Bonnie Watson Coleman: “And rise in strong support of H.R. 1633, the DHS Paid Administrative Leave Accountability Act of 2015. Mr. Speaker, this…”

“And rise in strong support of H.R. 1633, the DHS Paid Administrative Leave Accountability Act of 2015. Mr. Speaker, this measure which was unanimously approved in committee, seeks to enhance how certain paid administrative leave is tracked and managed by the Department of Homeland Security. H.R. 1633 was introduced in response to a 2014 Government Accountability Office report that looked at paid administrative leave expenditures across government between fiscal years 2011 and 2014. In that report, GAO found that, overall, agencies spent $3.1 billion on paid administrative leave. Of that amount, the Department of Homeland Security spent $380 million on this category of leave. Agencies approve administrative leave for a variety of reasons, from severe weather events, to jury duty, to voting, to disciplinary matters subject to investigation. H.R. 1633 focuses on helping to improve DHS' management of just one segment of paid administrative leave expenditures, leave that is paid for 6 or more consecutive months to an employee that is under investigation by the Department for a conduct or criminal matter.…”