DHS Paid Administrative Leave Accountability Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and rise in strong support of H.R. 1633, the DHS Paid Administrative Leave Accountability Act of 2015.

Mr. Speaker, this measure which was unanimously approved in committee, seeks to enhance how certain paid administrative leave is tracked and managed by the Department of Homeland Security.

H.R. 1633 was introduced in response to a 2014 Government Accountability Office report that looked at paid administrative leave expenditures across government between fiscal years 2011 and 2014.

In that report, GAO found that, overall, agencies spent $3.1 billion on paid administrative leave. Of that amount, the Department of Homeland Security spent $380 million on this category of leave. Agencies approve administrative leave for a variety of reasons, from severe weather events, to jury duty, to voting, to disciplinary matters subject to investigation.

H.R. 1633 focuses on helping to improve DHS' management of just one segment of paid administrative leave expenditures, leave that is paid for 6 or more consecutive months to an employee that is under investigation by the Department for a conduct or criminal matter.

This legislation directs the Department's Chief Human Capital Officer to maintain records from throughout the Department on the number of employees who are paid leave for 6 or more consecutive months during a DHS personnel investigation; the total costs, including salaries and benefits associated with this leave; and the average length of time that an employee in these circumstances is on paid administrative leave.

H.R. 1633 also directs the Department's Chief Human Capital Officer to develop and implement departmentwide policy on how components can comply with this recordkeeping requirement and guidance and on how components can expedite the resolution of personnel matters for an employee in these circumstances.

In committee, language I authored was accepted to ensure that when a component expeditiously works to resolve personnel matters, as directed by this bill, that component must do so in a way that is objective and fair.

The addition of this language is important because we do not want to create the impression that Congress values expediency and cost-cutting over fairness.

Even as we look to foster greater accountability, we must not lose sight of the fact that we are talking about people's careers here.

Before I close, I would add that this legislation does nothing to disturb the discretion that the Department has to make leave decisions, and this bill should not impact the availability of paid administrative leave to the DHS workforce.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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