[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 99 (Tuesday, June 21, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E960]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             SUPPORT FOR S. 2133, H.R. 4902, AND H.R. 4639

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 21, 2016

  Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support the bipartisan 
legislation reported from the Oversight and Government Reform Committee 
for consideration today by the full House.
   I urge my colleagues to support the Fraud Reduction and Data 
Analytics Act (S. 2133). I joined Chairman Meadows of the Government 
Operations Subcommittee to introduce the House companion, H.R. 4180. 
Our bipartisan, bicameral legislation will prompt agencies to become 
more pro-active in deploying best practices to continuously monitor 
their financial data to better detect and deter fraudulent activities.
   The fight against fraud and improper payments is a long-standing 
challenge transcending Presidential administrations and affecting all 
federal agencies. Our Committee has investigated this issue in depth, 
and when it comes to rooting out fraud, we would be wise to heed 
Benjamin Franklin's famous axiom that, ``An ounce of prevention is 
worth a pound of cure.''
   As my colleagues will recall, GAO earlier this year reported that 
improper payments made by the federal government totaled nearly $137 
billion in fiscal year 2015. Over a 10-year period, that's more than 
$1.2 trillion dollars, or the equivalent of the spending cuts required 
under sequestration. Federal agencies ought to be doing more to stop 
these improper payments on the front end, and this should be considered 
low-hanging fruit in our ongoing effort to curb government waste.
   In addition, I was pleased to collaborate with Chairman Hurd of the 
Oversight and Government Reform IT Subcommittee to introduce the Air 
and Marine Officers Pay Reform Act (H.R. 4902) to improve the 
efficiency of the pay system for law enforcement officers of the 
Customs and Border Protections' Air and Marine Operations.
   These officers are currently compensated for their overtime through 
a variety of systems including Administratively Uncontrollable 
Overtime, which according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel has a 
troubling history of misuse. Our legislation harmonizes the pay systems 
to avoid situations in which employees of CBP are working side-by-side 
yet subject to different overtime calculations. This bipartisan 
legislation addresses that issue and clarifies agent payroll 
procedures. It is imperative that Congress create a new pay system for 
Border Patrol agents because there are still hundreds of officers and 
Internal Affairs employees operating under an older, abused system.
   In addition to addressing inequities and saving the agency $1.6 
million in the first year, this legislation continues our effort to 
improve efficiency and interoperability across the federal government. 
Our bill reflects a collaborative effort with the majority and 
minority, and I urge all of my colleagues to join me in support of H.R. 
4902.
   Finally, Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support the legislation 
introduced by Reps. Blum and Meadows (H.R. 4639) to reauthorize the 
Office of Special Counsel. Mr. Meadows and I held a Government 
Operations Subcommittee hearing on this subject in December. At that 
time, we looked at the peculiar situation of the Office of Special 
Counsel, along with the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Office 
of Government Ethics. These three agencies are some of the smallest 
agencies in the federal government, but their work has a tremendous 
impact on the integrity of the federal civil service. Unfortunately, 
the authorizations for these agencies expired in 2007, yet they've been 
sustained by annual appropriations, so Congressional action is long 
overdue.
   The Office of Special Counsel's primary mission is to protect 
federal employees from prohibited personnel practices, enforce the 
Hatch Act, and enforce employment rights under the Uniform Services 
Employment and Reemployment Rights Act for federal employees who have 
served in the uniformed services. It also serves as the front line of 
defense for whistleblowers who disclose government wrong doing.
   The bill would reauthorize the OSC through fiscal year 2020. It 
would make several changes to OSC's statutory authority that would, 
among other things, enhance its access to federal agency information, 
increase agency accountability in whistleblower disclosure cases, and 
modify procedural requirements for certain prohibited personnel 
practice cases. For example, it would provide OSC with statutory 
authority to access agency information for the purposes of its 
investigations in a manner similar to Inspectors General. Another 
provision would require agencies to provide a description of the 
actions they have taken when OSC substantiates misconduct on the part 
of an employee.
   Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the bipartisan spirit in which our 
Committee has worked to advance these bills, and I hope we can sustain 
this momentum to continue improving the efficiency and effectiveness of 
the federal government.

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