[Senate Hearing 116-56]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 116-56
OVERSIGHT OF THE GOVERNMENT
PUBLISHING OFFICE:
OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JULY 24, 2019
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Rules and Administration
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Available on http://www.govinfo.gov
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U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
37-366 WASHINGTON : 2019
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For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office,
http://bookstore.gpo.gov. For more information, contact the GPO Customer Contact Center,
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Phone 202-512-1800, or 866-512-1800 (toll-free).
E-mail, [email protected].
COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
FIRST SESSION
ROY BLUNT, Missouri, Chairman
MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
PAT ROBERTS, Kansas CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois
TED CRUZ, Texas TOM UDALL, New Mexico
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia MARK R. WARNER, Virginia
ROGER WICKER, Mississippi PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine
CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
Fitzhugh Elder IV, Staff Director
Lindsey Kerr, Democratic Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Pages
Opening Statement of:
Hon. Roy Blunt, Chairman, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Missouri....................................................... 1
Michael P. Leary, Inspector General, Government Publishing Office 2
Prepared Testimony of:
Michael P. Leary, Inspector General, Government Publishing Office 11
Materials Submitted for the Record:
Memorandum to Inspector General for the Government Publishing
office from the United States Marshals Service................. 21
The New Statutory Law Enforcement Authority for OIG Criminal
Investigations article published by Glenn A. Fine.............. 24
Congressional Research Service article published by Wendy
Ginsberg....................................................... 32
Questions Submitted for the Record:
Hon. Roy Blunt, Chairman, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Missouri to Michael P. Leary, Inspector General, Government
Publishing Office.............................................. 41
Hon. Hon. Amy Klobuchar, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Minnesota to Michael P. Leary, Inspector General, Government
Publishing Office.............................................. 50
Hon. Cortez Masto, a U.S. Senator from the State of Nevada to
Michael P. Leary, Inspector General, Government Publishing
Office......................................................... 54
OVERSIGHT OF THE GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE:
OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL
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WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2019
United States Senate
Committee on Rules and Administration
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 11 a.m., in Room
301, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Roy Blunt, Chairman
of the committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Blunt and Hyde-Smith.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE ROY BLUNT, CHAIRMAN, A U.S.
SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI
Chairman Blunt. The Committee on Rules and Administration
will come to order. Certainly, in the middle of voting and
other things we are doing, I am glad that my colleague, Senator
Hyde-Smith, has joined me today. Now, this is the authorizing
committee for the Government Publishing Office, and Senator
Hyde-Smith chairs the legislative branch appropriating sub-
committee as well as being on this committee, so it is a real
opportunity for us to talk about this important department, and
frankly, some of the challenges it has. Glad to welcome Michael
Leary the Inspector General of the Government Publishing Office
and thank you for joining us.
In 1860, Congress created the Government Printing Office in
response to the high cost and inefficiencies of contracting
with private printers for the public distribution of Government
documents. 159 years later, the Government Printing Office
continues to carry out its unique mission of keeping America
informed by printing distributed documents that contribute to
the historical record of our Government's work, ranging from
the Emancipation Proclamation to yesterday's Congressional
Record.
The rapid advance in printing and digital technologies has
also resulted in a real transformation at the Government Office
tasked with making this information available, but now doing
that in ways that would not have been anticipated just a few
years ago. In 1988, Congress established the current Office of
Inspector General to examine the GPO's operations and recommend
policies to enhance its effectiveness. The Director of the GPO
appoints the Inspector General, who operates independently to
ensure the agency and Congress receive objective information
and reviews of the agency's administration. The Inspector
General routinely conducts operational audits, reviews
legislative impact on the agency, and reports deficiencies to
both the Director of the GPO and the Congress.
Mr. Leary began his tenure as the GPO Inspector General
this past April. Prior to his appointment, he served as a
Colonel in the United States Marine Corps and held Senior
Advisory positions within the Department of Treasury, the
Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director
of National Intelligence. Mr. Leary also recently served as an
Executive for Strategic Planning for the Council of Inspectors
General on Integrity and Efficiency.
This is an area, Mr. Leary, that has had some lack of
permanent leadership for a long time. The fact that you are the
third Inspector General would indicate just part of that
problem. The Director of the now known as the Government
Publishing Office position has been vacant since October 2017.
As of April of this year, 5 of the 10 GPO executive leadership
team positions are vacant with employees serving in an acting
capacity. You are the third IG appointed by the Acting Deputy
Director since March 2018.
Hope you are going to be there a while, but I am anxious to
hear what, from April to today, your view is of this agency,
what you see as your role within this agency, and whatever else
you can share with us today. I would like you to start with no
more than 5 minutes of testimony, and we have got your written
testimony for the record, summarize that, however you would
like to, and then I am sure we will both have some questions
for you.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL LEARY, INSPECTOR GENERAL, GOVERNMENT
PUBLISHING HOUSE
Mr. Leary. Chairman Blunt and Senator Hyde-Smith thank you
for the opportunity to testify before the committee on my first
4 months as the Inspector General of the Government Publishing
Office. Allow me at this point to also introduce behind me my
General Counsel, Anthony Febbo, one of my Senior Investigators,
Eric Duncan, my new Assistant Inspector General for
Investigations and the General Counsel for the IG for the
Library of Congress, Deborah Lehrich. I look forward to sharing
my thoughts on the state of the agency and my office as I first
found them, and on my thoughts regarding how the Office of the
Inspector General can help GPO succeed in its mission going
forward.
I will also take this opportunity to identify certain
obstacles to accomplishing the OIG mission, and to offer my
thoughts on how to address them. As the Inspector General of a
Legislative Branch agency, I see the Congress, through my
oversight committee, as not only a stakeholder along with my
agency leadership in the public, but also as a partner, and as
an advisor. I am fully committed to working closely together
with you, your staff, maintaining transparency in my
interactions with you, and keeping you fully informed about my
findings and my recommendations.
I provided a full written statement to the committee so I
will just briefly highlight a few areas in this opening
statement which I think might be worthwhile exploring today. In
my first months on the job, I have encountered a proud and
dedicated work force at GPO who believe in their agency, their
mission, and the necessity to adapt, but my initial assessments
is that they want certainty and commitment from Congress and
the Administration in the form of a nominated and confirmed
Director, and they want adequate investment to enable their
success. Unfortunately, I did not find a GPO IG office that was
positioned to help GPO succeed. To rectify that, I have taken
immediate actions to change the focus, policies, and the
practices of my office.
Through hiring, training, and partnership with the IG
community and CIGIE, I will permanently change my office's
culture and as a result its value to GPO. I have had the
cooperation and engagement of GPO's leadership since arriving.
I believe they are committed to the independence of the
Inspector General and to a constructive relationship between
the agency and my office. But beyond this, there are some
serious concerns going forward, issues particular to my office
and to Legislative Branch agencies. Some answers to which lie
perhaps only with Congress. These include potential long-term
solutions for greater Inspector General independence and work
product integrity, and rectifying encroachments on my ability
to conduct law enforcement activities.
In these next 3 months, I will be publishing a semi-annual
report, a new work plan for 2020, and a new 5-year strategy.
The creation of these documents will be critical enablers to
instituting my vision for this office of a team-based
collaborative culture that produces reliable reports with
strategic impact. I would welcome engaging with you and your
staff as these are implemented.
Thank you again, and I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Leary was submitted for the
record.]
Chairman Blunt. Well, thank you, Mr. Leary, and again, we
are pleased you are here. With all the acting positions there,
the recent retirements, the acting positions, what kind of
leadership challenge has that created at GPO?
Mr. Leary. Senator, thank you for that. My own observation
is that there is a level of uncertainty about the direction
that GPO will be going in. I know that GPO has published, just
recently under Mr. Crawford, a new strategy, but I think
anybody who takes over that agency would probably want to put
out their own strategy as soon as they take the office.
Chairman Blunt. Did you also just say that you were going
to propose a new 5-year strategy yourself?
Mr. Leary. Mine is due in October. The current 5-year
strategy expires at the end of this Fiscal Year.
Chairman Blunt. At the front end of that 5-year strategy,
what would be the top three challenges you would think the next
Director would have?
Mr. Leary. GPO is a business. It has to remain relevant to
the customer, and the customer is principally Congress, but
also the broader Government in general, and it has to be able
to figure out how to provide cost-effective, efficient delivery
of products. It has to be cutting edge. Those are the
challenges, I think, that are fairly obvious to me for this
agency. It needs permanent leadership in order to ensure that
it can get to that point and stay there.
Chairman Blunt. How many employees are at GPO now?
Mr. Leary. There are almost 1,800.
Chairman Blunt. 1,800. How many different facilities are
out there?
Mr. Leary. There are eight offsite facilities, but I could
be--I think it is about eight.
Chairman Blunt. Not at all used like they would have been
used 20 years ago by any stretch of the imagination, is that
correct?
Mr. Leary. Yes. Some of them are just warehousing. Some are
distribution points.
Chairman Blunt. The structure here, you mentioned
customers, which would be Congress, also the State Department,
passports being one of the highly secure things that GPO does.
This is set up to where the other agencies actually wind up
transferring funds or they actually--GPO competes for that
business in some cases and in other cases doesn't compete but
clearly has a functioning customer sort of basis in the model.
Is that right?
Mr. Leary. That is right. Right. With SID, the Secure and
Intelligent Documents Division, their principal customer is the
State Department, and that is in part because we insist on the
passports needing to be securely produced, and we are the only
people who can provide that for them. They are a principal
customer, maybe even could be considered a sole customer.
Chairman Blunt. Well, you know, one of the goals I think in
the current strategic plan is to exceed the customer's
expectations. Do you have a belief that that really is
happening?
Mr. Leary. You know, at this point, I am not well informed
enough. I can tell you that there is an inspection that we are
getting ready to institute, or initiate I should say, with the
Secure and Intelligent Document Division to examine just that
point, whether or not the customer, State Department's
expectations, are going to be met with the delivery of this new
process for creating secure passports.
Chairman Blunt. Are you comfortable with the security
provisions of the passport part of the operation?
Mr. Leary. I am aware of the questions. I am not informed
at this point as to whether to make an opinion about their
sufficiency, but that will be one thing that I think would be
part of examining whether the customer is getting what they
asked for.
Chairman Blunt. Have you looked at past challenges that the
agency may have had on harassment or discrimination?
Mr. Leary. I am aware of those accusations. I do not know
of any current issues that my office would be looking at.
Chairman Blunt. Well, you can help me out here, but were
those accusations in the past or were those actual findings of
discrimination or harassment?
Mr. Leary. I would have to get back with you as to whether
there were findings or just accusations.
Chairman Blunt. Alright. Senator Hyde-Smith. I will come
back with some more questions here in a minute.
Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much, and
thank you, Mr. Leary, for being here and all your staff that
you have with you. We certainly appreciate your attendance
today and your credible testimony. Having just been appointed
in April, you have served in this position for only a few short
months. However, you bring to the job many years of experience
with the Executive Branch and with the Council of Inspectors
General on Integrity and Efficiency. I certainly look forward
to learning more about your plans. The GPO is important to the
daily operations of not only Congress but also the Federal
Government as a whole. I would like to make sure that as we
carry out this oversight of GPO, that we are doing everything
possible to help the agency run effectively.
Mr. Leary, what do you believe to be the most critical risk
the GPO should address in the coming year?
Mr. Leary. In the coming year? I have been made aware that
GPO is investing in leading technology for digital printing. I
think that is smart and that is important. One thing that I
mentioned in my written testimony that may be beyond GPO as an
agency to address on its own, the physical plant is in, I
think, obvious need of significant investment.
They are doing the best they can with the space that they
have, but it is a building that is over 100 years old. It is a
wonderful red brick building, it has iconic facade to it, but
if you were to take a tour of the place, you would realize--if
you are thinking about a competitive business model and you
think about publishing in the private sector, you would not be
envisioning, I think, this nice red brick building across the
street, you would be thinking about something else.
We are going to need, if we are going to stay in front of
and be a premier option for the Government, we are going to
need to be able to invest in the infrastructure. That is much
more than a year away.
Senator Hyde-Smith. To accomplish this goal that you have
envisioned here, and we certainly want you to have those
adequate resources, how far are we from having those adequate
resources? Where do we stand, and how can we help you
accomplish those goals?
Mr. Leary. This is a question that probably I should be in
a position to advise on, but it is mostly for GPO leadership to
speak on. I will say I have looked at the budget over the last
10 years just in preparation for sitting here, not an expert by
any means, but my own observation is that the budget in real
dollars has only gone down in the last 10 years. When you think
about what do they have to invest in long-term infrastructure
improvements?
I think there is a challenge that they have to address--
where we are going to place our resources. It is the same
challenge we all have. Whatever agency you come from, wherever
you work, it is all the same in Federal Government, but when
you make a decision to build a new stadium, what is that based
on? Well, I do not know. We have got lots of problems, lots of
near term issues. Somebody has to say it is time to make a big
step and maybe that is something to think about.
Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you very much.
Chairman Blunt. On that topic in terms of the budget, I
would assume actually most printing efforts everywhere probably
gone down in cost in recent years, the way you do this, the way
you prepare the document, the way you set the type, the way
that a lot of it is now probably made available, you do all of
the preparation work, but the numbers that you used to print
probably not printed, that seems totally reasonable to me. Now,
I think maybe you were making the point that while the budget
has gone down there, the maintenance budget, the sustaining the
buildings, the sustaining the equipment, has not reflected any
need there.
Mr. Leary. That is right, Senator. My, again take it for
what it's worth, my own observation on the opportunity I have
had to look at this is that there has to be some major
strategic thinking about the physical plant and the
infrastructure, and maybe that means making a major financial
investment in the building.
Chairman Blunt. Some of the buildings are being used for
archival and other storage now, is that right?
Mr. Leary. That is right. Exactly. There are a number of
facilities around the country that we have. There are some
major facilities, there is one in Maryland, there is one in the
Stennis facility in Mississippi, and there is another facility
out in Colorado. That is a major facility, but we have other
smaller facilities.
Chairman Blunt. From the point of view of your work as a
Legislative Branch Inspector General, can you describe the
differences in being a Legislative Branch Inspector General and
an Executive Branch Inspector General?
Mr. Leary. Some of them are formal. The Inspector General
Act of 1978, the amendments of 1988, the amendment just a
couple of years ago, all those apply to Executive Branch
Inspectors General. They only informally apply to Legislative
Branch Inspectors General. We operate under Title 44 in my
agency. My authorities reference the Inspector General Act but
do not incorporate it. Things like, look, if my boss wants to
fire me, he can fire me.
Chairman Blunt. You are appointed by the head of the
agency, of the GPO?
Mr. Leary. Right. In the Executive Branch, there is a 30-
day notice requirement. If he does not like what I say here
today, I can walk back, and he could walk me out. That is one
thing that is different. Some of the other harmonizing issues
are what do you pay an IG? That is set in law on the Executive
Branch side. It is not set in law on my side. Another major
issue is law enforcement, and I hope we have time for a more
deeper dive into the law enforcement piece of this, but
Legislative Branch agencies do not have law enforcement
authority vested in them. They have to get it from, and
ironically enough, an Executive Branch agency.
Chairman Blunt. Do you want to talk about the law
enforcement piece of this today?
Mr. Leary. Absolutely.
Chairman Blunt. Tell me what you are thinking is what you
should do from a law enforcement perspective to be sure that
your job is being done the way you think it should be done.
Mr. Leary. The business of the GPO is, I would say,
substantially carried out through the awarding of procurement
contracts. $387 million in contract money was awarded in the
last Fiscal Year through 87,000 or 85,000 different orders. It
does not take a brain surgeon to realize there is an
opportunity for fraud there. A major part of my
responsibilities as an Inspector General is to investigate that
fraud. That fraud happens all over the country.
My agents go to all four corners of the country. They were
just out in California. We actually have an open investigation
in Florida right now. They have to travel to serve warrants, to
issue subpoenas, to make seizures, to do interviews, to
participate in a surveillance, in joint investigations. All
those things involve law enforcement authority. I have seven
agents in my investigations division to include my Assistant
Inspector-General for Investigations.
When I got into the office, all seven of those positions
were authorized law enforcement positions. As of next Friday,
two out of seven will be authorized to carry their weapons and
execute law enforcement authority. In 3 months, I have lost 75
percent of my law enforcement authority.
Chairman Blunt. How did that happen?
Mr. Leary. Because we depended upon an Executive Branch
process to provide what we call blanket deputation, which is a
period of time to an individual where they were given law
enforcement authority, in this case specifically, we had a 10-
year relationship with the U.S. Marshal Service. Other
agencies, both within the Executive and the Legislative Branch
have the same relationship with the Marshal Service. There was
a well-instituted process where we would fill out a
certification and provide it to them. They would process it,
and then they would certify or deputize my agent. They just
stopped doing that sometime last year. No explanation, no
engagement, and now they do not even answer my emails.
Chairman Blunt. They being who?
Mr. Leary. The Marshal Service.
Chairman Blunt. The Marshal Service does not respond to the
need for you to have the agency you traditionally had?
Mr. Leary. No, either to be re-certified or certified. You
know, it seems to me the mistake was we put our trust in a
process that relied upon an agency to make, I guess, decisions
that depended on who the lawyer was that sat in a particular
chair. For 10 years, they thought it was okay. Now they do not
think it is okay. I have heard secondhand that they had an
issue with separation of powers. As a lawyer myself, and take
that for what it's worth, I do not put any real weight on that
conversation or that argument. Marshal Services can deputize
anybody. There is no separation of powers issues in their
authority to do that.
Chairman Blunt. Give me an example of why your agents need
to be deputized and armed. Not a specific example, but give me
a hypothetical example of the kinds of things your agents might
be looking at in terms of contracts that are fraudulent or--
just give us an example of that.
Mr. Leary. Whenever you serve a warrant, the practice is
that somebody needs to be armed because it is an inherently
dangerous activity. In fact, I am glad you brought this up at
this point. I have two things I would like to submit to the
record.
Chairman Blunt. Alright, what would they be?
Mr. Leary. One of them is an article that was written by
Glenn Fine who is now the Acting IG for the Department of
Defense, but at the time was the IG for the Department of
Justice, and he wrote an article about the passage of the
Homeland Security Act in 2002. That article, there was a
provision in that Act that gave law enforcement authority to a
number of IG offices, all of them Presidential appointment
offices or PAS offices, and he explains why that happened and
why the authority was needed.
Interestingly, there is no distinction in here as to why
those offices would get it and other offices would not. We
perform the same responsibilities and we have the same
functional needs that those offices had. I want to put that in
the record because it lays out the argument pretty clearly. The
other thing I would like to offer is a Congressional Research
Service article that was published a few years ago in 2014 that
explains law enforcement authority in the IG community. Both of
these will help to lay out why our office needs it, why any
office who does fraud investigations should have it.
Chairman Blunt. Alright, those in the record without
objection.
[The information referred to was submitted for the record.]
Chairman Blunt. Now in addition to serving warrants, are
there bid contracts that you think there could potentially be a
failure to perform or not enough oversight on the bidding
process, or what do you think the problem there may lie?
Mr. Leary. In the last couple of years, there have been
recorded, obviously, we do a lot of procurement contract
awards. We have had some cases that we have investigated that
involved failure of adequate oversight. There is a high volume
of contracting going on. There needs to be better oversight of
that by the GPO. I actually submitted a report, I think, to
this office recently, that made note of that. It is an issue.
They need to be able to oversee the awarding of contracts to
ensure----
Chairman Blunt. Do you think the contracts are always
adequately advertised and competed for when they needed to be?
Mr. Leary. On the issue of advertisement, I cannot say.
What I will say is that once they are awarded and how they are
internally managed, we observed issues. I think GPO, since
these incidences have arisen, have changed their policies.
Certainly, they have actually come back to me and agreed with
my findings and said that they would change.
Chairman Blunt. Why wouldn't you know if they changed their
policies or not, isn't that your job?
Mr. Leary. Certainly. I just--I actually have just received
about a month ago the response to the report that I issued
internally to them about a procurement fraud issue where they
said they agreed with the findings. I think they are in the
process of making sure that those findings and those
recommendations are put into place. It has only been 30 days.
Chairman Blunt. Okay. Senator Hyde-Smith.
Senator Hyde-Smith. I think you have done an excellent job
addressing this. I share your concerns about the ability to
have law enforcement on your side because it is an inherently
dangerous position to put yourselves in. I have no further
questions.
Chairman Blunt. I think we are going to, because of votes,
I think we are going to draw this to a conclusion here in a
minute. Is there anything that you wanted to be sure and a
point you wanted to make today that we have not made yet?
Mr. Leary. No, Senator. I appreciate the opportunity to
talk to you particularly about the law enforcement issue. I
have restructured my office to be more proactive. I think that
is an important principle. I want my agency to know that I am
here to partner with them, that I think the more important
services that an IG can provide to an agency is to help them be
more effective and efficient. I am focusing on inspections as
opposed to investigations, and I think that partnership is much
more fruitful to a GPO than simply emphasizing investigations.
That is a big piece of what I am doing.
Chairman Blunt. I noticed one of the people who are here
backing you up is from the Library. Is there a reason for that?
Do you not have that support in your agency or----
Mr. Leary. No, actually, just to be clear, Ms. Lehrich was
our contract General Counsel until the agency hired Mr. Febbo.
Mr. Febbo is the very first General Counsel for the IG at GPO.
Prior to that, we obtained contract support, and Ms. Lehrich
was actually the part-time General Counsel for me, and the
full-time General Counsel for the Library of Congress.
Chairman Blunt. Got it. Got it. I think we are going to
conclude the hearing now. The record will be open until 5 p.m.
on July the 31st. I think there are likely to be other
questions submitted in writing.
[The information referred to was submitted for the record.]
Chairman Blunt. This is something that clearly we want to
be helpful, supportive of. The comments you have made today
about the law enforcement concerns would be significant, and I
am sure this will not be the last one of these hearings we will
have. The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:30 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED
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