Darrell Issa

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Cybersecurity threats represent one of the most serious national security and economic challenges we face in our Nation. Whether it's criminal hackers, organized crime, terrorist networks, or nation- states, our Nation is under siege from dangerous cybersecurity threats that grow daily in frequency and sophistication. It is critical that the Federal Government address cybersecurity threats in a manner that keeps pace with our Nation's growing dependence on technology, but current Federal law does not adequately address the nature of today's cybersecurity threats. Since the enactment in 2002 of the Federal Information Security Management Act, or FISMA, it has become a ``check the box'' compliance activity that all too often has little to do with minimizing cyber threats. And yet the Government Accountability Office recently found that security incidents among 24 key agencies increased by 650 percent, or more than six-fold, in the last 5 years. To address the rising challenge posed by cyber threats, Ranking Member Cummings and I introduced last Congress a bill to reauthorize FISMA. That bill was adopted by the House unanimously. Recently, Mr. Cummings and I reintroduced that legislation as H.R. 1163, the Federal Information Security Amendments Act of 2013. The bill was voted out of our committee by unanimous vote on March 20. This bill aims to harness the last decade of technological innovation in securing Federal information systems. To enhance the current framework of securing Federal information technology systems, our bill calls for automated and continuous monitoring of government information systems--and I'm going to repeat-- automated and continuous monitoring of government information systems. And it ensures that continuous monitoring finally incorporates regular threat assessments, not just ``check the box.'' The bill also reaffirms the role of the Office of Management and Budget with respect to FISMA, recognizing that the budgetary leverage of the Executive Office of the President is necessary to ensure agencies are focused on effective security IT systems. Mr. Speaker, that's particularly significant because IT is the backbone of every single large and small agency of the government; and only with the power of the President through the Office of Management and Budget can you, in fact, ensure that the President has transparency and his authority is respected throughout all these agencies. We can no longer afford the ``check the box'' that came out of the first piece of legislation. It wasn't its intent, and the six-fold increase in the last 5 years says it has failed us. While our bill does not include new requirements, restrictions, or mandates on private, non-Federal computer systems, H.R. 1163 does highlight the need for stronger public-private partnership. Again, as we interface over the public Internet, it is critical that the weakest link be prevented. To that extent, this bill has received strong support from cybersecurity experts and industry, including TechAmerica, the Information Technology Industry Council, and the Business Software Alliance. I'd like to personally thank Ranking Member Cummings for partnering, both personally and through his staff, to create a bill that is necessary, timely, and accurate to meet the growing threat of cybersecurity. I encourage all Members to support this timely legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. 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 the bill under consideration.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1163) to amend chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, to revise requirements relating to Federal information security, and for other purposes.

Mr. ISSA

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

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1162) to amend title 31, United States Code, to make improvements in the Government Accountability Office, as amended.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. ISSA. I yield myself the remaining time. Mr. Speaker, I would like to close on a little bit quieter note than the debate. The debate was, rightfully so, heated, and it was heated because, in fact, we are making an important symbolic statement in this legislation. $1 billion is a lot of money to the taxpayers listening, but the principle here is extremely important. It's a principle that shows that, when the IRS changed their rules, they didn't fire very many people. I'm sure, in fact, what they got was compliance, far greater compliance, but let's go through a few things because the gentlelady, my colleague and friend from California (Ms. Speier), used a larger number, and the larger numbers, in fact, are worth using in closing. We've been talking, up until now, about $3 billion, $2.976 billion, that in fact is about the civilian employees of the Federal Government. They have a delinquency rate of approximately 3.62 percent. She mentioned other individuals, and I want to mention in closing their delinquency rate: Civilian retired: understand, these are not individuals you can fire. They're retired, but their delinquency is 2.5 percent. Military active duty: these are the men and women who have a different set of rules. They can be court-martialed if they don't live up to their obligations, 2 percent. Remember, that 2 percent includes all those who may eventually comply. Military Reserve and Guard: these are the men and women who give up their day jobs, often taking a huge pay cut in doing so, often unanticipated, 2.4 percent. Military retired, 4.3 percent. Mr. Speaker, I can't account for why, when military people retire, they find themselves seriously in arrears in taxes. But what I can say is when we look at 1 percent at the IRS, and 2 percent for those men and women getting a private's pay or a corporal's pay, they manage to keep their taxes straight. The Federal workforce has a high compliance rate, as has been said repeatedly by my colleagues. Their compliance rate is nearly twice the rate of the public as a whole. Of course, the public as a whole includes over 7 percent unemployed, and it includes all kinds of other characteristics that lead to people being in default. What we're saying here today is the IRS made a decision to have a compliance standard that has dramatically reduced failure to comply, and has put us in a situation where people of the IRS can say proudly: We pay our taxes. We pay our taxes at a 99 percent rate, and we deal with those who do not live up to promising to pay the rest. We just want the same for the Federal workforce, and I believe Federal workers listening here today would agree that in fact since most of them do exactly what's right, all of them should be held to do what is exactly right. I urge passage of the bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. ISSA. I yield 10 seconds to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz).

Mr. ISSA. I now yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz).

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I'm not going to do too much responding to something that asks why something was brought on April 15, except to say that the minority was very happy to have us bring on April 15 something to hold contractors responsible on tax day for taxes, and we thought appropriate that both should be about this tax day in which 99 percent of Americans have paid all their taxes, whether they like to or not, and a small percentage have not. With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz).

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I join with the gentlelady from the District of Columbia in applauding what the IRS has done. The IRS effectively gave itself the rules that Mr. Chaffetz would like to have all Federal civilian workers living under. The IRS has a delinquency rate now of 1 percent. So if you take a fraction of that 1 percent that could possibly be out of compliance for a short period of time, and that's what happens. You've lowered the overall rate from, for example, the Government Printing Office, 7.6 percent; the 316,000 people at the Department of Veterans Affairs, 13,000 of them, or 4.3 percent, are seriously in arrears. Mr. Speaker, the gentlelady is absolutely right: the IRS did the right thing, and it worked. You've got a compliance rate down to 1 percent failure, or 99 percent positive compliance rate. For all the Federal workers who are listening carefully because this could affect them, they're looking to their left and their right endlessly wondering who these deadbeats are because, in all cases, it's below 10 percent, and at the IRS at 1 percent. Mr. Speaker, the case for this legislation is made by the IRS's success, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional minute.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is right. And I would take note that this afternoon the IRS did offer to speak to us over the phone but had no answers in writing, which continues to befuddle me a little bit that we can't get answers. I will continue to work with the ranking member to get those answers. At this time, I yield 5 minutes to the author of the bill, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz).

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to commend Mr. Chaffetz. Like the last piece of legislation, Mr. Chaffetz reintroduces a bill that passed overwhelmingly in the last Congress but was not taken up by the Senate. As Mr. Chaffetz said, it is in fact time for the Senate to at least give us an up-or-down vote on this legislation. By bringing it early in the Congress and, I believe, all these bills on a bipartisan basis, we make it clear that we want to hold ourselves to the standard that the taxpayers believe we should. All Federal employees are currently held for paying their taxes by the code of ethics of the executive branch. So how can someone who, by the code of ethics, in fact not have satisfied in good faith their obligations as citizens, including all financial obligations, especially those to the Federal, State, and local taxes that are imposed by law, how can somebody who in fact hasn't done it and has reached a point of garnishment, reached a point at which they are unwilling to pay their just taxes, have no appeals or any pending, how can they in fact continue to expect to be Federal employees? The truth is these employees have given up any question about their ethics by avoiding it. Before going further, I would like to have the Speaker take note that in fact for us, as Federal employees, our withholding is already taken out of our taxes. So to become seriously in arrears in our taxes, for the most part, has to do with activities outside our role. We're well insured for health care. Our taxes have already been withheld. So although there are occasions in which a taxpayer may find themselves seriously in arrears for some reason otherwise, this bill intends and has carefully crafted every possible exception so they could continue to work if, in fact, reasonable measures have been taken by the employee. In fact, if an employee simply agrees to be garnished for past taxes, pursuant to the law, they in fact can continue to work. So I'd like to preface by saying this bill has passed before and has been well thought out. We in fact sent a letter to IRS asking them for a timely response. And to my dismay, they were not interested enough to respond to us by the deadline. Of course, the deadline for responding really was in the last Congress. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 249) to amend title 5, United States Code, to provide that persons having seriously delinquent tax debts shall be ineligible for Federal employment.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I made a decision to bring these two bills separately, rather than combine them, for a reason. This is not controversial, but failed to get through the Senate. The other bill has some controversy. But I'd like to say that in fact I believe that both bills would tell the American people--both the one related to contractors and the next one we'll be considering related to Federal employees--that we hold ourselves to the standard that the American people, the American taxpayer, expects us to. So although I know that Ms. Norton does not support the next bill, but with the kind of vigor and optimism and positive discussion that we've heard on the previous two bills and on this, I would say that the important thing for all of us to understand is the money here is significant; but the principle of holding our contractors, and in the next bill ourselves, responsible to a high level of integrity and not having those continue without us taking note of it, I think offers the same statement to the American people at a time of sequestration, at a time in which we're questioning how much we can afford from our government. For that reason, I want these bills to be considered separately. I intend to vote for both of them. I believe both of them have merit for the same reason; but I do thank my colleagues on the other side because this bill, I believe, is truly without controversy and would be without controversy. I ask all of those here to note that we, on a unanimous basis, support H.R. 882. I ask its support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, at this time I have no further requests for time, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, it's now my honor to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz), the author of this bill, a champion for accountability of the Federal workforce and Federal contractors.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. H.R. 882, the Contracting and Tax Accountability Act of 2013, is, in fact, a broadly bipartisan bill introduced by Mr. Chaffetz of Utah and Ms. Speier of California. They recognize that, in fact, contractors and, in a companion bill, individual Federal employees have a high standard, a high responsibility, and one of the least of those responsibilities is to pay their taxes in a timely fashion. Sadly, we discover that, on occasions, we find ourselves with contractors who have not met that responsibility. Most often, those contractors, by not meeting that responsibility, may have, in fact, not deposited the withholding of the very workers who are working on our behalf. This kind of irresponsible behavior, although not always found, is found often enough that GSA contractors are estimated to owe over $3 billion in taxes that are in arrears, and nearly $1.4 billion seriously in arrears. The bill makes tax compliance both a prerequisite for receiving a contract or being an agent and, in fact, recognizes that those who do not make good on their taxes may, in fact, be seen as eligible for potential suspension or debarment. Federal contractors, for the most part, do comply and they do comply very well. But I believe that what Ms. Speier and Chairman Chaffetz have done is recognize that we must have zero tolerance for people who, even after being recognized, and who are seriously behind and delinquent, continue to resist paying their just taxes. Again, often these taxes have nothing to do with a debate about income tax but, rather, withholding that simply wasn't done. These kinds of contractors are, by definition, the ones also likely to not live up to the high standard that the taxpayers expect by our contractors. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. 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 material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 882) to prohibit the awarding of a contract or grant in excess of the simplified acquisition threshold unless the prospective contractor or grantee certifies in writing to the agency awarding the contract or grant that the contractor or grantee has no seriously delinquent tax debts, and for other purposes, as amended.