S.Amdt. 1802

SA 1802. Mr. JOHNSON submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
to amendment SA 1463 proposed by Mr. McCain to the bill H.R. 1735, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2016 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which
was ordered to lie on the table, as follows:

At the end of subtitle G of title X, add the following:

SEC. 1085. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING NOMINATING A PERMANENT
INSPECTOR GENERAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS
AFFAIRS.

(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) There are 4 Presidentially-appointed Inspector General
vacancies for which a nomination is not pending before the
Senate.
(2) It is vital that Offices of Inspectors General remain
independent.
(3) In the absence of a permanent Inspector General, an
Office of Inspector General is run by an acting Inspector
General who, no matter how qualified or well-intentioned, is
not granted the same protections afforded to an Inspector
General who is confirmed by the Senate, as the acting
Inspector General--
(A) is not truly independent;
(B) may be removed by the head of the agency at any time;
(C) only serves temporarily and does not drive the policy
of the Office; and
(D) is at a greater risk of compromising the work of the
Office to appease the agency or the President.
(4) One of the current Presidentially-appointed Inspector
General vacancies is the Inspector General of the Department
of Veterans Affairs, which has been vacant since December 31,
2013.
(5) The acting Inspector General of the Department of
Veterans Affairs, who has served in the position since
December 31, 2013, is not properly independent from the
Department of Veterans Affairs, is unresponsive to Congress,
lacks transparency to the public, and has lost the trust of
whistleblowers at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the President should nominate a permanent Inspector General
of the Department of Veterans Affairs not later than 30 days
after the date of enactment of this Act.
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