Program Director, Erol Kekic said. “Our lawmakers on Capitol Hill should be giving time to crafting a U.S. plan, joining the rest of the world in a response. Instead, these members are giving valuable time to groups who would turn their backs on people in need because of fear and hate.”

Representatives Dold and Roskam were part of an invitation-only event with Ann Corcoran, the founder of the blog site that promotes anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiment.

Since 1946, Church World Service has supported refugees and others displaced from their homes, in addition to providing sustainable relief and development solutions to communities that wrestle with hunger and poverty.