[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 83 (Monday, June 27, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 27, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
          POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE AND INSPECTOR GENERAL ACT

  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules 
and pass the bill (H.R. 4400). To amend title 39, United States Code, 
to present the use of paid confidential informants by the U.S. Postal 
Service in certain narcotics investigations; to require that the 
appointment of the inspector general of the U.S. Postal Service be made 
by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate; and for 
other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 4400

       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 ``Postal Inspection Service 
     and Inspector General Act''.

     SEC. 2. RESTRICTION ON THE USE OF PAID CONFIDENTIAL 
                   INFORMANTS BY THE POSTAL SERVICE.

       (a) Confidential Informants.--
       (1) Restriction.--Section 404 of title 39, United States 
     Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
       (c)(1) The Postal Service may not retain the services of a 
     paid confidential informant for purposes of any investigation 
     concerning the possible violation of any law relating to 
     controlled substances, unless the unlawful use of the mails 
     is involved.
       ``(2) The Postal Service shall render a semiannual report 
     to the Congress concerning any investigation--
       ``(A) in which the Postal Service retains the services of a 
     paid confidential informant; and
       ``(B) which results in the arrest of 1 or more individuals 
     for violating any law relating to controlled substances.
       ``(3) For the purpose of this subsection--
       ``(A) the term `controlled substance' has the meaning given 
     such term by section 102(6) of the Controlled Drug Abuse 
     Prevention and Control Act of 1970; and
       ``(B) a confidential informant shall be considered to be 
     `paid' if such informant receives, or is to receive, a 
     monetary or nonmonetary benefit (including any forbearance 
     from a civil or criminal action) for the services 
     involved.''.
       (2) Applicability.--The amendment made by paragraph (1) 
     shall apply with respect to any investigation commencing on 
     or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
       (b) Officers.--
       (1) In general.--Section 204 of title 39, United States 
     Code, is amended--
       (A) by amending the section heading to read as follows:

     ``Sec. 204. Assistant Postmasters General; General Counsel; 
       Judicial Officer; Chief Postal Inspector'';

       (B) in the first sentence by striking ``and a Judicial 
     Officer.'' and inserting ``a Judicial Officer, and a Chief 
     Postal Inspector.''; and
       (C) in the second sentence by striking ``and the Judicial 
     Officer'' and inserting ``the Judicial Officer, and the Chief 
     Postal Inspector''.
       (2) Conforming amendment.--The table of sections for 
     chapter 2 of title 39, United States Code, is amended by 
     striking the item relating to section 204 and inserting the 
     following:

``204. Assistant Postmasters General; General Counsel; Judicial 
              Officer; Chief Postal Inspector.''.

     SEC. 3. INSPECTOR GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES POSTAL 
                   SERVICE.

       (a) Definitions.--Section 11 of the Inspector General Act 
     of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.) is amended--
       (1) in paragraph (1) by inserting ``the Postmaster 
     General;'' after ``the Attorney General;''; and
       (2) in paragraph (2) by inserting ``the United States 
     Postal Service,'' after ``Treasury;''.
       (b) Transfer of Functions.--Section 9(a) of the Inspector 
     General Act of 1978, as amended by section 203(g)(3)(A) of 
     the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1933 (Public 
     Law 103-82; 107 Stat. 890), is amended--
       (1) in paragraph (1)--
       (A) in subparagraph (U) by striking ``and'' after the 
     semicolon; and
       (B) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(W) of the United States Postal Service, that portion of 
     the Postal Inspection Service that is engaged in internal 
     audit and program review activities; and''; and
       (2) in paragraph (2) by inserting ``(or, in the case of the 
     United States Postal Service, the Postmaster General, in 
     consultation with the Board of Governors)'' after ``head of 
     the establishment involved''.
       (c) Special Provisions.--The Inspector General Act of 1978 
     is amended--
       (1) by redesignating the first section designated as 
     section 8G as section 8H;
       (2) by redesignating the second section designated as 
     section 8G as section 8I; and
       (3) by inserting after section 8F the following:


    ``special provisions concerning the united states postal service

       ``Sec. 8G. (a) In carrying out the duties and 
     responsibilities specified in this Act, the Inspector General 
     of the United States Postal Service shall have oversight 
     responsibility for all activities of the Postal Inspection 
     Service, including any internal investigation performed 
     thereby. The Chief Postal Inspector shall promptly report the 
     significant activities being carried out by the Postal 
     Inspection Service to such Inspector General.
       ``(b) Nothing in this Act shall restrict, eliminate, or 
     otherwise adversely affect any of the rights, privileges, or 
     benefits of either employees of the United States Postal 
     Service, or labor organizations representing employees of the 
     United States Postal Service, under chapter 12 of title 39, 
     United States Code, the National Labor Relations Act, any 
     handbook or manual affecting employee labor relations with 
     the United States Postal Service, or any collective 
     bargaining agreement.''.
       (d) Technical and Conforming Amendments.--
       (1) Relating to the inspector general act of 1978.--Section 
     8H of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (as so redesignated 
     by subsection (c)(1)) is amended--
       (A) in subsection (a)(2) by striking ``Tennessee Valley 
     Authority,'' and all that follows through the semicolon and 
     inserting ``Tennessee Valley Authority, and the United States 
     International Trade Commission;''; and
       (B)(i) by striking subsection (f), and redesignating 
     subsections (g) and (h) as subsections (f) and (g), 
     respectively;
       (ii) in paragraphs (3) and (4) of subsection (a) by 
     striking ``(h)(1)'' and inserting ``(g)(1)''; and
       (iii) in subsection (c) by striking ``Except as provided 
     under subsection (f) of this section, the'' and inserting 
     ``The''.
       (2) Relating to title 39, united states code.--Section 
     410(b) of title 39, United States Code, is amended--
       (A) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (9); and
       (B) by amending paragraph (10) to read as follows:
       ``(10) the Inspector General Act of 1978; and''.
       (e) Effective Date; Interim Service.--
       (1) Effective date.--This section and the amendments made 
     by this section shall take effect upon the expiration of the 
     3-month period beginning on the date of the enactment of this 
     Act.
       (2) Interim service.--The individual serving as Inspector 
     General of the United States Postal Service on the day before 
     this section takes effect may continue to serve in that 
     capacity until--
       (A) a successor has taken office, or
       (B) such individual ceases to be the Chief Postal Inspector 
     of the United States Postal Service.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
Michigan [Miss Collins] will be recognized for 20 minutes, and the 
gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Petri] will be recognized for 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Michigan [Miss Collins].
  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4400 creates an independent inspector general for 
the Postal Service to be appointed by the President, with the advice 
and consent of the Senate. Currently, the chief postal inspector is the 
inspector general for the Postal Service and is appointed by the 
Postmaster General.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4400 will also limit the U.S. Postal Service from 
hiring paid confidential informants during the course of investigations 
relating to controlled substances.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4400 has received the support and 
endorsement of several major mailers and Postal Unions such as the 
National Postal Mail Handlers Union, Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers and 
Advertising Mail Marketing Association.
  Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I enthusiastically urge my colleagues to 
support the measure.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PETRI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4400, the Postal 
Inspection Service and Inspector General Act, and I want to commend 
Chairman Clay for bringing this important legislation to the floor.
  Since the Postal Service continues to be plagued by a variety of 
problems, it is of vital interest to postal management, employees and 
customers alike that we establish an independent inspector general for 
the Postal Service, as this bill does. Only with an independent IG in 
place, will sound, independent audits and reviews of Postal Service 
programs be possible.
  Clearly, the chief postal inspector, who currently serves as IG and 
has broad responsibility for the security of postal personnel and 
facilities and the investigation of postal crimes, has been hard 
pressed to review his own organization objectively. And the lack of 
independent review coming from the Postal Inspection Service has proven 
costly to mailers, postal employees, and the public.
  Furthermore, this bill prevents further travesties of justice like 
those the committee learned of in Cleveland, West Palm Beach, Los 
Angeles, Minneapolis, and elsewhere.
  By preventing the Postal Service from using paid confidential 
informants in drug investigations, this legislation should ensure that 
no more innocent postal employees are entrapped by overly zealous 
postal inspectors.
  Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes and 30 
seconds to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia [Ms. Norton].
  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to revise and extend her 
remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I very much thank the chairwoman of the 
subcommittee for yielding time to me and congratulate her on her work 
in bringing forward this very significant reform.
  Mr. Speaker, the Post Office and Civil Service Committee discovered 
through its own investigations and hearings that the Postal Service was 
retaining crooks who remained crooks to find crooks. Even without these 
investigations, Mr. Speaker, the Postal Service should not have been 
exempt from the requirement to have an independent inspector general 
like every other federally funded agency. Perhaps because of the Postal 
Service's special status, it fell between the cracks. Those cracks have 
become an embarrassingly large hole.
  The Postal Service has a postal inspector. His job is to secure the 
mail and the personnel who deliver the mail. The job of an inspector 
general is to investigate the internal operations of an agency itself. 
Otherwise, the agency is left to self-policing, and we have learned 
long ago that that is insufficient.
  Matters like narcotics enforcement, where revelations came forward in 
our hearings, are too important to be left to amateurs and crooks.
  Federal law enforcement, of course, generally has a good reputation 
for professionalism. Who would have thought that within any Federal 
agency we could have had the notion of ``dollars for collars'' or 
convicted felons as confidential informants. No wonder the Postal 
Service lacks professionalism, however. It had no consultation with 
professional law enforcement agencies like the FBI, the Justice 
Department, and many others. No training was given to personnel in 
professional law enforcement work. The Postal Service was out there 
doing its thing on a lark on its own. The Service's activities became 
more than embarrassing; they destroyed lives, and we heard about those 
lives in graphic detail in the committee.
  The Postal Service fought the rehiring of people who were clearly 
innocent. Ultimately, the crooks outsmarted the Postal Service. They 
implicated innocent employees and pocketed the money. There were some 
on drugs during the stings. One asked a postal employee to buy him 
drugs as a favor.
  It should not take evidence of renegade operations or bogus criminal 
charges or dismissal of innocent employees to get an inspector general. 
An independent inspector general is now considered as vital to a 
Federal agency as the agency head herself. Lacking an inspector 
general, the Postal Service got stung by its own sting.
  It is too late to undo the damage done to many, but we are in time to 
prevent more damage to others.
  I strongly support the passage of H.R. 4400 and ask my colleagues to 
do the same.
  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the 
distinguished gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Stokes].

                              {time}  1350

  Mr. STOKES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from 
Michigan for yielding time to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4400, the Postal 
Inspection Service and Inspector General Act. This measure will prevent 
the use of paid confidential informants by the U.S. Postal Service in 
certain narcotics investigations and will require the appointment of 
the inspector general of the U.S. Postal Service. As an original 
cosponsor of H.R. 4400 I want to take this opportunity to commend my 
distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Missouri, Chairman Clay, 
for his leadership in crafting this intelligent and thoughtful 
legislation, and expeditiously bringing it before the House for 
consideration.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to share how my office 
became involved in this issue initially. Last year my office was 
approached individually by several Postal employees who wanted me to 
inquire into their removal from the Postal Service. In each case, these 
individuals had been removed for alleged misconduct relating to illegal 
drug activity.
  After talking amongst themselves, and realizing they all had the same 
problem and all has the same information used against them provided by 
the same U.S. Government paid informant, a group of these same 
individuals came to my office wanting, to file a class action suit and 
seeking my advice on the matter. Upon my direction, my staff began to 
collect statements from each of these individuals. Upon receipt of 
these statements I forwarded these documents to our colleague, and 
chairman of the Post Office and Civil Service Committee, Mr. Clay, who 
has congressional oversight over such matters. What we learned, as the 
sordid details of the illegal sting operation have come out, has the 
distasteful makings of some script that one might expect to see 
utilized for television or a movie: The Postal inspectors hire 
informants to solicit supposed drug trafficking suspects; the 
informants run a scam on the Postal inspectors by implicating innocent 
employees, and the Government pays huge sums of money for bogus 
information.
  It is a sad commentary that this matter is not only a real life 
situation, but that it involves the U.S. Post Office--a Federal 
Government entity and an institution supported by the American 
taxpayers. Moreover, the entire operation was conducted with the 
complete knowledge and control of top Post Office officials. In fact, 
as more and more information emerged, it became clear that this type of 
activity is not the first instance in which such an ill-conceived 
operation was carried out.

  In addition, Mr. Speaker, the real travesty of this entire case is 
that this illegal and ill-advised operation has damaged the characters 
and reputations of many innocent individuals. For many of these 
persons, jobs were lost. As a result of this deprivation of income, 
private property and investments such as homes and automobiles were 
lost as well. Moreover, entire families have been placed under 
unnecessary and undue stress and censure. All apparently because of 
some conviction hungry and vindictive Postal inspectors. The events 
uncovered in this case show a complete disregard for due process.
  Mr. Speaker, I was also disturbed to discover that this case has some 
serious racial implications. It became clear that all of the affected 
Postal employees whose rights had been compromised were African-
American. Furthermore, had it not been for the persistence of many on 
the Post Office and Civil Service Committee, I am almost afraid to 
guess how long it would have been--if at all--before these activities 
were uncovered. I was also shocked to discover that even after the 
involvement of my office and the Post Office and Civil Service 
Committee, there was still a lack of cooperation and willingness by the 
Postal Inspection Service to provide complete and accurate facts.
  That is why this bill being considered today, H.R. 4400, the Postal 
Inspection Service and Inspector General Act is an essential piece of 
legislation. With its enactment, the abuses I have already discussed 
will be prevented. Illegal and racially motivated sting operations 
conducted by federal agencies cannot be tolerated.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to recognize all of those individuals 
who had the courage to approach me in the first place and those 
countless other innocent people who may have also been persecuted 
unfairly. H.R. 4400 is a fair and just bill which will help protect 
other citizens from unfair prosecution. I strongly urge all my 
colleagues to take a stand for preventing the egregious abuse of 
Government power, and vote for passage of H.R. 4400.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4400, the Postal Inspection Service and 
Inspector General Act's primary purpose is the establishment of an 
independent inspector general for the Postal Service. Today, the Postal 
Service lacks such an independent inspector general. Currently, the 
chief inspector of the Postal Service, its chief law enforcement 
officer whose primary responsibility is security of personnel, 
facilities and the investigation of postal crimes, is given the 
additional role of performing inspector general functions. Although he 
performs inspector general duties he is the chief inspector not an 
inspector general. As a result of this unique situation, this agency's 
investigative responsibility is much broader than that of any other 
person who is an inspector general.
  An independent IG is mandated to conduct independent audits and 
review. There is no independent review of Postal Service programs. The 
Postal Service reviews itself. An independent IG at the Postal Service 
would have found the systematic problems with the inspection service's 
drug enforcement program where felons paid by the inspection service 
have been allowed to ruin the lives of innocent postal employees for 
the past 10 years. The problems with the Postal Service's contracting 
procedures may have been uncovered by an independent IG. The Postal 
Service may have avoided an injunction on the billion dollar air 
contract. It may have avoided the embarrassment of having paid an 
outrageous $7.5 million profit to a St. Louis real estate company which 
eventually was convicted of fraud in that transaction. The Postal 
Service may never have purchased a virtually useless and expensive 
piece of land in Queens, NY, if an independent IG had reviewed the 
procurement process. In Chicago, an IG could have prevented the 
disastrous service failure 10 years earlier. He or she could have 
prevented a single manager from requesting and approving a $200,000 
private office renovation.
  An independent IG would have advised the Postmaster General and the 
Board of Governors that its automation program wasn't being properly 
implemented nor producing the expected savings. An independent IG may 
have determined that the PMG's restructuring would harm the automation 
program. Lack of independent review has proven costly to Mailers and 
Postal employees.
  H.R. 4400 prevents the Postal Service from using paid confidential 
informants in drug investigations. The committee found that Postal 
inspectors are not equipped to oversee these investigations. Experts at 
DEA should run these investigations, if they are needed at all.
  The Postal Service is the second largest agency in the Government. 
The only one without an IG. Its management, employees and customers 
deserve an independent review of its programs. The current Inspection 
Service framework cannot provide that review because it is not 
independent of management. This bill provides that review in the Postal 
Service just like every other Federal agency. Postal Service management 
will have greater accountability under H.R. 4400 which will benefit the 
Postal Service and the public it serves.
  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4400.
  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from Michigan [Miss Collins] that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4400, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof), the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was 
passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________