Committee Advances Walberg-Backed Bill to Increase Accountability for Senior Government Officials

Congressman Tim Walberg’s legislation to provide greater transparency and accountability for senior level positions in the federal government passed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday. H.R. 6376, the Senior Executive Service Accountability Act, streamlines the process for removing members of the Senior Executive Service for poor performance or misconduct, replicating bipartisan reforms that were signed into law and now apply to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Congressman Walberg’s bill was incorporated in H.R. 559, the MERIT Act, a larger legislative package of civil service reforms.

“The federal workforce is full of hardworking employees, unfortunately bad actors who abuse the public trust are protected by the entrenched bureaucracy instead of held accountable,” said Congressman Walberg. “Under the current system, it’s too hard to remove poorly performing employees, which wastes taxpayer dollars and further erodes the public’s trust. Our bill will streamline the removal process, eliminate the provision in current law which allows an individual to retain their executive pay if they are demoted, and help ensure wrongdoing is not swept under the rug. These accountability measures for senior government officials are already in place at the VA, and it only makes sense to extend them government-wide.”

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