Darrell Issa

  • In a letter sent to Department of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez Monday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) slams Labor's Office of Public Affairs for "frivolously" spending money on public relations contests, mascots and book clubs.

    August 27, 2014
  • The Inspector General Act gives IGs authority to obtain any information necessary for their investigations, but some agencies are giving IGs a hard time with their requests. Members of Senate and House oversight committees are calling on Shaun Donovan, the recently confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget, to address the issue.

    August 12, 2014
  • House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members approved the Federal Records Accountability Act, which mandates preservation of digital correspondence. The committee also passed the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act, which would establish a presidential committee to find and review outdated, burdensome, costly or obsolete regulations.

    July 25, 2014
  • House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members approved the Senior Executive Service Accountability Act. The bill would reform the law governing the Senior Executive Service, in part by doubling the probation period of SES members and requiring agencies to justify the positions of SES staff every two years.

    July 25, 2014
  • There's growing consensus on Capitol Hill and from the Obama administration that the pay and personnel system used by the federal government since 1949 and infrequently updated is showing its age — and due for a major facelift. Lawmakers probed the General Schedule system Tuesday during a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and the Census.

    July 15, 2014
  • Two letters sent from Capitol Hill in call for the Office of Personnel Management to explain why it's taking so long to release final phased retirement regulations, and demand a revised timeline for action. Phased retirement was passed into law two years ago this week.

    July 07, 2014
  • Congressional report points to misuse of TSA's "sensitive security information" designation for unclassified agency data.

    May 30, 2014
  • The Republican-controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is starting over on postal reform legislation and taking as its template a surprising source — the White House's fiscal 2015 budget request. Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told members of the committee and the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget that he intends to "embrace to the greatest extent possible" the entire slate of legislative proposals for overhauling the Postal Service included in the President's budget request.

    April 08, 2014
  • House and Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa is accusing the White House of violating the Hatch Act. He is demanding that the Obama administration turn over documents related to the re-opening of its Office of Political Outreach and Strategy during an election year. In this week's legal loop, Joshua Rose, senior associate at the law firm Tully Rinckey, spoke with the Federal Drive about the do's and don'ts of the Hatch Act.

    March 27, 2014
  • Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the oversight committee, and John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the Government Operations subcommittee, want OMB to provide data to the committee on excess federal properties valued at $50 million or more. The committee has been seeking this information for more than two years, "yet these requests have consistently gone unfulfilled," Issa and Mica wrote in a March 24 letter to OMB Director Sylvia Burwell.

    March 25, 2014
  • The FOIA Act of 2014 would amend the Freedom of Information Act in 12 ways. It calls for the online portal and requires more oversight by agency inspectors general. But some agency FOIA officers say the bill only would improve the information disclosure process minimally.

    March 19, 2014
  • Legislation newly introduced in the Senate proposes to scrap hundreds of unneeded, outdated or repetitive reports. The House, meanwhile, is marking up its own version of the bill.

    March 12, 2014
  • New Thrift Savings Plan participants would be automatically enrolled in an age-appropriate Lifecycle Fund -- instead of the G Fund -- under a bill set to be debated Wednesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The Smart Savings Act, introduced by the committee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), is supported by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board.

    March 11, 2014
  • As part of its "Stop Government Abuse Week," lower chamber lawmakers will vote on 12 bills this week to help bring more accountability and transparency to the government. An updated version of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act is expected to be among them.

    February 24, 2014