Integrity Committee Transparency Act of 2019

I 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 infor- mation in requests and reports to Congress, to make information avail- able 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 Effi- ciency 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 Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4382.IH H4382 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 4382 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Integrity Committee 2 Transparency Act of 2019’’. 3 SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED IN 4 REQUESTS AND REPORTS TO CONGRESS. 5 Section 11(d) of the Inspector General Act of 1978 6 (5 U.S.C. App.) is amended— 7 (1) in paragraph (5)(B)(ii), by striking the pe- 8 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘, the Office of Inspec- 9 tor General involved, the length of time the Integrity 10 Committee has been evaluating the allegation of 11 wrongdoing, and a description of any previous writ- 12 ten notice provided under this clause with respect to 13 the allegation of wrongdoing, including the descrip- 14 tion provided for why additional time was needed.’’; 15 (2) in paragraph (8)(A)(ii), by inserting ‘‘or 16 corrective action’’ after ‘‘disciplinary action’’; and 17 (3) in paragraph (9)(A), by striking the period 18 at the end and inserting ‘‘, including with respect to 19 each Office of Inspector General with more than 50 20 employees, the number of allegations received with 21 respect to each such Office.’’. 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4382.IH H4382 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 4382 IH SEC. 3. AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION TO CONGRESS RE- 1 GARDING ALLEGATIONS OF WRONGDOING 2 CLOSED WITHOUT REFERRAL. 3 (a) AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION TO CON- 4 GRESS.—Section 11(d)(5)(B) of the Inspector General Act 5 of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App) is amended by adding at the end 6 the following: 7 ‘‘(iii) AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 8 TO CONGRESS.—If the Integrity Committee 9 closes the allegation of wrongdoing without 10 referral to the Chairperson of the Integrity 11 Committee to initiate an investigation, the 12 Chairperson of the Integrity Committee 13 shall, not later than 30 days after receiving 14 a request from the Chair or ranking mi- 15 nority member of a Committee of Con- 16 gress, provide such Chair or ranking mi- 17 nority member a written description of the 18 nature of the allegation of wrongdoing and 19 how the Integrity Committee evaluated the 20 allegation of wrongdoing for referral. 21 ‘‘(iv) REQUIREMENT TO FORWARD.— 22 With respect to any written description 23 provided under clause (iii), the Integrity 24 Committee shall forward such description 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4382.IH H4382 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 4382 IH to the members of the Integrity Committee 1 and to the Chairperson of the Council.’’. 2 SEC. 4. ORAL BRIEFING REQUIREMENT. 3 Section 11(d) of the Inspector General Act of 1978 4 (5 U.S.C. App.) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 5 lowing: 6 ‘‘(14) ORAL BRIEFING.— 7 ‘‘(A) SEMIANNUAL ORAL BRIEFINGS FOR 8 OVERSIGHT COMMITTEES.—Not later than 180 9 days after the date of the enactment of the In- 10 tegrity Committee Transparency Act of 2019, 11 and every 6 months thereafter, the Integrity 12 Committee shall seek to provide an oral briefing 13 to the Committee on Oversight and Reform of 14 the House of Representatives and the Com- 15 mittee on Homeland Security and Govern- 16 mental Affairs of the Senate on the activities of 17 the Integrity Committee, including— 18 ‘‘(i) the nature and number of the al- 19 legations received by the Integrity Council 20 in the preceding 6 months, including the 21 nature and number of allegations received 22 by the Integrity Council in the preceding 6 23 months with respect to each Office of In- 24 spector General; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4382.IH H4382 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 4382 IH ‘‘(ii) the nature and number of the al- 1 legations the Integrity Council closed with- 2 out referral in the preceding 6 months and 3 the reason why each allegation was closed 4 without referral; 5 ‘‘(iii) the nature of any difficulty en- 6 countered by the Integrity Council when 7 receiving, evaluating, or referring for inves- 8 tigation allegations in the preceding 6 9 months; and 10 ‘‘(iv) trends in the nature and number 11 of allegations received by the Integrity 12 Council overall and with respect to each 13 Office of the Inspector General in the pre- 14 ceding 5 years, respectively. 15 ‘‘(B) OTHER BRIEFINGS.—The Integrity 16 Committee shall provide an oral briefing of 17 identical content to any other Committee of 18 Congress upon the request of such Com- 19 mittee.’’. 20 SEC. 5. MEMBERSHIP OF CIGIE AND INTEGRITY COM- 21 MITTEE. 22 Section 11 of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 23 U.S.C. App.) is amended— 24 (1) in subsection (b)— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4382.IH H4382 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 4382 IH (A) in paragraph (1), by adding at the end 1 the following: 2 ‘‘(J) The former Inspector General ap- 3 pointed under paragraph (4).’’; 4 (B) by adding at the end the following: 5 ‘‘(4) FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL.— 6 ‘‘(A) APPOINTMENT.—The Chairperson of 7 the Council shall appoint a former Inspector 8 General who served at an office established 9 under section 2 or 8G to serve as a member of 10 the Council. 11 ‘‘(B) INITIAL TERM.—The initial term of 12 the former Inspector General appointed under 13 subparagraph (A) shall be 3 years. 14 ‘‘(C) ADDITIONAL TERM.—The Chair- 15 person of the Council may reappoint the former 16 Inspector General appointed under subpara- 17 graph (A) to serve for an additional 3-year 18 term. 19 ‘‘(D) RULES.— 20 ‘‘(i) LENGTH OF TERM UNAF- 21 FECTED.—The term of the former Inspec- 22 tor General appointed under subparagraph 23 (A) shall not be affected if the Chairperson 24 of the Council who appointed such former 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4382.IH H4382 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 4382 IH Inspector General is no longer serving as 1 the Chairperson of the Council at any 2 point during such term. 3 ‘‘(ii) NO EFFECT OF ELECTION OF 4 NEW CHAIRPERSON.—If a new Chairperson 5 of the Council is elected during the initial 6 or additional term of the former Inspector 7 General appointed under subparagraph 8 (A), the new Chairperson may not appoint 9 a new former Inspector General to serve as 10 a member of the Council until the expira- 11 tion of the initial or additional term of the 12 former Inspector General, as so may be the 13 case. 14 ‘‘(E) COMPENSATION.—The former In- 15 spector General appointed under subparagraph 16 (A) shall not be compensated for services ren- 17 dered under this Act and shall not be consid- 18 ered a Federal employee for any purpose other 19 than for purposes of 81 (relating to compensa- 20 tion for injury) of title 5, United States Code, 21 and sections 2671 through 2680 of title 28 (re- 22 lating to tort claims) of title 18, United States 23 Code.’’; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4382.IH H4382 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •HR 4382 IH (2) in subsection (d)(2)(A), by adding at the 1 end the following: 2 ‘‘(iv) The former Inspector General 3 appointed under subsection (b)(4).’’. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4382.IH H4382 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS