FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2016
House Passes IG Empowerment Act
The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the Inspector General Empowerment Act (HR 2395), which will guarantee that federal Inspectors General have access to agency records, allow IGs to subpoena federal contractors and former government employees under certain circumstances, and allow IGs to match data across agencies to help uncover wasteful spending. The bill, which has bi‐partisan support, now moves to the Senate, where similar legislation (S.579, as part of the BADGER Washington bill, S.3011) is under consideration.
DOJ Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, who as chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) has worked with his fellow IGs across the federal government to support this important legislative reform, issued the following statement:
“I want to thank the House of Representatives for passing the Inspector General Empowerment Act (HR 2395). This critical bipartisan legislation reaffirms the right of federal Inspectors General to have independent access to all of the information they need to conduct their oversight work. The IG Empowerment Act also strengthens IGs in other ways, such as by allowing IGs’ to obtain testimony from former government employees about actions they took during their government employment, and allowing IGs from different agencies to work together to make full use of the data available to them.
“The entire Inspector General community looks forward to the Senate promptly passing similar legislation to assure taxpayers that Inspectors General have the legal authority to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and to make sure federal tax dollars are being used effectively and efficiently. The American public deserves nothing less.”