IG Independence and Empowerment Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I appreciate Chairwoman Maloney's leadership on this issue and so many other issues to protect the citizens, protect consumers, protect voters, and protect, frankly, those who stand up and say there is wrongdoing.

I heard the remarks of the ranking member, and I appreciate his thoughtfulness. But as I was listening to him, I am thinking: How do you make sure that somebody is not cowed by a President, any President, who is prepared to take adverse action without cause against somebody because he or she does not like the investigation they are undertaking?

As the gentleman may know, and as my colleagues may know, I urged a rule that we adopted in this House which said that it is a violation of our rules to out a whistleblower. We have put whistleblower protections in, but unfortunately, when we had whistleblowers come forward most recently, they were attacked and attempted to be outed, which would have subjected them, obviously, to the adverse consequences against which we tried to protect them in the legislation that we passed on whistleblowing. So, I see some analogy between these two.

I thank Vice Chairman Gomez, Chairman Connolly, Chairman Lynch, and Representatives Porter and Lieu for working on this legislation and supporting this legislation. I was proud to introduce it with the chair of the committee and proud to support it.

Madam Speaker, Americans deserve the highest standards of ethics, transparency, and accountability from their government. Federal agencies and officials work for the people, and they must be accountable to the people. That is why the previous administration's assault on the independence of inspectors general was so alarming.

This is not an attack on a specific administration. As the gentlewoman and chair of the committee has pointed out, we have a Democratic President now, so this is going to bind him. It is not going to bind his predecessors. If anything, it is certainly not anti-Biden, but it is to say: President Biden, we respect you, but we want to have inspectors general who have the confidence they can move ahead without fear of retribution.

Former President Trump removed or replaced, as has been pointed out, the inspectors general from the Departments of Defense, State, Health and Human Services, and Transportation. What kind of a check and balance is that, if a President can simply say, ``I don't like what you are doing. I am removing you''? I would suggest none, with all due respect to my friend.

These watchdogs must be able to act independently and be free from political pressure or threats to their careers. It seems to me that is a very commonsense, rational judgment to make. That is what this is about.

We introduced our bill to address the challenge exposed by the actions of the prior administration, that is true. But that has not been the only administration that has acted to undermine inspectors general.

I urge all of my colleagues to join us in supporting this legislation today. It will build on the provisions that I pushed to include in the House Rules Committee, as I pointed out in January, which protects Federal whistleblowers by making it a violation of House rules for Members to reveal their identities.

Those who come forward to reveal misconduct or violations of the public trust need to be heard and must be protected from threats of retaliation. If that is not the case, it will undermine the very objective that we seek in creating IGs. They need to know that they can go to inspectors general or to Congress under strong whistleblower protections.

House Democrats, and I hope House Republicans, will renew the faith in government and ensure that it works for the people. We are determined to protect and strengthen government accountability.

I hope all of us, in a bipartisan way, will repair this very critical principle of accountability for the people of this country.

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