Federal Agency Mail Management Act of 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6009) to ensure the effective processing of mail by Federal agencies, and for other purposes.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H.R. 6009, the Federal Agency Mail Management Act of 2016, introduced by my colleague on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Representative Steve Russell of Oklahoma.

This legislation is intended to make a bipartisan technical correction to the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014, enacted as Public Law 113-187.

Among the provisions of that bipartisan law was language designed to eliminate outdated references to the General Services Administration, or GSA, relating to records management. These changes updated outdated references from a time period when the National Archives was a part of the GSA. Since the National Archives became independent in 1984, these housekeeping changes were long overdue. However, after the bill was enacted, the GSA and the Archives realized that the GSA had relied upon the now altered provisions for its oversight and management authority for Federal agency mail processing and management, which is a function that had not previously been transferred to the Archives. It was never the intent of the Congress to transfer this function.

The Archives and the GSA have been working closely together to ensure the law is being appropriately followed, but both agencies support clarification that this responsibility is properly the GSA's. This legislation provides that exact clarification. Specifically, the bill makes technical corrections to the 2014 law to carve out the responsibility for mailroom management from records management to ensure that the former is properly the GSA's duty and that the latter is the Archives'.

I believe this is a commonsense, good-government bill, and I am pleased to see that my colleague Representative Gerald Connolly is a cosponsor. I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I hope it will move quickly through the legislative process so that we can properly resolve any lingering uncertainty that has been created regarding Federal mail management.

I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of the bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source