Barry Loudermilk, Buddy Carter set to pass their first bills through House
WASHINGTON -- Georgia Republican freshmen Reps. Barry Loudermilk and Buddy Carter are set to pass their first bills out of the House as soon as this evening.
Loudermilk, of Cassville, is lead sponsor of the "DHS Paid Administrative Leave Act," which would aim to keep better track of Department of Homeland Security employees who are put on paid leave while they are investigated for misconduct. It would order DHS to come up with a department-wide policy on administrative leave and report to Congress all employees on leave longer than six months.
The inspiration was a 2014 Government Accountability Office report on paid leave across the federal government, showing that DHS employees took 1.5 million days of paid leave from 2011 to 2013. Loudermilk serves on the Homeland Security Committee.
Carter's bill, the DHS FOIA Efficiency Act, is designed to crack down on the Freedom of Information Act requests at DHS. The FOIA surge is a possible outgrowth of the Obama administration's actions on immigration. The bill would require the agency to update its FOIA policies, better track requests and release more information about the costs of FOIA processing.
Carter, of Pooler, also serves on the Homeland Security Committee and was inspired by a GAO report.
Both bills are scheduled to hit the floor this evening as noncontroversial measures that should pass easily.
