Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, I am pleased today to join my colleagues Senators Collins, Lieberman and Coburn in introducing the Inspector General Reform Act of 2007. This bill represents a strong bipartisan effort to strengthen the independence and integrity of our nation's Inspectors General, who represent one of our strongest tools in combating waste, fraud and abuse throughout our government.

When I first came to the Senate this January, I made it one of my top priorities to become actively involved in oversight and accountability in Congress and in the Federal Government. I was thrilled to have been given an appointment to the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which is ably run by Chairman Lieberman. I was proud to have been able to cosponsor S. 680, the bill authored by Senator Collins which included not only extensive reforms of Government contracting practices, but also included many provisions geared towards improving the Inspector General system. I must thank Senator Collins especially for working with me on the Inspector General legislation, which incorporates not only many of her reform ideas, but also those introduced in the House by Representatives Jim Cooper of Tennessee in H.R. 928, which has passed that chamber by an overwhelming vote of 404 to 11.

My 8 years as State Auditor in Missouri has given me tremendous respect for auditors and investigators working to make sure Government is spending our taxpayer dollars wisely. While many people are aware of the great work done by the legislative branch's Government Accountability Office, very few people realize that there are Inspectors General in many of our most important agencies. These IGs report both to the Executive and Legislative branch, and work in the trenches in the agency, constantly ferreting out cases of fraud, waste, abuse, and other mismanagement. Their unique role, resting inside the very agency they are charged with auditing and investigating, often creates unavoidable tensions.

The goal of the first Inspector General Act, passed 30 years ago next year, was to create a system that would allow the IG to rest harmoniously in the agency but allow them to provide oversight of an agency's actions and duties free from interference.

For the most part, this system has worked. But we can do better to assure that Inspectors General are free of intimidation or inappropriate influence by the agencies they oversee. Recent news reports have noted that the CIA Inspector General, John Helgerson, is being investigated by his own agency, even though there is no apparent legal authority for such an investigation to take place. The Administrator for the General Services Administration has been openly critical of the GSA IG, and has tried to cut the responsibilities and the budget of that office. The State Department IG has answered charges that he has failed to investigate allegations of contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan with the claim that he has not been provided enough money by his agency to do such an investigation.

Obviously, some changes are needed and our IG reform bill attempts to make them. For example, IGs currently request their budgets through their agencies and then the agency heads determine if that request is appropriate before sending their budgets to the White House and then on to Congress. No one in Congress has the ability to see how much an IG office truly needs to adequately fulfill its oversight duties. Our bill requires that IGs can attach comments to the agency's official budget request if he or she believes the funding the agency requested for its IG is not enough to do the job.

As more Executive agencies move to a pay for performance compensation system, bonuses given by the agency have become a bigger part of the total compensation for employees. Having the agency that you audit decide how much of a bonus you will receive is an obvious, unacceptable conflict of interest for Inspectors General. Many IGs refuse to take a bonus, and those who do accept them have myriad reasons for doing so. However, this practice will be forbidden under the new law. Given the negative impact on the compensation for Inspector General and the need to attract and retain the best and the brightest, the pay of presidentially appointed Inspectors General will be raised one level. For the other Executive IGs, their agencies will be directed to pay them the same or more than the total compensation received by other senior level employees. This system will end the possibility of an agency head trying to entice an IG to go easy on them, or to punish an IG who refuses to do so.

This bill also gives the IGs more security from the fear of losing one's job for the simple reason they are too good. Before any IG can be removed, the congressional committees of jurisdiction must be notified, in writing, of the intent to remove the IG, and the reasons for doing so. This notice must be received at least 30 days before the scheduled removal. Bringing transparency to this process should guarantee that no IG will be removed for the wrong reason.

I want to make sure that the good work of the IGs is readily accessible to the people who pay for it, the taxpayer. I was shocked to realize that many IGs did not post their reports on the web. At least one IG shop didn't even have a website. In this day and age the public, and Congress, should have timely and easy access to all the public reports produced by Inspectors General. This bill requires all reports which are open to the public to be posted on the web within three working days of their release. It also requires all IG shops to provide, on their websites, a method for anonymously reporting waste, fraud or abuse.

Finally, this bill codifies a council for the IGs to have as a resource. This council, which exists now only pursuant to Executive order, would provide a structure for IGs to pool their resources when it would effectively help them perform their mission, such as providing Government-wide training for investigators and auditors. It will also include an Integrity Committee that will investigate allegations made against Inspectors General and certain staff members. Congress would receive periodic reports from this committee on the number of investigations they have undertaken, the results of those investigations, and any action by the agency taken in response to the findings of the committee.

I want to make clear that I am one of the biggest fans of the current cadre of Inspectors General, with very few exceptions. I want to make sure these dedicated public servants are able to perform their duties free from interference. I am very proud to be part of the effort to make sure this happens, and again thank my colleagues Senators Collins, Lieberman and Coburn for their hard work and dedication to this issue.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source