Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Chairman, today I rise to offer an amendment that would prohibit funding to any Federal employee who has been found in contempt of Congress.

As a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, I have had serious concerns about the nonresponsiveness of certain Federal officials to legitimate congressional oversight activities. In some of these situations, the actions have been taken by this House to hold these officials in contempt of Congress.

Specifically, my amendment prevents funds from being made available for the Office of Management and Budget to process or approve an apportionment request from an executive agency that does not include the following language:

Apportioned amounts are not available for any position that is held by an employee with respect to whom the President of the Senate or Speaker of the House of Representatives have certified a statement of facts to a United States attorney under section 104 of the Revised Statutes (2 U.S.C. 194).

What the experts and lawyers tell me this means is we won't pay folks who have been held in contempt of Congress. The taxpayers don't need to be funding somebody who is not cooperating with their elected representative, and it has gotten so bad that this entire body has held them in contempt.

If somebody has failed to do his or her job in the private sector or in any other environment, they wouldn't get paid, and I think the Federal Government needs to follow this.

Let me give you a little bit of background on the process so you understand how this is going to work.

Funds apportioned to executive agencies are apportioned or handed out by the OMB. Executive agencies must submit a request to the OMB 40 days before the start of the fiscal year or within 15 days of the enactment of the appropriations act. The OMB then determines how the executive agency's fund will be apportioned.

This amendment would require an executive agency to include the quoted language in their apportionment request to the OMB, which would prevent the OMB from allocating funds to an agency for the salaries of Federal employees who have been found in contempt of Congress.

To me, this is just common sense. We don't pay employees who don't cooperate with their boss. We are the elected representatives of the people. We are the boss, and we need to enact this legislation to ensure those in contempt of Congress do not continue to receive taxpayer funds.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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