Committee members approved the measure without amendment and by voice vote during this morning's executive session. A copy of Grassley's statement from today's committee mark-up and a news release describing the bill follow here.
Mr. Chairman, I'm pleased to be co-sponsoring with you a bill to reform the FBI. For almost a decade I've been engaged in FBI oversight and during that time I've seen numerous scandals and coverups. While Director Mueller is working to address these problems, Congress also has a role to play in the overhaul of the FBI. The FBI Reform Bill is designed to address the accountability problems that have plagued the FBI for years.
The bill expands the Department of Justice Inspector General's jurisdiction, protects FBI whistleblowers, creates an FBI Security Career program and a Counterintelligence Polygraph program, enhances the FBI police force, mandates various reports to prepare the way for future reforms, attempts to end the double standard in punishment of SES employees, and authorizes increased resources to fulfill the DOJ's national security mission.
Mr. Chairman, I'm proud of our bi-partisan effort to see reform take root at the FBI. And I'm particularly glad to have had the opportunity to work with you on this bill. You've helped steer the Committee toward reforms that will increase accountability, improve information management and security, and prepare the way for a better FBI for the 21st Century. The reforms contained in our bill will help avoid fiascos like the Hansen and the McVeigh document scandals and give us a federal law enforcement agency we can be proud of.
I also wanted to offer a consensus amendment to authorize additional funds for the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility and the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General. These two entities will need additional resources to be better able to handle the oversight burdens this bill will place on them. Unfortunately, I don't have that amendment ready today, because my staff is trying to determine what level of increased funding will be needed. I'll be offering that amendment on the floor.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill to foster reform in the FBI. The Bureau is crucial in the war on terrorism. Let's fix the problems we've helped to create, so that the FBI can again be the best at what it does.
For Immediate Release
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2002
WASHINGTON ? Sen. Chuck Grassley is the lead Republican on legislation introduced today to improve accountability within the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Key components of the reform proposal reflect Grassley's many years of scrutiny of the nation's largest law enforcement agency.
The bill he sponsored with Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, gives the Justice Department's inspector general authority to oversee the FBI. Grassley and Leahy pledged to seek this authority during a committee hearing last summer on problems with FBI management. The attorney general subsequently issued an order expanding the IG's authority. Today's legislation brings accountability to the FBI by codifying the new jurisdiction for the IG so that the change is not subject to the whim of any particular administration. It also requires the IG to report to Congress on its oversight of the FBI.
Grassley and Leahy's legislation also gives FBI whistleblowers the same rights given to other federal employees by the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989. Grassley wrote the whistleblower law and said it was time to establish legal protections for FBI whistleblowers. "They were left out in 1989 with the understanding that the attorney general would issue regulations to institute protections. The FBI never made good on that commitment until Dr. Fred Whitehurst blew the whistle in the mid-90s on bad science in the crime lab and the exposure forced the Justice Department's hand. Even so, FBI whistleblowers deserve the full protection of the law, and it's time for Congress to act on their behalf," Grassley said.
The bill introduced today also addresses an issue Grassley has targeted as a major problem with the FBI, its overextended jurisdiction. The legislation he introduced with Leahy says the attorney general must report to Congress on the legal authority for all FBI programs and activities and indicate where statutory authority exists and where it doesn't. Grassley said this report will be used to develop additional strategies to help the FBI concentrate on its primary mission. "The FBI has extended its reach to far too many areas to do its main job right, and that is preventing terrorism. It's not in the FBI's nature to give up any territory. In fact just the opposite is true," Grassley said. "So Congress needs to get involved in scaling back the FBI's jurisdiction in the interest of public safety and security."
Grassley said the legislation introduced today also seeks to eliminate the disparity in disciplinary action within the FBI. "Employees in the Senior Executive Service typically get a slap on the wrist while rank-and-file agents are held to the letter of the law," he said. The Leahy/Grassley bill lifts the current requirement that SES employees be suspended for a minimum of 14 days when such action is taken. Grassley said this will enable FBI managers to discipline SES employees for infractions held against other employees by eliminating the excuse used now that 14 days is overly harsh and enabling suspensions for any number of days, as appropriate.
Grassley has conducted extensive FBI oversight since 1997 and exposed serious mistakes that led to botched investigations and risked public safety. "The FBI has bred a culture that rewards image over product," he said. "Instead of valuing the fundamentals of investigating, the FBI's top management has sent a message with its own actions that careers are made on the publicity of high-profile cases."
Grassley said that the new director and clear mandate following September 11 must change the style-over-substance FBI. "My goal with this reform legislation is to contribute to a new way of doing business, where the FBI's top management rewards what FBI agents do best, seek the truth, and let the truth convict," he said.
Grassley is a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs.