Washington, D.C. – House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) released the following statement on House passage of H.R. 4361, the Government Reform and Improvement Act of 2016:
“Today, the House passed legislation to bring greater accountability to our nation’s federal bureaucracy, making it easier to sanction poor performance and bad behavior by government employees—from cracking down on federal employees who spend time watching pornography on their official computers to investigating how much time certain designated federal workers spend promoting labor organizing within their office instead of working on the mission of their agencies. These reforms will make our federal workforce more efficient and accountable to the people they are supposed to be serving.
“The Government Reform and Improvement Act will also improve the security of federal information systems by providing agency directors the authority and flexibility needed to effectively counter cybersecurity threats without triggering a collective bargaining negotiation. This will go a long way towards preventing abuses like those recently carried out by IRS and VA officials, which were even more shocking when no one was held accountable for violating the rights of ordinary citizens or even for criminal behavior. I commend the members of the Oversight and Government Reform committee, including Representative Gary Palmer (AL-06), for helping craft a bill to ensure government serves the people, not itself.”