To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to clarify the rules regarding the determination of the compensation of the Chief Financial Officer of the District of Columbia.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3343) to amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to clarify the rules regarding the determination of the compensation of the Chief Financial Officer of the District of Columbia.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which 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.

Mr. Speaker, a capable chief financial officer is paramount to the physical health and integrity and defensiveness of any organization that he or she oversees. The District of Columbia is no exception. Just the opposite. The Federal city is perhaps the most important place for people to look at a microcosm of whether or not the Federal Government can be fiscally responsible.

In the 1990s, when the District of Columbia was bankrupt, Congress, at its discretion and the direction of this committee, stepped in with sweeping legislation to help the city's sinking financial ship. Included in these reforms was the establishment of an independent chief financial officer to oversee the city's finances. Since the creation of this position, Congress has come to rely upon the D.C. CFO to give an objective, unvarnished picture of the city's finances. The D.C. CFO is our best window into the financial status of the Federal city.

The bill before us today spends no Federal dollars. It simply allows the District to use its own locally generated funds to pay its CFO as much as a member of the Federal Government's Senior Executive Service can receive in total compensation. Now, I know that the men and women here on the floor understand the Senior Executive Service. But for those who may not, we have, throughout the government, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of positions that are very senior that make, in fact, at times more than Members of Congress. These are specialists. These are highly trained career professionals that, in fact, make up to but not more than the Vice President.

Back in the 1990s when we created this position, we established an amount that seemed reasonable at the time. Today, establishing a more flexible amount, one that can change over time as the Senior Executive Service changes, makes more sense. Ultimately, there are CFOs throughout government--some of them controlling less responsibility and smaller amounts of funds and certainly, in many cases, less significant and complex relationships than that of a city of over 500,000 with countless different departments, including, obviously, the

education of children, the security of the Federal city, and the like. For that reason, it seems only fitting that we link it to a salary that can be at least as great as a senior Federal service.

Now, ultimately, we are not mandating a salary. We are only allowing the city to recruit someone who is created by an act of Congress to serve this body as a window into our oversight of the Federal city. This legislation was supported unanimously by the Oversight and Government Reform Committee last month, and I urge all Members to support this important technical change to the charter for the city of the District of Columbia.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

In closing, to my colleague from the District of Columbia, Eleanor, thank you. Thank you for the work you do for the District. It is our committee's jurisdiction to oversee the Federal city, and it is an honor; but it wouldn't be possible if not for the engagement of Delegate Norton, if it wasn't for the cooperation we have had with the Mayor and members of the council and with the outgoing CFO.

So we don't often get an opportunity on the House floor to talk about, candidly, the fact that we are hosted by a city here. We have jurisdiction over it; but, ultimately, the day-to-day operation is not a burden to Congress but, rather, a benefit to Congress that we have by having this unique relationship.

So as I urge all Members to vote for this important change, I want to thank the majority leader and all those who have brought this bill in a timely fashion to the floor so that we could make a decision and go to hiring a new CFO so we would never be without a person to oversee the finances and to report to Congress in a timely fashion so that we can have confidence that the people who so kindly host us, in fact, will remain fiscally responsible and solvent throughout anything that may come their way.

So, again, to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), I thank her. Mr. Speaker, I thank you for this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I associate myself with the remarks of the chairman.

I rise in support of this important legislation, with special appreciation to Majority Leader Eric Cantor and particularly to Chairman Issa and Ranking Member Cummings for quickly marking up this bill so that it could come to the floor expeditiously, as the District is in the throes of hiring a new CFO. I will have more to say on their indispensable support presently.

The District of Columbia's independent chief financial officer is a unique office in the United States created by Congress. The city cannot obligate or expend funds without the CFO's approval, and the CFO can only be terminated for cause.

Today's bill, which contains a formula developed by Chairman Issa, is an important example of the chairman's continuing commitment to assist the city in improving and safeguarding its vital operations.

When the current CFO announced his retirement earlier this year, the Mayor formed a CFO search committee, led by Alice Rivlin, the former head of the D.C. Financial Control Board, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Congressional Budget Office, and former Mayor Anthony Williams.

The search committee determined that the allowable compensation that is in the bill is necessary for the recruitment and retention of a CFO, but the District government does not have the authority under the Home Rule Act to alter the CFO's compensation. This bill would amend the Home Rule Act to permit the D.C. government to pay its CFO an amount that may not exceed the pay of members of the Senior Executive Service in agencies with an Office of Personnel Management-certified appraisal system.

Currently, the Home Rule Act sets the CFO's pay at the basic pay for level I of the executive schedule. The bill's compensation standard, as with the term of an interim CFO under the D.C. Chief Financial Officer Vacancy Act, which we got enacted earlier this year, was established by Chairman Issa and is supported by the city. I am particularly grateful to the chairman and also to Majority Leader Cantor for their continued partnership on legislation to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the District of Columbia government.

As with today's bill, their assistance was indispensable last month as the Congress, with bipartisan help from the Senate, agreed for the first time to remove the threat of a D.C. government shutdown by permitting the city to spend its local funds, its own locally raised taxpayer funds, for the entire fiscal year 2014.

While Federal agencies' spending authority expires on January 15, the CR that Congress approved matches the city's responsibility to raise local funds with its right to, therefore, spend these funds, consistent with budget autonomy for the District, which Majority Leader Cantor, Chairman Issa, and Ranking Member Cummings have all supported.

Again, I want to offer not only my own but also the gratitude of the city. The District has chosen a CFO; but, unfortunately, that matter is still pending because it has to lay over here in the Congress. The city is faced with the issue of two sovereigns that must approve a piece of legislation. Whenever I have had anything approaching that kind of emergency, the chairman has gone out of his way to see to it that we proceeded and that the city was not inconvenienced or, dare I say, embarrassed. I very much appreciate the way in which he expedited this bill and got it on a markup--and there have not been a lot of markups-- but he made sure this got on the most recent markup. I particularly appreciate his innovation in devising a formula that would, in fact, be approved as I believe and hope it will today by this House.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 3343, which was received from the House and is at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times and passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.