Sen. Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, is a long-time advocate for independent agency inspectors general. Grassley has been concerned by problems inspectors generals have had accessing necessary information from their agencies. For example, the Peace Corps inspector general was stonewalled simply trying to get access to records to ensure the agency was acting in accordance with the law in addressing sexual abuse cases. Grassley sent three letters to the agency explaining the law and ultimately held up the nomination of the director before a temporary solution was found. The Justice Department inspector general in 2009 suddenly ran into problems getting access to material previously received from the FBI. Grassley pressed the FBI Director for answers to this abrupt change in position during an oversight hearing on May 21, 2014. The Justice Department responded to an April 2 letter on June 24 to try to justify its position. The dispute continues.
Grassley was copied on a letter today to congressional committees of jurisdiction from 47 inspectors general expressing concern about agency refusal to provide access to critical agency records. The inspectors general cite the Department of Justice, the Chemical Safety Board and the Peace Corps as examples. Grassley made the following comment on the letter.
“This is an Administration that pledged to be the most transparent in history. Yet, these non-partisan, independent agency watchdogs say they are getting stonewalled. How are the watchdogs supposed to be able to do their jobs without agency cooperation? Inspectors general exist to improve agencies and get the most bang for every tax dollar. Even before today’s letter, I was working on legislation to help inspectors general deal with agency stonewalling, among other problems, and working with the committees of jurisdiction. This letter underscores the need for congressional review and possibly legislative action. Congress needs to respond when inspectors general ask for help. I’ll continue working with the committees of jurisdiction to fix the access problems, through oversight and possibly legislation.”
The letter from the inspectors general is available here.
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