II 

Calendar No. 409 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2178 

[Report No. 115–245] 

To require the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency 

to make open recommendations of Inspectors General publicly available, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 30, 2017 

Ms. HEITKAMP (for herself, Mrs. ERNST, and Mr. LANKFORD) introduced the 

following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

MAY 10, 2018 

Reported by Mr. JOHNSON, with an amendment and an amendment to the 

title 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

A BILL 

To require the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity 

and Efficiency to make open recommendations of Inspectors General publicly available, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Inspector General Rec3 ommendation Transparency Act of 2017’’. 

4 SEC. 2. INSPECTOR GENERAL OPEN RECOMMENDATIONS 

5 DATABASE. 

6 Section 11(c) of the Inspector General Act of 1978 

7 (5 U.S.C. App.) is amended by adding at the end the fol8 lowing: 

9 ‘‘(5) OPEN RECOMMENDATIONS DATABASE.— 

10 ‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph— 

11 ‘‘(i) the term ‘designated Federal enti12 ty’ has the meaning given the term in sec13 tion 8G(a)(2); and 

14 ‘‘(ii) the term ‘open recommendation’ 

15 means a recommendation— 

16 ‘‘(I) issued by an Inspector Gen17 eral of an establishment or designated 

18 Federal entity and made publicly 

19 available; and 

20 ‘‘(II) that has not been adopted 

21 or implemented by the establishment 

22 or designated Federal entity during 

23 the 1-year period following the date 

24 on which the recommendation was 

25 issued. 


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1 ‘‘(B) ESTABLISHMENT OF DATABASE.— 

2 The Council shall establish and operate a pub3 licly available database that— 

4 ‘‘(i) is accessible via the website of the 

5 Council; and 

6 ‘‘(ii) includes the information on open 

7 recommendations submitted by each In8 spector General of an establishment or des9 ignated Federal entity under subparagraph 

10 (C). 

11 ‘‘(C) CONTENTS.—Not later than 1 year 

12 after the first semiannual reporting deadline de13 scribed in section 5(a) that occurs after the 

14 date of enactment of this paragraph, and not 

15 less frequently than every 6 months thereafter, 

16 each Inspector General of an establishment or 

17 designated Federal entity shall submit to the 

18 Council, in a manner determined by the Coun19 cil, the status and disposition of each open rec20 ommendation of the establishment or des21 ignated Federal entity, which shall include— 

22 ‘‘(i) the number of recommendations 

23 issued by the Inspector General for the fis24 cal year; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) the number of recommendations 

2 described in clause (i) that are open rec3 ommendations; 

4 ‘‘(iii) the title of each report in which 

5 an open recommendation was issued; 

6 ‘‘(iv) the assigned number of each 

7 open recommendation, as designated within 

8 a report described in clause (iii); 

9 ‘‘(v) a short description of each open 

10 recommendation; 

11 ‘‘(vi) the date on which each open rec12 ommendation was submitted in final form 

13 to the head of the establishment or des14 ignated Federal entity; 

15 ‘‘(vii) the current status of each open 

16 recommendation, such as whether the rec17 ommendation remains open or has been 

18 partially implemented, or if the establish19 ment or designated Federal entity has ex20 pressed that the recommendation is ex21 pected to be implemented soon; 

22 ‘‘(viii) if available, any comments of 

23 the Inspector General relating to why the 

24 recommendation remains open; 


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1 ‘‘(ix) if available, any response from 

2 the establishment or designated Federal 

3 entity relating to why the recommendation 

4 remains open; and 

5 ‘‘(x) any other information as deter6 mined by the Council.’’. 

7 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

8 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Inspector General Rec9 ommendation Transparency Act of 2018’’. 

10 SEC. 2. INSPECTOR GENERAL OPEN RECOMMENDATIONS. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Inspector General Act of 1978 

12 (5 U.S.C. App.) is amended— 

13 (1) in section 5— 

14 (A) in subsection (a)— 

15 (i) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘the 

16 total number and’’ before ‘‘a description of’’; 

17 and 

18 (ii) by striking paragraph (3) and in19 serting the following: 

20 ‘‘(3) the total number of open recommendations 

21 described in previous semiannual reports on which 

22 corrective action has not been completed, and an iden23 tification of each open recommendation, which shall 

24 include— 


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1 ‘‘(A) the title of each report in which an 

2 open recommendation was issued; 

3 ‘‘(B) the assigned number of each open rec4 ommendation, as designated within a report de5 scribed in subparagraph (A); 

6 ‘‘(C) a short description of each open rec7 ommendation; 

8 ‘‘(D) the date on which each open rec9 ommendation was submitted in final form to the 

10 head of the establishment; 

11 ‘‘(E) if available, any cost savings if the 

12 corrective action with respect to the open rec13 ommendation were completed; and 

14 ‘‘(F) any other information as determined 

15 appropriate by the Inspector General that clari16 fies the progress of implementing the open rec17 ommendation or the expected timeframe for im18 plementation.’’; and 

19 (B) in subsection (f)— 

20 (i) paragraph (6)(B), by striking 

21 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

22 (ii) in paragraph (7)(B), by striking 

23 the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; 

24 and 


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1 (iii) by adding at the end the fol2 lowing: 

3 ‘‘(8) the term ‘open recommendation’ means a 

4 recommendation— 

5 ‘‘(A) issued by an Inspector General of an 

6 establishment and made publicly available; 

7 ‘‘(B) on which corrective action has not 

8 been completed by the establishment during the 

9 1-year period following the date on which the 

10 recommendation was issued; and 

11 ‘‘(C) that has not been otherwise closed by 

12 the Office.’’; and 

13 (2) in section 11(c), by adding at the end the fol14 lowing: 

15 ‘‘(5) ESTABLISHMENT OF DATABASE.—Not later 

16 than 18 months after the date on which the first semi17 annual report is required to be prepared under sec18 tion 5(a) after the date of enactment of this para19 graph, the Council shall establish and operate a pub20 licly available database that— 

21 ‘‘(A) is accessible via the website of the 

22 Council in a standardized, searchable format; 

23 and 

24 ‘‘(B) includes— 


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1 ‘‘(i) the information on open rec2 ommendations that is required to be in3 cluded in each semiannual report under sec4 tion 5(a)(3); and 

5 ‘‘(ii) any other information as deter6 mined necessary by the Council. 

7 ‘‘(6) SUBMISSION OF REPORTS.—Beginning not 

8 later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this 

9 paragraph, each Inspector General of an establish10 ment or a designated Federal entity (as defined in 

11 section 8G(a)) shall, not later than 30 days after the 

12 date on which the Inspector General issues a public 

13 report, submit to the Council the report for publica14 tion on a centralized website.’’. 

15 (b) APPLICATION.—The amendments made by sub16 section (a)(1) shall apply with respect to the first semi17 annual report prepared under section 5(a) of the Inspector 

18 General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.) after the date that 

19 is 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act. 

Amend the title so as to read: ‘‘A bill to require the 

Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to make open recommendations of Inspectors General publicly available, and for other purposes.’’. 


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Calendar No. 409 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2178 

[Report No. 115–245] 

A BILL 

To require the Council of Inspectors General on Inavailable, and for other purposes. ommendations of Inspectors General publicly tegrity and Efficiency to make open recMAY 10, 2018 

Reported with an amendment and an amendment to the 

title 


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