WASHINGTON – The U.S. Congress just approved a slate of measures championed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley to improve government accountability, cut waste and empower whistleblowers.  The measures were approved as both chambers prepared to bring the 114th Congress to a close.

The measures include Grassley’s Inspector General Empowerment Act and FBI Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act as well as a provision in a bill funding the Department of Defense to curb the use of extended paid leave for government employees based on Grassley’s Administrative Leave Act.  

“A government for the people must be accountable to the people.  But all too often the federal bureaucracy falls short, leaving taxpayers underserved and overcharged.  Government watchdogs and whistleblowers are critical to identifying fraud, waste and misconduct, and restoring the accountability taxpayers deserve.  Congress’ approval of these bills will not only empower watchdogs and whistleblowers, it will also help cut waste and encourage greater accountability. The president should now sign these bills into law to improve the government for the people it serves,” Grassley said.

The following legislation and nominations were approved last week before Congress adjourned:

Inspector General Empowerment Act
Despite a 1978 law granting inspectors general authority to review all agency records in the course of their oversight work, a recent Justice Department legal opinion has been used by several Obama administration agencies to withhold documents from such scrutiny. The lack of cooperation prevents inspectors general from conducting full and thorough investigations to identify and address inefficiencies or misconduct.

Grassley’s bipartisan bill restores Congress’ intent to guarantee inspectors general access to “all records” of the agencies they oversee.  The Inspector General Empowerment Act contains additional provisions to improve the independence of inspectors general and to equip them with the tools to more effectively and efficiently tackle waste, fraud and misconduct within the government.  Read more HERE

FBI Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act
Employees across the vast majority of federal agencies are legally protected from workplace reprisal when they expose wrongdoing to their supervisors.  However, FBI employees are not protected when making similar disclosures.  Instead, Justice Department regulations require disclosures to be made to a limited group of senior officials even though FBI policy encourages employees to report to supervisors.  As a result, FBI whistleblowers often make their initial disclosure to a supervisor, but have no legal protection in the event of retaliation.  

Grassley’s bipartisan bill brings the FBI in line with other federal agencies and encourages other would-be whistleblowers by ensuring that FBI employees can access the same legal protections as those in other agencies when disclosing fraud, waste or abuse to their supervisor.  Read more HERE.

Administrative Leave Act
Grassley introduced this bipartisan legislation to curb excessive use of paid leave by federal employees after several reports, including his own, indicated that employees are being placed on paid administrative leave for months or even years at a time.  As a result, taxpayers are paying billions of dollars for salaries of employees who are not working for the people.  Grassley’s review also found that paid leave is often used as a means of reprisal by agencies to remove whistleblowers from the workplace.

The bill prevents administrative leave waste and abuse by:
•    Limiting paid administrative leave to a maximum of ten days a year. 
•    Creating new types of leave—including investigative and notice leave—that would be available for the agency to use while it is investigating misconduct or taking action against that employee. These new types of leave would finally hold agency managers and leadership accountable for placing employees on extended paid leave. 
•    Requiring executive agencies to keep records related to the use of extended paid leave. 

The legislation was included in an annual Department of Defense funding bill. Read more HERE.

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