Freshman U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk saw his first pieces of legislation gain passage in the House on Tuesday.
Another freshman from Georgia, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, will likely experience similar success Wednesday.
Loudermilk, a Republican from Cassville, is the 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 departmentwide policy on administrative leave and report to Congress all employees on leave longer than six months.
The inspiration for the legislation 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.
Early Wednesday evening, the House approved the bill in a unanimous voice vote.
A vote is expected Wednesday on Carter’s first bill, the DHS FOIA Efficiency Act, which 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, a Republican from Pooler, also serves on the Homeland Security Committee. His bill, which also was inspired by a GAO report, is expected to pass easily.
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