Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mrs. LUMMIS. Mr. Chair, as the designee of the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz), I offer amendment No. 15.

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Mrs. LUMMIS. Mr. Chairman, this amendment transfers approximately $10 million to the EPA's Office of Inspector General from the $2.5 billion EPA environmental programs and management appropriations account. The amendment is necessary to support the EPA OIG's work related to preventing waste, fraud, and abuse, and identifying inefficiencies and potential cost savings at the EPA.

The EPA Office of Inspector General has faced significant funding challenges in recent years. Its full-time employees dropped from 349 to 289, a decrease of almost one-fifth of the office's workforce.

Despite significant resource challenges, the Office of Inspector General at EPA continued to conduct important investigations and audits that saved money for taxpayers and revealed misconduct and abuses at the agency. During FY14, EPA OIG reported $380 million in savings, which is a $7.35 return on investment for every dollar in the OIG budget. The EPA's Office of Inspector General identified $4.1 million in savings during the most recent semiannual reporting period.

The EPA OIG has also investigated gross misconduct and abuses at EPA that yielded savings for taxpayers. For instance, in 2013, the office conducted a criminal investigation into former EPA employee John Beale, who was found to have stolen government money and engaged in travel voucher fraud and time and attendance fraud. Beale committed these frauds by masquerading as an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. Beale agreed to pay restitution of $890,000 to EPA and $500,000 to the Department of Justice. Beale was also sentenced to 32 months in prison.

The EPA Office of Inspector General also investigated allegations of gross mismanagement at the Chemical Safety Board in 2012 and found hostility toward whistleblowers and a toxic, ineffective work environment undermined by the board's chemical accident investigations. The EPA OIG's investigation and pressure from Congress caused the President to remove the CSB chairman.

I want you to know that as the subcommittee chairman on our committee, that we have looked at the EPA and we have taken the Inspector General's reports and we have used them to make considerable changes that have increased morale, especially at the Chemical Safety Board; and that we have also saved taxpayer dollars because we have utilized the Office of Inspector General reports. They have shed light on a litany of other employee misconduct. This is a good investment of taxpayer dollars.

This amendment ensures that EPA OIG will have the resources it needs to continue to conduct these essential investigations. So the amendment increases funding for the EPA OIG by $10,038,000. It decreases EPA environmental programs and management appropriations by $14 million. That is actually awash when you look at the out years.

I strongly encourage adoption of the Chaffetz amendment to this legislation.

Mr. Chairman, with gratitude for your time, I yield back the balance of my time.

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