Title: Integrity Committee Transparency Act of 2019
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics

Summary:
Integrity Committee Transparency Act of 2019
This bill expands the membership of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to include a former inspector general and revises requirements regarding the council's Integrity Committee.
The Integrity Committee must provide additional information to (1) the council when requesting an extension of time to evaluate an allegation of wrongdoing, and (2) Congress and the council when it closes an allegation without referral to the council for investigation. The committee must brief congressional committees on its activities every six months.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4382 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4382

 To amend the Inspector General Act of 1978 to require the Council of 
 Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to include additional 
 information in requests and reports to Congress, to make information 
available to Congress regarding allegations closed without referral, to 
     expand the membership of the Council, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 18, 2019

 Mr. Connolly (for himself, Mr. Cummings, and Mr. Meadows) introduced 
 the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight 
                               and Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Inspector General Act of 1978 to require the Council of 
 Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to include additional 
 information in requests and reports to Congress, to make information 
available to Congress regarding allegations closed without referral, to 
     expand the membership of the Council, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Integrity Committee Transparency Act 
of 2019''.

SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED IN REQUESTS AND REPORTS 
              TO CONGRESS.

    Section 11(d) of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.) 
is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (5)(B)(ii), by striking the period at the 
        end and inserting ``, the Office of Inspector General involved, 
        the length of time the Integrity Committee has been evaluating 
        the allegation of wrongdoing, and a description of any previous 
        written notice provided under this clause with respect to the 
        allegation of wrongdoing, including the description provided 
        for why additional time was needed.'';
            (2) in paragraph (8)(A)(ii), by inserting ``or corrective 
        action'' after ``disciplinary action''; and
            (3) in paragraph (9)(A), by striking the period at the end 
        and inserting ``, including with respect to each Office of 
        Inspector General with more than 50 employees, the number of 
        allegations received with respect to each such Office.''.

SEC. 3. AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION TO CONGRESS REGARDING ALLEGATIONS 
              OF WRONGDOING CLOSED WITHOUT REFERRAL.

    (a) Availability of Information to Congress.--Section 11(d)(5)(B) 
of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App) is amended by 
adding at the end the following:
                            ``(iii) Availability of information to 
                        congress.--If the Integrity Committee closes 
                        the allegation of wrongdoing without referral 
                        to the Chairperson of the Integrity Committee 
                        to initiate an investigation, the Chairperson 
                        of the Integrity Committee shall, not later 
                        than 30 days after receiving a request from the 
                        Chair or ranking minority member of a Committee 
                        of Congress, provide such Chair or ranking 
                        minority member a written description of the 
                        nature of the allegation of wrongdoing and how 
                        the Integrity Committee evaluated the 
                        allegation of wrongdoing for referral.
                            ``(iv) Requirement to forward.--With 
                        respect to any written description provided 
                        under clause (iii), the Integrity Committee 
                        shall forward such description to the members 
                        of the Integrity Committee and to the 
                        Chairperson of the Council.''.

SEC. 4. ORAL BRIEFING REQUIREMENT.

    Section 11(d) of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.) 
is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(14) Oral briefing.--
                    ``(A) Semiannual oral briefings for oversight 
                committees.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
                the enactment of the Integrity Committee Transparency 
                Act of 2019, and every 6 months thereafter, the 
                Integrity Committee shall seek to provide an oral 
                briefing to the Committee on Oversight and Reform of 
                the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
                Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the 
                Senate on the activities of the Integrity Committee, 
                including--
                            ``(i) the nature and number of the 
                        allegations received by the Integrity Council 
                        in the preceding 6 months, including the nature 
                        and number of allegations received by the 
                        Integrity Council in the preceding 6 months 
                        with respect to each Office of Inspector 
                        General;
                            ``(ii) the nature and number of the 
                        allegations the Integrity Council closed 
                        without referral in the preceding 6 months and 
                        the reason why each allegation was closed 
                        without referral;
                            ``(iii) the nature of any difficulty 
                        encountered by the Integrity Council when 
                        receiving, evaluating, or referring for 
                        investigation allegations in the preceding 6 
                        months; and
                            ``(iv) trends in the nature and number of 
                        allegations received by the Integrity Council 
                        overall and with respect to each Office of the 
                        Inspector General in the preceding 5 years, 
                        respectively.
                    ``(B) Other briefings.--The Integrity Committee 
                shall provide an oral briefing of identical content to 
                any other Committee of Congress upon the request of 
                such Committee.''.

SEC. 5. MEMBERSHIP OF CIGIE AND INTEGRITY COMMITTEE.

    Section 11 of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by adding at the end the 
                following:
                    ``(J) The former Inspector General appointed under 
                paragraph (4).'';
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(4) Former inspector general.--
                    ``(A) Appointment.--The Chairperson of the Council 
                shall appoint a former Inspector General who served at 
                an office established under section 2 or 8G to serve as 
                a member of the Council.
                    ``(B) Initial term.--The initial term of the former 
                Inspector General appointed under subparagraph (A) 
                shall be 3 years.
                    ``(C) Additional term.--The Chairperson of the 
                Council may reappoint the former Inspector General 
                appointed under subparagraph (A) to serve for an 
                additional 3-year term.
                    ``(D) Rules.--
                            ``(i) Length of term unaffected.--The term 
                        of the former Inspector General appointed under 
                        subparagraph (A) shall not be affected if the 
                        Chairperson of the Council who appointed such 
                        former Inspector General is no longer serving 
                        as the Chairperson of the Council at any point 
                        during such term.
                            ``(ii) No effect of election of new 
                        chairperson.--If a new Chairperson of the 
                        Council is elected during the initial or 
                        additional term of the former Inspector General 
                        appointed under subparagraph (A), the new 
                        Chairperson may not appoint a new former 
                        Inspector General to serve as a member of the 
                        Council until the expiration of the initial or 
                        additional term of the former Inspector 
                        General, as so may be the case.
                    ``(E) Compensation.--The former Inspector General 
                appointed under subparagraph (A) shall not be 
                compensated for services rendered under this Act and 
                shall not be considered a Federal employee for any 
                purpose other than for purposes of 81 (relating to 
                compensation for injury) of title 5, United States 
                Code, and sections 2671 through 2680 of title 28 
                (relating to tort claims) of title 18, United States 
                Code.''; and
            (2) in subsection (d)(2)(A), by adding at the end the 
        following:
                            ``(iv) The former Inspector General 
                        appointed under subsection (b)(4).''.
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