Bill to boost independence of IGs heads to White House

The House Saturday passed a Senate-approved compromise bill aimed at increasing the independence of inspectors general.

The bill mandates that the government watchdog offices, many of which rely on attorneys in agencies they oversee for legal advice, have access to independent counsel. It requires the president to give Congress 30 days' notice before removing an IG, codifies an existing counsel of senior oversight officials to oversee IG offices, mandates that IG Web sites be directly accessible on agency home pages and boosts IG salaries, among other steps.

The White House threatened to veto the measure, but relented after changes including elimination of provisions limiting IG terms to seven years and alteration of a provision allowing IGs to send their budgets directly to Congress.

The legislation instead requires the president's budget request to include a comparison of IGs' original budget requests and the amount agencies seek for the offices, a step intended to ensure agency heads do not use budget cuts to retaliate against the offices.

"This reform bill restores integrity to government by holding IGs accountable and giving them the independence to do their jobs," said Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., who has pushed a version of the bill for years.