Government Accountability Office Act of 2008

Floor Speech

Now, Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, today is a triumphant day for the employees of the Government Accountability Office, known as GAO. When enacted, the Government Accountability Office Act of 2008 will allow GAO to regain its footing as an agency that not only touts that its employees are the best and the brightest but treats them as if they are the best and the brightest.

On April 2, after a 2-year investigation and several subcommittee hearings, I introduced H.R. 5683, which would restore the 2006 and 2007 annual across-the-board increase to GAO employees who met expectations but did not receive the adjustment.

The legislation would also set a floor guarantee that would preserve GAO's performance-based compensation system, while ensuring that GAO employees receive an annual increase in their permanent pay, provided they meet expectations, that is at least equal to the congressionally approved across-the-board increase. The floor guarantee will be comprised of the annual adjustment to the GAO pay schedule, plus the permanent merit pay increase received by an employee under GAO's merit pay system.

Other provisions in the bill include creating a statutory Inspector General for GAO, providing GAO with enhanced recruiting tools, and eliminating the statutorily imposed GS-15 pay cap to allow the Comptroller General the authority to pay employees up to the rate for Executive Level III.

At a hearing the subcommittee held on March 23, 2008, on this legislation and GAO's personnel reforms, the subcommittee learned from the Ivy Planning Group, a consulting firm hired by GAO to conduct an African American Performance Assessment Study at GAO, that there are significant differences between the ratings for African American analysts and Caucasian analysts. Therefore, the personnel reform at GAO had a significant negative impact on African American staffers.

Furthermore, a survey that was administered to GAO employees at my request found that 81 percent of respondents thought morale in general at GAO is worse or much worse than before the reforms, and a majority of the respondents felt that not having an across-the-board increase for all staff is very or somewhat unreasonable. While the subcommittee recognizes that more work needs to be done at GAO, H.R. 5683 would help improve the morale and remedy the inequities that resulted from the denial of the 2006 and 2007 across-the-board pay adjustments.

The bill before us, H.R. 5683 as amended, makes some technical changes to the bill as reported by the committee. Unfortunately, it also deletes a provision included at the request of Ranking Member TOM DAVIS due to concerns about the cost as reported by the Congressional Budget Office. The provision would have allowed GAO to include bonuses when calculating an employee's annuity, a position I support in principle and which we will hopefully be able to address as this bill moves forward in the legislative process.

The bill, as amended, also deletes provisions which would have given GAO the ability to administer oaths, and guaranteed GAO's access to certain Medicare and FDA information. In addition, it modifies a provision which would allow GAO to recover the costs of financial statement audits it conducts for other agencies.

And so, Mr. Speaker, I hope that my colleagues will join the Government Accountability Office and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and support this legislation.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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