Government Accountability Office Act of 2008

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - September 09, 2008)

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Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on H.R. 5683, the Government Accountability Office Act of 2008. Last year, the GAO submitted to Congress a legislative proposal to make a number of largely noncontroversial changes to GAO's authorizing statutes. In May of this year, our committee approved H.R. 5683, and in June, the bill passed the House under suspension.

Now, the bill passed by the House did a number of things that were sought by the GAO. For example, that bill and the bill we're taking up today would make statutory GAO's Inspector General and would attempt to resolve long-standing pay disputes between GAO and some of its employees.

The Senate took up the House bill before the August recess, amended it, passed it, and sent it over here back to the House. It is the Senate's version of our bill that we're taking up today.

Now, the Senate's new language would add 4 percent to the lump sum payments under section 3. This is intended to compensate employees for the fact that under the Senate bill employees would have to make contributions into the retirement system.

The original House bill expected GAO to cover these costs, which GAO was willing to do, but the Senate language expects employees to pay their fair share.

The new language would also revise reimbursement of GAO audit costs to limit reimbursements to those audits that are currently being done by GAO, but would allow reimbursement of other audits with the concurrence of the agency's IG.

Since it appears all interested parties agreed to the new language before the bill passed the Senate, I support it as well and urge my colleagues to vote for the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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