Deborah Koff Ross: “I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I rise today in support of the Inspector General Independence Act. Inspectors…”

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I rise today in support of the Inspector General Independence Act. Inspectors general are vital to the integrity, efficiency, and efficacy of our Government. It is crucial that they operate free from political influence. This critical legislation includes a bipartisan bill I introduced, the Inspector General Access Act, which grants the inspector general of the Department of Justice the authority to investigate misconduct by DOJ attorneys. The DOJ inspector general is currently the only Federal inspector general without this authority. This is simply unacceptable. DOJ attorneys wield a tremendous amount of power, including the ability to make life and death decisions. It is crucial that these attorneys are held to the highest level of professionalism, and that their actions and conduct are subject to independent oversight. For this reason, I wholeheartedly support the Inspector General Independence Act, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.”