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Case Studies in Congressional Oversight

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Case Studies in Congressional Oversight Case Studies in Congressional Oversight Empowering government watchdogs requires cross-agency coordination and an investment in long-term relationships The enactment of legislation in 2016 strengthening the Lessons Learned authority of the federal government’s 73 inspectors general was prompted by a high-profile dispute over access to 1. Collaborative agency records. But the law also contained many important relationships between provisions that stemmed from years of collaborative executive branch oversight and consensus-building by the IG community leaders, members of Congress and staff and congressional staffers. require ongoing The impetus for the Inspector Gen- the inspectors general before her, she communication, eral Empowerment Act of 2016 was the was certain that some claimants were transparency release of a legal opinion by the Depart- receiving duplicate assistance from and a sustained ment of Justice that allowed a number either the Federal Emergency Man- investment of time. of agencies—including the FBI, the agement Agency or the Department Peace Corps and the Environmental of Homeland Security. But federal law 2. Federal agency Protection Agency—to withhold cer- prohibited her and others from acting leaders can use cross- tain sensitive information from their on any findings of duplicate benefits agency councils to IGs based on privacy and national se- and charging those abusing the system inform congressional curity concerns. with defrauding the government. oversight and speak Congress responded with legislation “We couldn’t do anything about it. It to Congress with a confirming that the IGs are entitled to was billions of dollars in duplicate ben- common voice about largely unfettered access to agency re- efits,” said Gustafson. issues that transcend cords, and lawmakers added several individual agency silos. “You have to get the IGs key provisions long sought by the IGs to enhance their oversight capabilities in a row before you can go 3. Congress can use and independence. These provisions the expertise and to Capitol Hill and ask for included amendments that make it authority of cross- things as a community,” said easier for IGs to match datasets across agency councils to federal agencies to identify fraud and Kathy Buller, the inspector identify and address waste as well as to collect timely infor- problems that affect general at the Peace Corps. mation from large groups of people for multiple agencies. audits and investigations. The IGs knew only legislative action Enactment of the Inspector General could solve this problem, and they had 4. Members of Congress Empowerment Act provides a template been asking Congress for a statutory ex- and agency officials for how an organized community of emption to the Computer Matching Act can bridge partisan executive branch leaders, members of for years. But this time was different. and inter-branch Congress and their staffs can build rela- The IGs began the process of reach- divides by taking tionships, engage outside stakeholders ing out to lawmakers and Capitol Hill time to understand and lay the groundwork for passage of aides to make their case through the one another’s good important legislation when the right newly created Council of the Inspec- government priorities, political moment occurs. tors General on Integrity and Efficien- and addressing Matching data from multiple agencies cy—a central entity for the 73 federal common goals to identify possible trends in fraudulent IGs established by law in 2008. The IGs through bipartisan conduct, for example, was an issue of realized the council could help identify legislation that concern that dated back almost a decade. common challenges and provide a unit- solves problems and In 2009, Peg Gustafson was the ed voice when engaging Congress. improves government Small Business Administration’s In- “You have to get the IGs in a row be- effectiveness. spector General, overseeing distri- fore you can go to Capitol Hill and ask bution of disaster relief loans. Like for things as a community,” said Kathy Buller, the inspector general at the liberties organizations to help them “Michael Horowitz had done a good Peace Corps. understand why the IGs needed these job of constantly coming to Congress to The IGs went to work building con- new authorities. Engaging these out- tell us when he was being denied access sensus among themselves and with key side organizations at the start would to documents,” said Gabby Singer, chief congressional staff—those who serve on later prepare certain provisions to sail counsel on the Senate Committee on the congressional committees that over- through any legislative process without Homeland Security and Governmental see the IGs as well as the staff on com- stoking controversy. Peter Tyler, then Affairs. “So we were well aware of the mittees that rely on the IGs to ensure a staffer on the Senate Committee on issues. Just being continually informed that agencies are operating efficiently Homeland Security and Governmen- was really important.” and effectively. Through the council, the tal Affairs, said that he and other con- The other IGs, too, worked tirelessly IGs alerted lawmakers to their legisla- gressional staffers also needed to win to inform Congress of their access con- tive needs and, just as important, linked administration support, and spent time cerns. In August 2014, 47 IGs signed on those needs to the issues of importance educating Office of Management and to a letter objecting to the withholding to members of Congress. Budget officials on the role of the IGs of information by agencies. “That letter The IGs held meetings with legisla- and the need for these provisions. was very significant,” said Horowitz. “It tors across Capitol Hill, and focused ef- A consensus slowly began to build for brought the IG community together in forts on Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) a variety of legislative fixes, but efforts a way that nobody had seen before.” and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), both stalled in part because the disparate pro- The IGs leveraged this moment champions of IG issues in the Senate. A visions couldn’t galvanize political mo- of unity and grew their existing rela- Democratic staffer who helped draft the mentum to move a bill through Congress. tionships with Capitol Hill staff and IG Empowerment Act said that the IGs, That momentum arrived in 2011 members of Congress. Through those “had a list of things that were causing when several IGs had difficulty access- relationships, the IGs worked collabo- problems with their ability to conduct in- ing agency information. At the Depart- ratively with congressional staff to draft dependent oversight of federal agencies.” ment of Justice, in particular, the IG legislation that bolstered IG access to in- And the Senators had some IG priorities was trying for months to oversee the formation and included many provisions of their own. “All the members brought Federal Bureau of Investigation’s use from the wish list of the IGs, such as an their issues to the table. And we hadn’t of national security letters to collect in- exemption to the Computer Matching done a big IG bill in a while,” he said. formation and the DOJ’s and FBI’s use Act, an exemption to certain Paperwork Sen. Grassley, chairman of the Senate of warrants to arrest potential witness- Reduction Act provisions and a require- Committee on the Judiciary, for exam- es in national security investigations. ment that the Government Accountabil- ple, had longstanding concerns about DOJ officials refused to hand over doc- ity Office examine IG vacancies. how the IGs were policing themselves. uments the IG requested. At the Peace “We basically sat with the sponsors He wanted changes to the committee Corps, the IG was prevented from ac- of the bill and said, ‘We’re in for this within the IG council that investigat- cessing records related to the handling completely. So we’ll fight to the end,’” ed allegations of wrongdoing commit- of reported sexual assaults against Horowitz said. ted by IGs. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Peace Corps volunteers. And the En- Ultimately, the IG Empowerment chairman of the Senate Committee on vironmental Protection Agency was Act passed easily through both cham- Homeland Security and Governmental withholding certain records, claiming bers and was signed into law by Pres- Affairs, wanted to determine why there attorney-client privilege. ident Barack Obama on December 16, were so many vacancies in the ranks of The years of relationship building 2016. The law didn’t contain all the federal IGs—and work to fill those va- with Capitol Hill staff and others was provisions on the IGs’ and the lawmak- cancies. His ranking member counter- about to pay off. Committees across ers’ wish lists. Some provisions, like part on the committee, Sen. McCaskill, Congress held hearings to let federal the proposed new subpoena authority, wanted to give the IGs the authority to agency leaders know that they should were left for future debates. But all the subpoena federal employees and com- not be withholding information from IGs and stakeholders across the execu- pel their testimony in certain cases. the IGs. Michael E. Horowitz, the Jus- tive and legislative branches managed As the IGs pressed for legislative tice Department’s IG and head of the to package years of work into one com- changes, congressional staff laid the IG council, testified at 11 hearings in prehensive piece of legislation. groundwork with outside stakehold- 2015 alone, often focusing on the infor- “This was a long, thorough game,” ers, working for a number of years with mation access problems that he and the said Tyler, the former Senate staffer.♦ good government watchdog and civil IG community faced. Resources Counsel of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiencyhttps://www.ignet.gov/ Letter signed by 47 IGs in August 2014 https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/issues/upload/IG%20Access%20Letter%20to%20Congress%2008-05-2014.pdf IG Empowerment Act (P.L.
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