by Dan Friedman
WASHINGTON (May 1, 2008) – The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday passed a broad bill that gives GAO new investigative powers, awards GAO employees who lost out on raises in a new wage system back pay and makes administrative changes at the congressional auditing agency.
Introduced by House Oversight and Government Reform Federal Workforce Chairman Danny Davis, D-Ill., the bill (HR 5683) passed by unanimous voice vote. The measure contains managerial changes requested by GAO, but also includes pay adjustments inserted by lawmakers unhappy with recent changes to the agency’s pay system as well as Democrat-backed provisions aimed at strengthening GAO’s ability to demand information from the executive branch.
Despite concerns voiced by Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Tom Davis, R-Va., the committee by voice vote passed a substitute amendment offered by committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. The amended version gives GAO employees, who already had power to interview officials at executive branch agencies, the ability to administer oaths.
In provisions aimed at ongoing disputes with specific agencies, the amendment also codifies what Waxman said is GAO’s existing ability to request information from the Health and Human Services Department regarding Medicare Part D and to demand the Food and Drug Administration turn over any information even if it involves trade secrets.
The House Ways and Means Committee is considering similar legislation that would also give agencies like the Congressional Research Service Access to Part D information, Waxman noted.
Currently the FDA gives GAO information involving trade secrets only at the request of committee chairs, which Waxman said creates unneeded delay. Waxman argued the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have incorrectly interpreted the law to deny GAO information on Medicare part D.
Davis said those changes made the bill unnecessarily controversial. But he applauded the removal of a provision that would have given GAO the right to interview the employees private companies with government contracts.
Addressing an issue that has riled GAO employees, the bill restores pay increases to hundreds of employees wrongfully denied raises in 2006 and 2007. Pay reforms implemented in 2005 by former Comptroller General David Walker resulted in a split of a payband, or salary range, at GAO. Employees assigned to the lower-half of the pay band did not get raises, though most earned ratings of "meets expectations." The changes led to GAO employee’s formation of a union.
The bill also creates an Inspector General’s office within GAO.
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