Grassley Works For Stronger Oversight of Government Regulators

Press Release

An amendment offered by Senator Chuck Grassley and cosponsored by Senator Claire McCaskill would make changes to the pending Senate financial regulation bill to strengthen the independence and accountability of all agency-appointed inspectors general, including those at five key financial agencies.

"Taxpayers and Congress count on these watchdogs to go after waste, fraud and mismanagement in the federal bureaucracy, and Congress ought to focus on additional steps to strengthen the role of inspectors general, rather than take away from their important work for accountability," Grassley said.

Grassley said he offered his amendment because language in the financial regulation bill to make five of these positions presidentially appointed could introduce politics into what traditionally have been career, non-political positions. "A change like this works against independence because these five positions run relatively small offices and don't have the professional staffs that contribute to independent work in the biggest agencies in the federal government," Grassley said.

Grassley said his amendment would strike the problematic provision and replace it with a system designed to establish maximum independence and accountability. Grassley's language would make these five inspectors general, and a number of other agency appointed inspectors general, report to the bipartisan board or commission heading the agency. It also ensures that an inspector general could be removed only by a two-thirds majority vote of the bipartisan board or commission. Grassley said his amendment also would hold inspectors general accountable by requiring that they disclose the results of all their peer reviews in agency semi-annual reports to Congress. Each inspector general is frequently reviewed by other inspectors general but the reviews are rarely made public.

Grassley's requirement would change that.

"Above all, the framework for inspectors general needs to promote independence and accountability," Grassley said. "It only makes sense to take action with this financial regulation bill to strengthen the work of the inspectors general who oversee the federal regulators in charge of safeguarding the marketplace. There's no doubt that a lack of accountability contributed to the financial crisis of 2008."

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