The Senate on Saturday handed the government’s 72 inspectors general a victory by approving, unanimously, a House-passed bill to enhance the watchdogs’ abilities to commandeer agency documents previously held due to privacy or other concerns.
The Inspector General Empowerment Act (H.R. 6450), sponsored by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who shepherded it through the House on Thursday, confirms that inspectors general “are entitled to full and prompt access to agency records, thereby eliminating any doubt about whether agencies and whistleblowers are legally authorized to disclose potentially sensitive information to IGs,” as noted in a statement from the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, which had long pressed for the bill.
