II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2178 

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 and Mrs. ERNST) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Inspector General Rec5 ommendation Transparency Act of 2017’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. INSPECTOR GENERAL OPEN RECOMMENDATIONS 

2 DATABASE. 

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

4 (5 U.S.C. App.) is amended by adding at the end the fol5 lowing: 

6 ‘‘(5) OPEN RECOMMENDATIONS DATABASE.— 

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

8 ‘‘(i) the term ‘designated Federal enti9 ty’ has the meaning given the term in sec10 tion 8G(a)(2); and 

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

12 means a recommendation— 

13 ‘‘(I) issued by an Inspector Gen14 eral of an establishment or designated 

15 Federal entity and made publicly 

16 available; and 

17 ‘‘(II) that has not been adopted 

18 or implemented by the establishment 

19 or designated Federal entity during 

20 the 1-year period following the date 

21 on which the recommendation was 

22 issued. 

23 ‘‘(B) ESTABLISHMENT OF DATABASE.— 

24 The Council shall establish and operate a pub25 licly available database that— 


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

2 Council; and 

3 ‘‘(ii) includes the information on open 

4 recommendations submitted by each In5 spector General of an establishment or des6 ignated Federal entity under subparagraph 

7 (C). 

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

9 after the first semiannual reporting deadline de10 scribed in section 5(a) that occurs after the 

11 date of enactment of this paragraph, and not 

12 less frequently than every 6 months thereafter, 

13 each Inspector General of an establishment or 

14 designated Federal entity shall submit to the 

15 Council, in a manner determined by the Coun16 cil, the status and disposition of each open rec17 ommendation of the establishment or des18 ignated Federal entity, which shall include— 

19 ‘‘(i) the number of recommendations 

20 issued by the Inspector General for the fis21 cal year; 

22 ‘‘(ii) the number of recommendations 

23 described in clause (i) that are open rec24 ommendations; 


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

2 an open recommendation was issued; 

3 ‘‘(iv) the assigned number of each 

4 open recommendation, as designated within 

5 a report described in clause (iii); 

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

7 recommendation; 

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

10 to the head of the establishment or des11 ignated Federal entity; 

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

13 recommendation, such as whether the rec14 ommendation remains open or has been 

15 partially implemented, or if the establish16 ment or designated Federal entity has ex17 pressed that the recommendation is ex18 pected to be implemented soon; 

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

20 the Inspector General relating to why the 

21 recommendation remains open; 

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

23 the establishment or designated Federal 

24 entity relating to why the recommendation 

25 remains open; and 


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1 ‘‘(x) any other information as deter2 mined by the Council.’’. 

Æ 


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