In a move aimed at identifying government waste and improving transparency, U.S. Sen. James Lankford and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) have introduced a bipartisan bill. They call it the Inspector General Recommendation Transparency Act that would fill a gap in federal management and help Congress do a better job overseeing 73 federal agencies where Inspectors General conduct audits to combat waste, fraud, and abuse at their agencies.
Lankford is chairman and ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management. He and Sen. Heitkamp have worked to make the federal government more efficient and effective. They contend that posting Inspectors General recommendations publicly on their websites would give Congress, agencies, and the public the ability to better keep tabs on the problems that have been identified at agencies, and keep track of whether or not those problems have been resolved.
“Federal agency Inspectors General do important work and often offer ideas to make government more effective and efficient, but these ideas do no good if they are ignored,” said Lankford. “The Inspector General Recommendation Transparency Act is important to ensure accountability and transparency for the reform proposals made by agencies’ Inspectors General. With a massive $19 trillion federal debt, the American public should be aware of all proposals to eliminate waste and reduce spending, especially from our Inspectors General.”
In December 2015, Lankford and Heitkamp led a Subcommittee hearing on how federal departments and agencies implement recommendations from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the offices of inspectors general. The federal government invests billions of dollars each year so inspectors general can create valuable recommendations for agencies, and the senators expressed concern about the need for more transparency and visibility in agencies’ efforts to resolve issues of waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement as identified by inspectors general.