Official Personnel File Enhancement Act

Floor Speech

H.R. 4360, the Official Personnel File Enhancement Act, addresses a legitimate concern of employees who resign their positions during pending investigations or adverse disciplinary actions and then reapply for employment elsewhere in the Federal Government.

I think we can agree that measures need to be taken to prevent such incidents from happening in order to protect the integrity of the Federal workforce.

I thank Chairman Chaffetz for working with the minority and, particularly, for working with Congressman Connolly from Virginia to address our concerns with the original bill.

The introduced version of this legislation would have allowed an agency to put a permanent notation of an investigative finding in an employee's file without giving the employee an opportunity to respond. The bill, as reported, would preserve the principles of due process that help to protect our Federal employees from arbitrary acts and political influence. It would provide a former employee with notice and opportunity to respond to an adverse investigative finding before a notation is placed in the individual's personnel file. The legislation also gives the individual the right to appeal the agency's decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which we believe is the appropriate place for that.

These due process protections are consistent with our Constitution and with the fundamental American principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty.

I understand that some concerns have been raised regarding how the legislation would be implemented. We hope to address those concerns as the bill moves forward in the legislative process.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 4360.

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