Governmental Affairs Committee moves IG legislation

Citing the need for inspectors general to gain more independence from federal agencies, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee adopted a bill strengthening IGs autonomy.

The measure, sponsored by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and ranking member Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has come in the wake of investigations into inspectors general working with federal agencies to block embarrassing investigations, and some IGs facing retaliation for being too aggressive.

The House has already approved similar legislation by a 404-11 vote.

The bill would require Congress to be notified of any proposed removal of an IG, along with the reasons for the removal, with 30 days notice in writing. All IGs also must be allowed to have their own legal counsel instead of an agency counsel.

All IG Web sites must be accessible from the homepage of a federal agency's Web site, and all IG reports must be posted online within three working days of release. Also, the President's budget must include a specific amount for each IG office at each agency, as well as the funding the IG office requested.

Pay for IGs has also been raised to Level III of the executive pay schedule, currently $154,600, plus three percent. Coinciding with the pay raise, IGs will no longer be allowed to accept bonuses from their federal agency, to protect against investigations being unfairly influenced.

A Council on Integrity and Efficiency for Inspectors General would also be established, which would responsible for investigating allegations of wrongdoing against IGs or their staff, and would make recommendations for filling IG vacancies.

McCaskill said the bill would "make sure that we are behaving as we should with taxpayer money."

Both the House bill and the Senate bill took into account White House concerns that the President should still make the IG budget requests, and that IG offices would not be able to directly make budget requests to the Congress.

A statement of administration policy said that the president's senior advisors would recommend a veto of the bill. The administration also objects to the creation of the Council on Integrity and Efficiency, because it already exists under executive orders and codification of the council "would impede the President's ability to react swiftly and effectively to problems with IGs or with the Council itself."

Currently, Central Intelligence Agency IG John Helgerson is the subject of an internal investigation over his probe into his agency's terrorist detention and interrogation, prompting cries from critics that the CIA is silencing a whistleblower.

Also General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan has come under fire from Congress for attempting to reduce her agency's IG budget and complained that GSA IG Brian Miller and his staff were too aggressive in their investigations.

State Department IG Howard Krongard has been subjected to allegations that he censored reports and stopped investigations into the department's activities surrounding Iraq reconstruction, prompting charges that he is too closely tied to the department and is protecting it and the White House from political embarrassment.