[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4382 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4382
To amend the Inspector General Act of 1978 to require the Council of
Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to include additional
information in requests and reports to Congress, to make information
available to Congress regarding allegations closed without referral, to
expand the membership of the Council, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 18, 2019
Mr. Connolly (for himself, Mr. Cummings, and Mr. Meadows) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight
and Reform
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Inspector General Act of 1978 to require the Council of
Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to include additional
information in requests and reports to Congress, to make information
available to Congress regarding allegations closed without referral, to
expand the membership of the Council, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Integrity Committee Transparency Act
of 2019''.
SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED IN REQUESTS AND REPORTS
TO CONGRESS.
Section 11(d) of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.)
is amended--
(1) in paragraph (5)(B)(ii), by striking the period at the
end and inserting ``, the Office of Inspector General involved,
the length of time the Integrity Committee has been evaluating
the allegation of wrongdoing, and a description of any previous
written notice provided under this clause with respect to the
allegation of wrongdoing, including the description provided
for why additional time was needed.'';
(2) in paragraph (8)(A)(ii), by inserting ``or corrective
action'' after ``disciplinary action''; and
(3) in paragraph (9)(A), by striking the period at the end
and inserting ``, including with respect to each Office of
Inspector General with more than 50 employees, the number of
allegations received with respect to each such Office.''.
SEC. 3. AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION TO CONGRESS REGARDING ALLEGATIONS
OF WRONGDOING CLOSED WITHOUT REFERRAL.
(a) Availability of Information to Congress.--Section 11(d)(5)(B)
of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App) is amended by
adding at the end the following:
``(iii) Availability of information to
congress.--If the Integrity Committee closes
the allegation of wrongdoing without referral
to the Chairperson of the Integrity Committee
to initiate an investigation, the Chairperson
of the Integrity Committee shall, not later
than 30 days after receiving a request from the
Chair or ranking minority member of a Committee
of Congress, provide such Chair or ranking
minority member a written description of the
nature of the allegation of wrongdoing and how
the Integrity Committee evaluated the
allegation of wrongdoing for referral.
``(iv) Requirement to forward.--With
respect to any written description provided
under clause (iii), the Integrity Committee
shall forward such description to the members
of the Integrity Committee and to the
Chairperson of the Council.''.
SEC. 4. ORAL BRIEFING REQUIREMENT.
Section 11(d) of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.)
is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(14) Oral briefing.--
``(A) Semiannual oral briefings for oversight
committees.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
the enactment of the Integrity Committee Transparency
Act of 2019, and every 6 months thereafter, the
Integrity Committee shall seek to provide an oral
briefing to the Committee on Oversight and Reform of
the House of Representatives and the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the
Senate on the activities of the Integrity Committee,
including--
``(i) the nature and number of the
allegations received by the Integrity Council
in the preceding 6 months, including the nature
and number of allegations received by the
Integrity Council in the preceding 6 months
with respect to each Office of Inspector
General;
``(ii) the nature and number of the
allegations the Integrity Council closed
without referral in the preceding 6 months and
the reason why each allegation was closed
without referral;
``(iii) the nature of any difficulty
encountered by the Integrity Council when
receiving, evaluating, or referring for
investigation allegations in the preceding 6
months; and
``(iv) trends in the nature and number of
allegations received by the Integrity Council
overall and with respect to each Office of the
Inspector General in the preceding 5 years,
respectively.
``(B) Other briefings.--The Integrity Committee
shall provide an oral briefing of identical content to
any other Committee of Congress upon the request of
such Committee.''.
SEC. 5. MEMBERSHIP OF CIGIE AND INTEGRITY COMMITTEE.
Section 11 of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.) is
amended--
(1) in subsection (b)--
(A) in paragraph (1), by adding at the end the
following:
``(J) The former Inspector General appointed under
paragraph (4).'';
(B) by adding at the end the following:
``(4) Former inspector general.--
``(A) Appointment.--The Chairperson of the Council
shall appoint a former Inspector General who served at
an office established under section 2 or 8G to serve as
a member of the Council.
``(B) Initial term.--The initial term of the former
Inspector General appointed under subparagraph (A)
shall be 3 years.
``(C) Additional term.--The Chairperson of the
Council may reappoint the former Inspector General
appointed under subparagraph (A) to serve for an
additional 3-year term.
``(D) Rules.--
``(i) Length of term unaffected.--The term
of the former Inspector General appointed under
subparagraph (A) shall not be affected if the
Chairperson of the Council who appointed such
former Inspector General is no longer serving
as the Chairperson of the Council at any point
during such term.
``(ii) No effect of election of new
chairperson.--If a new Chairperson of the
Council is elected during the initial or
additional term of the former Inspector General
appointed under subparagraph (A), the new
Chairperson may not appoint a new former
Inspector General to serve as a member of the
Council until the expiration of the initial or
additional term of the former Inspector
General, as so may be the case.
``(E) Compensation.--The former Inspector General
appointed under subparagraph (A) shall not be
compensated for services rendered under this Act and
shall not be considered a Federal employee for any
purpose other than for purposes of 81 (relating to
compensation for injury) of title 5, United States
Code, and sections 2671 through 2680 of title 28
(relating to tort claims) of title 18, United States
Code.''; and
(2) in subsection (d)(2)(A), by adding at the end the
following:
``(iv) The former Inspector General
appointed under subsection (b)(4).''.
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