Government Employee Accountability Act

Mr. Speaker, due to a family matter requiring my presence in New Mexico, I was not able to be present for a number of votes on the House floor this week.

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 627, on motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 4606, to authorize the issuance of right-of-way permits for natural gas pipelines in Glacier National Park, and for other purposes, as amended, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 628, on motion to suspend the rules and pass S. 3193, the Barona Band of Mission Indians Land Transfer Clarification Act of 2012, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 629, on motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 6504, the Small Business Investment Company Modernization Act of 2012, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 630, on motion to suspend the rules and agree to the Senate Amendment on H.R. 3783, an act to provide for a comprehensive strategy to counter Iran's growing hostile presence and activity in the Western Hemisphere, and for other purposes, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 631, on motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 6621, to correct and improve certain provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act and title 35, United States Code, as amended, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 632, on motion to suspend the rules and pass S. 3642, the Theft of Trade Secrets Clarification Act, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 633, on motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 6672, to reauthorize certain programs under the Public Health Service Act and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to public health security and all-hazards preparedness and response and for other purposes, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 634, on motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 1845, the Medicare IVIG Access Act, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 635, on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 668, to refer H.R. 5862, a bill making congressional reference to the United States Court of Federal Claims pursuant to sections 1492 and 2509 of title 28, United States Code, the Indian trust-related claims of the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma as well as its individual members, as amended, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 636, on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 6655, the Protect Our Kids Act, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 637, on the motion to suspend the rules and pass S. 3564, the Public Interest Declassification Board Reauthorization Act, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall vote No. 638, on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 6016, the Government Employee Accountability Act, as amended, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6016) to amend title 5, United States Code, to provide for administrative leave requirements with respect to Senior Executive Service employees, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Earlier this year, the Committee on Government Oversight and Reform held a hearing concerning the wasteful spending that occurred during the planning and execution of the General Services Administration 2010 Western Regional Conference. As you may recall, the GSA spent more than $820,000 on a conference originally budgeted at $250,000. The GSA has no triggers or controls in place to stop this flagrant overspending. GSA employees, including Jeff Neely, a career member of the Senior Executive Service, failed to follow GSA policy, Federal procurement law, and basic common sense.

H.R. 6016 helps ensure Senior Executive Service, or SES, employees are held accountable for their actions. It allows an SES employee to be fired for misappropriation of funds and gives the agency head discretion to place an SES on unpaid leave, all while maintaining that employee's existing due process rights.

I'd like to commend my colleague, Mr. Kelly, for his work on this bill, and urge all Members to support its adoption.

I reserve the balance of my time.

At this time I yield such time as he may consume to my friend, colleague, and neighbor on the Government Oversight and Reform Committee, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly).

At this point, Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and my colleague on the Government Oversight and Reform Committee, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica).

As we have heard from both sides of the aisle, this is a bill designed to prevent the worst kind of overspending, one of the worst examples that we've seen.

I understand Mr. Clay and agree with his concerns that we cannot violate the due process rights of government employees. We've worked to protect that, but we've also worked very hard to do the job that we were elected to do, and that is to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money. This bill, the Government Employees Accountability Act, H.R. 6016, Mr. Kelly's bill, does just that; and I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I do rise today in support of the Government Employee Accountability Act, H.R. 6016, and I thank the gentleman from Texas and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay).

As a result of this, I think when we had that hearing last spring, both sides were outraged. I remember Chairman Issa speaking out very strongly and also Ranking Member Cummings speaking out very strongly. Because we truly are the stewards of the taxpayer money. And what we said at that time was that we're going to get to the bottom of this, and we're going to find out how this happened and why it happened. When I got back to my office, our switchboard was lighting up and people from back home in western Pennsylvania said, Why is this happening?

I stress exactly what you said--we have a lot of wonderful people working very hard for this country, for this government, and we don't want to paint them all with the same brush. But by the same token, when there is some wrongdoing, it is up to us in the Congress to step forward and do things that make sense.

So this is just a commonsense solution to a situation that has to be addressed. I would say that working together, this is a bipartisan effort to make sure that we have great accountability for those taxpayer dollars that are being spent.

This piece of legislation, as it goes forward today--let's make sure that we understand this--these are the senior executives, these are the creme de la creme, these are the top people that we rely on. That Western Region Conference, as Mr. Farenthold pointed out, was $600,000 over budget, and at some point you've got to wonder why. When we asked the GSA, when we asked Ms. Johnson, Why is Mr. Neely on leave with pay, she said, Well, we don't have any mechanism to prevent that from happening; we don't have the tools to do that. So what we said was, let's go back into the regular world, let's go back into commonsense rules and let's give them a tool to use that makes sense for the American people.

So, I applaud what you're saying, Mr. Clay. It's nice working with you on this. I want to especially thank the committee. We did work very hard on this to come up with something that makes sense for America and makes sense also for the people that work for us. So I thank you.

I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank him for his leadership. Particularly, I want to thank Mr. Kelly for his perseverance, his introduction and sponsorship of H.R. 6016, and encourage my colleagues to support that legislation today.

Most often when you hear about scandals in the Federal Government, there's a little bit of a flurry and then not much is done. Mr. Kelly has stepped forward and introduced legislation that will correct one of the most egregious actions against the Federal taxpayer that we've seen.

Our committee, the Transportation Committee, does oversee the General Services Administration. Within that agency, we heard about the conduct of one senior executive employee, the Senior Executive Services, one of the highest levels of administration in our government. That person thumbed his nose in a hot tub at the taxpayers, at the Congress, and at everyone else.

Today, this is taxpayers' revenge. This is a little gift hopefully we can put under the Christmas tree for the taxpayers so that people in those positions will not receive their pay and can be removed from office. We had to change the law--and we will change the law--to make certain that people who are supposed to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars are held accountable. So I thank everyone in a bipartisan manner in bringing this legislation forward and strongly support its adoption.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the majority for working with us to make additional improvements to H.R. 6016, the Government Employee Accountability Act, as amended. I thank the gentleman, Mr. Kelly from Pennsylvania, who introduced this bill to address an unfortunate instance where a few Senior Executive Service officials at the GSA received a lot of attention regarding their extravagant spending on a Las Vegas conference.

While I fully support the purpose and intent of this legislation to prevent misappropriation and misuse of taxpayer dollars, we need to be careful not to allow the bad actions of a few government employees to take away from the good work that our Federal workers do every day. I have the greatest respect and appreciation for our Federal workers, and I think we all need to be reminded that these men and women devote their professional lives to serving all Americans. This is especially important to note given all the recent legislation attacking these middle class Federal workers' pay and benefits. I believe in the importance of safeguarding taxpayer dollars and holding our public servants accountable. For this reason, I support this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I continue to reserve.

At this time I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.