Jason Chaffetz

Mr. CHAFFETZ

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

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 6302, the Overtime Pay for Secret Service Agents Act of 2016. The United States Secret Service has a zero-fail mission to protect the President and other protectees at all costs. The 2016 Presidential campaign year was an especially busy year for the Secret Service. They have done an exceptional job. I will give you some metrics of what this agency was dealing with. They staffed more than 2,500 candidate trips, 8,580 total protective travel stops, and 62 foreign travel trips with the President and the Vice President. The most recent Presidential election saw Secret Service agents working record hours to fulfill their mission. Incredibly, this was accomplished despite the Secret Service suffering from historic levels of attrition and low staffing levels. In our December 2015 bipartisan report, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that the Secret Service was ``experiencing a staffing crisis that threatens to jeopardize its critical mission.'' The Secret Service was at a peak staffing level of 7,024 employees in the year 2011. That number has declined every year until the beginning of this year when the agency had 6,289 employees. The staffing numbers are beginning to improve, now at 6,500. But the problem is the agency hopes to have between 8,000 and 9,000 employees by the next Presidential election in 2020. It is hard and difficult to hire a Secret Service agent, and once they are hired, you can't simply put them out in front of the White House or next to a candidate or one of the protectees and expect them to simply flip on the switch and do their job. As a result of the current manpower shortage and the lack of employees, Secret Service agents had to work significant overtime to ensure around-the-clock protection of Presidential candidates. No matter the number of hours worked, Secret Service agents are subject to a title 5 statutory cap on their biweekly pay. As a result, agents were not compensated for overtime hours worked that would have resulted in compensation beyond the cap during any pay period. Within the Secret Service, this became known as a max-out problem. These so-called max-outs contribute to the agency's low morale and exacerbate attrition. The excessive overtime also negatively impacts protective efforts. The agency needs fresh and energetic agents to fulfill a critical mission, one that they have to be in tune with at every moment while they are on the job. The bill, the Overtime Pay for Secret Service Agents Act of 2016, offers relief for agents who have not received pay due to the so-called max-out problem. Secret Service agents who worked on the 2016 Presidential campaign would be eligible to receive compensation above normal levels up to the basic pay currently given to members of the Executive Schedule Level II for the calendar year 2016. Every Secret Service agent with outstanding overtime would receive an additional compensation for 2016 under this bill. This is not a bonus. This is not extra pay. This is simply trying to compensate them for hours that they worked. We heard story after story about Secret Service agents who would literally go weeks on end with no pay and yet continue to do their job. At the same time, the limitation to the 2016 Presidential election in the bill presents a good balance and encourages Secret Service to fix its current staffing problems instead of relying on excessive and expensive overtime pay in the future. It is my expectation that the Secret Service meets its staffing goals by the next election cycle and does not have to rely on scheduling excessive overtime. It is also my expectation that the Secret Service will focus its staffing capital away from its increasing nonessential investigative and cyber-related missions which distract from the core mission of protecting the President and other protectees. There are currently three ongoing studies analyzing the Secret Service's nonessential mission of cyber investigations. By the way, this nonprotective mission usually takes more than half of their time, but certainly during a Presidential election cycle, you can see the demand that was there. I am very pleased with the bipartisan nature in which the committee came together to make sure that we are supporting the men and women who serve in the Secret Service. They have done so in a very admirable fashion. They have provided a great service to the Nation. But when you hear stories where people would go 43 days without a single day off, when they would work, literally, 100-plus hours in a week and they would go to work knowing that they weren't going to be compensated for that work, that is inexcusable. This bill would provide relief to them. Again, it is not a bonus; it is not extra pay; but it is some compensation for the work that they did protecting our Nation and protecting those protectees. By all accounts, they did an exceptional job without any major incident in this 2016 election cycle. I urge the passage of this bill. Again, I appreciate the bipartisan nature in which we are doing this. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CHAFFETZ

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3779) to restrict the inclusion of Social Security account numbers on documents sent by mail by the Federal Government, and for other purposes, as amended.

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

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3779, Social Security Fraud Prevention Act of 2016. This was introduced by the gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao). Social Security numbers were first created for the sole purpose of allowing the Federal Government to track the earnings history of individuals to determine Social Security benefits. However, over the course of time, both the Federal Government and the private sector found these numbers to be valuable tools to keep track of individuals for a wide variety of reasons, including tax reporting and credit history. You can name how many different things where they require your Social Security number in order to figure out and identify who you are. Because of these changes, Social Security numbers have become incredibly important in today's high-tech society. In fact, they can be used for a good deal of purposes in a positive way, but they can also be used in a nefarious way to try to create a fictitious identification for somebody. They are necessary for applying to college, getting a credit card, or opening a bank account. However, in the hands of the wrong people, Social Security numbers can lead to identity theft, something that is very destructive to those affected. Troublingly, the sponsor of this bill, Mr. Valadao, reported an interaction with one of his constituents who received a government document with a Social Security number printed on the outside of the envelope. It was on the outside of the envelope. Mr. Speaker, this is totally and completely unacceptable. Given the dangers associated with identity theft, the Federal Government must do more to safeguard Social Security numbers. Indeed, 2 weeks ago, my committee released a 231-page report detailing the majority staff's investigative findings concerning a data breach of personally identifiable information by the United States Office of Personnel Management. Mr. Speaker, this information included the Social Security numbers of more than 20 million Americans. As a result, an Oversight and Government Reform Committee report recommended Federal agencies reduce the use of Social Security numbers in order to mitigate the risk of identity theft. What the bill does that Mr. Valadao has introduced, H.R. 3779, is bring us closer to this goal by requiring Federal agencies to limit the sending of Social Security numbers via mail and to completely ban sending Social Security numbers in a way in which they can be seen on the outside of any package. Ultimately, this bill will protect Americans from having their Social Security numbers needlessly revealed by the Federal Government. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan piece of legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis), of the 13th Congressional District.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao), the prime sponsor of this bill.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I want to thank and congratulate Mr. Valadao and others who have worked on this bill. It is a commonsense piece of legislation. I urge its adoption. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CHAFFETZ

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Committee on Homeland Security be discharged from further consideration of House Resolution 827, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. CHAFFETZ

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 5722) to establish the John F. Kennedy Centennial Commission, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. CHAFFETZ

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 4 of rule XVI, I move that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. CHAFFETZ

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Chairman, in a bipartisan effort with Ann Kirkpatrick, we are offering this amendment. It is an amendment on behalf of Native American schoolchildren dangerously rutted in flood- prone dirt roads that cause Native American kids to miss school, on an average, 10 days a year. I have one of the pictures here of a whole series. You can take the whole seasons here and you can see what these bus routes are like. When it rains, when it snows--and it does in parts of Utah and Arizona--you look at the Navajo Nation and you are going to find that kids are missing 10 days a year on average because of roads like this. Now, the funding for the BIA to take care of these roads has not changed since 1988. We are asking for a modest shift of less than $2 million to deal with this situation. I have a county in my district, a county that is larger than the State of New Jersey, and yet, the population there is less than 15,000 people. That is a tremendous tax burden for them to try to maintain such massive roads. It is hard to imagine sometimes on the East Coast how massive some of these areas are, but they need a little maintenance money for these roads and for these schoolchildren. So I have joined with Ann Kirkpatrick in offering this amendment. I would encourage Members to vote for it. It is less than $2 million. It will make a huge difference on the Navajo Nation, in particular, where we desperately need to make sure that kids can get to school in a consistent manner. We have dealt with the funding for nearly 30 years at the same level. It is time to make that adjustment. I would encourage Members to vote in favor of this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert), the chairman of the committee.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Chairman, I would simply say that I think you would find the mutual bipartisan approach to achieve the goal. I don't think anybody is in opposition to this. The reality is, in nearly 30 years, the funding level hasn't changed. It is very modest. It is less than $2 million. I hope people find it in their heart to let this pass. It makes a world of difference to people. We can debate about where to pull those funds. I have offered this amendment in a bipartisan way from this fund. It is the way it is structured, and I do hope it passes. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CHAFFETZ

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. CHAFFETZ

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Madam Chair, Federal land management agencies are biting off more than they can chew. Not only are these agencies tasked with managing one-third of the entire landmass in the United States of America, but they are also asked to provide law enforcement and police support to some 660 million acres on the Federal estate. Land management agencies should not be in the business of policing. Currently, the Nation's largest land management agency, the Bureau of Land Management, has just one office--one person--per 1 million acres of Federal land. This is an inadequate system that does not serve the public, Federal lands, or local communities very well. Local county sheriffs, on the other hand, and local law enforcement deputies are in a better position to police lands within their county. These individuals are known by members of their community. They are trusted, they are better equipped, and there are more of them. Already local law enforcement agencies contract with the Federal Government to carry out the very same law enforcement functions that Federal agencies require. We need to expand this concept and take actions to limit the role of land management agency law enforcement officials. Madam Chair, I believe we must work to transfer authorities and, ultimately, funding to those local jurisdictions and sheriffs. There will come a time when the Appropriations Committee will play a key role in executing this strategy. I request that the chairman work with Chairman Rob Bishop of the Committee on Natural Resources, me, and other Members to accomplish this important policy change.

Mr. CHAFFETZ

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 1777) to amend the Act of August 25, 1958, commonly known as the ``Former Presidents Act of 1958'', with respect to the monetary allowance payable to a former President, and for other purposes, with the Senate amendment thereto, and concur in the Senate amendment.

Mr. CHAFFETZ

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I reserve a point of order on the motion to recommit.

Mr. CHAFFETZ

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 4361.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, we are here to consider H.R. 4361, the Government Reform and Improvement Act of 2016. As amended, the bill combines seven good-government bills, each of which have been reported by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and I look forward to hearing from some of the bill's sponsors as we move this package today. Broadly speaking, these bills address three key issues: enhancing Federal information technology security, modernizing the Federal workforce, and addressing Federal regulatory burdens. The first topic, enhancing IT security, is addressed through the first title of the bill and is a cause championed by Representative Gary Palmer, also the sponsor of the underlying bill that is under consideration now. Specifically, title I of the bill addresses a Federal Labor Relations Authority determination that was based on an incorrect interpretation of the Federal Information Security Management Act, or what is widely referred to as FISMA. The ruling permits Federal employee unions to delay agencies from implementing timely and necessary cybersecurity protections, like blocking access to potentially dangerous Web sites, until the agencies first negotiate with the unions over the changes. The second topic, Federal workforce modernization, is covered by titles II, III, IV, and V of the legislation. Title II includes the text of H.R. 901, a bill introduced by Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, and requires the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidelines to prohibit access to explicit Web sites from Federal Government computers, unless such access is necessary for investigative purposes. It is kind of ridiculous that we have to legislate this, but it is such a pervasive problem in our work on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, this is a vital bill that is in that package. We have heard numerous examples of this problem. One individual, for instance, Mr. Chairman, was at the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and was identified by the inspector general there. This person was watching 2 to 6 hours per day of explicit material--otherwise known as pornography--on the clock and paid for by the American taxpayer. Title III includes the text of H.R. 3032, a bill introduced by Representative Ken Buck to lengthen the probationary period for Federal employees to 2 years after training is completed. Currently, Federal employees have a probationary period of just 1 year, which often does not give managers sufficient time to evaluate on-the-job performance. Title IV includes the text of H.R. 4358, a bill introduced by Representative Tim Walberg. It will modernize the Senior Executive Service, also known as the SES, the elite administrators within the Federal Government. Specifically, the bill will increase the probationary period for SES members to 2 years and make SES members subject to the same suspension authorities for misconduct that are already applied to other civil service employees. Additionally, agencies will be able to remove SES employees for ``such cause as would promote the efficiency of the service.'' So what we are trying to do is provide more efficiency, and this is an appropriate bill. Title V includes the text of H.R. 3023, a bill introduced by Representative Dennis Ross of Florida to require the Office of Personnel Management to release an annual report on the use of official time by agencies. Official time is when Federal employees perform representational work for a union in lieu of normally assigned work. I think it is appropriate that we have some more specificity for Congress to understand what is happening here. The third topic, addressing regulatory burdens is covered by the final two titles of the bill, title VI and title VII. Title VI includes the text of H.R. 4612, a bill introduced by Representative Tim Walberg of Michigan to prohibit agencies from proposing or finalizing rules in the period between the day of a Presidential election and the inauguration day of a new President. This provision will address a recurring problem where sitting Presidents of both parties will rush through the regulations at the end of the term which have been come to be known as midnight regulations. To counter the problem of midnight regulations, every President since Ronald Reagan who has taken over from the opposite party has issued an immediate regulatory moratorium to pause the regulatory process until it can be reviewed. Rather than forcing incoming Presidents to handle a torrent of new regulations advanced by an outgoing President, the bill would allow new Presidents to move forward on regulations they deem appropriate. Mr. Chairman, title VII includes the text of H.R. 4921, a bill introduced by Representative Mark Walker, also of North Carolina, to require the Internal Revenue Service to mirror what the agency requires of taxpayers in its own recordkeeping requirements. Imagine that--the IRS has to live under the same standards that they make the American people live under. Specifically, the IRS requires taxpayers to keep their tax year information for 3 years after filing. This bill does the same. A lot of good bills are wrapped into this package. I urge our Members to support it. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Palmer), the sponsor of the bill under consideration today.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg), who has been integral in making this bill a reality. I thank him for his hard work in championing these efforts.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Walker), who has poured his heart and soul into this. I am glad that he is participating and joining us here today.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Buck).