I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1688
To amend title 5, United States Code, to increase the accountability of
the Office of Special Counsel in enforcing certain provisions of that
title vigorously, consistently, and without regard to the political affili-
ation, career status, or personal characteristics of individuals subject
to those provisions, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. G
ARCIAof California introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
A BILL
To amend title 5, United States Code, to increase the ac-
countability of the Office of Special Counsel in enforcing
certain provisions of that title vigorously, consistently,
and without regard to the political affiliation, career
status, or personal characteristics of individuals subject
to those provisions, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Hatch Act Enforce-4
ment Transparency and Accountability Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. ADDITION OF DEFINITIONS. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 12 of 2
title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 3
end the following: 4
‘‘§ 1219a. Definitions 5
‘‘In this subchapter: 6
‘‘(1) C
AREER EMPLOYEE .—The term ‘career 7
employee’ means an individual who is— 8
‘‘(A) an employee, as that term is defined 9
in section 7322; and 10
‘‘(B) not a noncareer employee. 11
‘‘(2) C
OVERED ALLEGATION .—The term ‘cov-12
ered allegation’ means an allegation concerning po-13
litical activity prohibited under subchapter III of 14
chapter 73. 15
‘‘(3) N
ONCAREER EMPLOYEE .—The term ‘non-16
career employee’ means an individual who is— 17
‘‘(A) an employee, as defined in section 18
2105, serving in a position in the executive 19
branch; and 20
‘‘(B)(i) serving in a position to which the 21
President appointed the individual (without re-22
gard to whether the advice and consent of the 23
Senate was required with respect to that ap-24
pointment), other than an individual who is— 25
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‘‘(I) a member of a uniformed service, 1
as that term is defined in section 210(m) 2
of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 3
410(m)); or 4
‘‘(II) a member of the Foreign Service 5
serving under a career appointment, as de-6
scribed in section 301 of the Foreign Serv-7
ice Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 3941); 8
‘‘(ii) a noncareer appointee, as that term is 9
defined in section 3132(a); 10
‘‘(iii) serving in a position in a Federal ex-11
ecutive system that is comparable to the Senior 12
Executive Service, the appointment to which is 13
not made through merit-based procedures, such 14
as a position in the Transportation Security 15
Executive Service; or 16
‘‘(iv) serving in a position with respect to 17
which a determination has been made under 18
section 7511(b)(2).’’. 19
(b) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 20
The table of sections for subchapter II of chapter 12 of 21
title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 22
end the following: 23
‘‘1219a. Definitions.’’.
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SEC. 3. NOTIFYING CONGRESS IN THE EVENT OF A DECI-1
SION NOT TO INVESTIGATE A NONCAREER 2
EMPLOYEE. 3
Section 1217 of title 5, United States Code, is 4
amended by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(c) N
OTIFICATION OFCONGRESS IN THEEVENT OF 6
C
ERTAINDECLINATIONS.— 7
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 8
after the date of enactment of this subsection, and 9
once every 180 days thereafter, the Special Counsel 10
shall submit to the Chair and Ranking Member of 11
each of the Committee on Homeland Security and 12
Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Com-13
mittee on Oversight and Government Reform of the 14
House of Representatives a written report that con-15
tains, for the period covered by the report, the num-16
ber of complaints received by the Special Counsel 17
that the Special Counsel referred for disciplinary ac-18
tion. 19
‘‘(2) C
ONTENTS.—Each report required under 20
paragraph (1) shall— 21
‘‘(A) include— 22
‘‘(i) a copy of the applicable com-23
plaint; 24
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‘‘(ii) the name and position of the em-1
ployee who is the subject of the applicable 2
complaint; and 3
‘‘(B) be organized to indicate whether the 4
employee who is the subject of each complaint 5
contained in the report is a career employee or 6
a noncareer employee.’’. 7
SEC. 4. REPORTING TO CONGRESS. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 1218 of title 5, United 9
States Code, is amended— 10
(1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘re-11
port’’ and inserting ‘‘reports’’; 12
(2) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 13
striking ‘‘The Special’’ and inserting the following: 14
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Special’’; and 15
(3) by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘(b) R
EPORTREGARDINGALLEGATIONSAGAINST 17
N
ONCAREEREMPLOYEES.—In addition to each report re-18
quired under subsection (a), the Special Counsel shall sub-19
mit to the Chair and Ranking Member of each committee 20
of jurisdiction in Congress, on an annual basis, a report 21
regarding the activities of the Special Counsel with respect 22
to covered allegations against noncareer employees and 23
former noncareer employees, which shall include— 24
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‘‘(1) for the year preceding the submission of 1
the report, the number of such covered allegations 2
received by the Special Counsel; 3
‘‘(2) the number of such covered allegations 4
that have resulted in an investigation conducted by 5
the Special Counsel, whether the investigation was 6
initiated during the year covered by the report or 7
thereafter; and 8
‘‘(3) in a confidential addendum submitted to 9
the Chair and Ranking Member of each of the Com-10
mittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Af-11
fairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight 12
and Government Reform of the House of Represent-13
atives— 14
‘‘(A) with respect to each such covered al-15
legation not investigated, the name and position 16
of the noncareer employee (or former noncareer 17
employee) who was the subject of the covered 18
allegation; and 19
‘‘(B) a description of each such covered al-20
legation for which processing of the covered al-21
legation ceased during the year covered by the 22
report, without regard to whether the covered 23
allegation was received during the year covered 24
by the report or earlier, which shall include— 25
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‘‘(i) a description of the outcome of 1
the covered allegation; and 2
‘‘(ii) in the case of a covered allega-3
tion against a noncareer employee who is 4
not serving in a position with respect to 5
which appointment by the President, by 6
and with the advice and consent of the 7
Senate, is required (or against a former 8
noncareer employee who was not serving in 9
such a position, as of the date on which 10
the actions that are the subject of the cov-11
ered allegation occurred), a statement as 12
to whether— 13
‘‘(I) the Special Counsel, under 14
section 1215(a), presented a com-15
plaint to the Merit Systems Protection 16
Board against the noncareer employee 17
(or former noncareer employee) con-18
cerning the actions that are the sub-19
ject of the covered allegation; and 20
‘‘(II) any civil penalty assessed 21
by the Merit Systems Protection 22
Board under section 7326 with re-23
spect to the covered allegation has 24
been collected in full.’’. 25
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(b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 1
The table of sections for subchapter II of chapter 12 of 2
title 5, United States Code, is amended by striking the 3
item relating to section 1218 and inserting the following: 4
‘‘1218. Annual reports.’’.
SEC. 5. PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY IN HATCH ACT ENFORCE-
5
MENT. 6
Section 1219 of title 5, United States Code, is 7
amended— 8
(1) in subsection (a)— 9
(A) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 10
the end; 11
(B) in paragraph (4), by striking the pe-12
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 13
(C) by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(5) a detailed written explanation of the com-15
plete basis for each decision of the Special Counsel 16
not to present, under section 1215(a), a complaint 17
to the Merit Systems Protection Board against any 18
noncareer employee determined by the Special Coun-19
sel to have violated subchapter III of chapter 73, ex-20
cept that this paragraph shall not apply with respect 21
to a noncareer employee who is serving in a position 22
for which nomination by the President, by and with 23
the advice and consent of the Senate, is required 24
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(unless such a noncareer employee is serving in a 1
position in the Foreign Service).’’; 2
(2) by redesignating subsection (b) as sub-3
section (c); and 4
(3) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol-5
lowing: 6
‘‘(b) P
UBLICATION OF DEMOGRAPHIC STATISTICS 7
R
EGARDINGCERTAINENFORCEMENT.— 8
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Special Counsel shall 9
track, publish, and keep current on the official 10
website of the Office of Special Counsel the following 11
information, which shall remain on that website for 12
a period of not less than 10 fiscal years, beginning 13
with the fiscal year to which the information per-14
tains: 15
‘‘(A) On an ongoing basis, the following 16
anonymized information pertaining to covered 17
allegations against career employees, which 18
shall be organized by fiscal year: 19
‘‘(i) The number of career employees 20
who were the subject of covered allegations 21
received by the Special Counsel during the 22
applicable fiscal year. 23
‘‘(ii) With respect to the career em-24
ployees identified under clause (i)— 25
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‘‘(I) the number of those career 1
employees who the Special Counsel in-2
vestigated, without regard to whether 3
the investigation occurred during the 4
fiscal year in which the Special Coun-5
sel received the initial covered allega-6
tion with respect to such a career em-7
ployee or during a subsequent fiscal 8
year; and 9
‘‘(II) the number of those career 10
employees who were the subject of a 11
complaint presented by the Special 12
Counsel to the Merit Systems Protec-13
tion Board with respect to the appli-14
cable covered allegation, without re-15
gard to whether the Special Counsel 16
presented such a complaint during the 17
fiscal year in which the Special Coun-18
sel received the initial covered allega-19
tion with respect to such a career em-20
ployee or during a subsequent fiscal 21
year. 22
‘‘(iii) For clauses (i) and (ii), demo-23
graphic information pertaining to the race, 24
sex, ethnicity, national origin, and dis-25
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ability status of the applicable career em-1
ployees. 2
‘‘(B) On an ongoing basis, the following 3
anonymized information pertaining to covered 4
allegations against noncareer employees, which 5
shall be organized by fiscal year: 6
‘‘(i) The number of noncareer employ-7
ees who were the subject of covered allega-8
tions received by the Special Counsel dur-9
ing the applicable fiscal year. 10
‘‘(ii) With respect to the noncareer 11
employees identified under clause (i)— 12
‘‘(I) the number of those non-13
career employees who the Special 14
Counsel investigated, without regard 15
to whether the investigation occurred 16
during the fiscal year in which the 17
Special Counsel received the initial 18
covered allegation with respect to such 19
a noncareer employee or during a sub-20
sequent fiscal year; and 21
‘‘(II) the number of those non-22
career employees who were the subject 23
of a complaint presented by the Spe-24
cial Counsel to the Merit Systems 25
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Protection Board with respect to the 1
applicable covered allegation, without 2
regard to whether the Special Counsel 3
presented such a complaint during the 4
fiscal year in which the Special Coun-5
sel received the initial covered allega-6
tion with respect to such a noncareer 7
employee or during a subsequent fis-8
cal year. 9
‘‘(iii) For clauses (i) and (ii), demo-10
graphic information pertaining to the race, 11
sex, ethnicity, national origin, and dis-12
ability status of the applicable noncareer 13
employees. 14
‘‘(2) D
EMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION .—The Di-15
rector of the Office of Personnel Management, the 16
head of the agency employing an individual who is 17
the subject of a complaint filed with the Special 18
Counsel, and, as applicable, the White House Presi-19
dential Personnel Office shall, upon request, provide 20
the Special Counsel with information pertaining to 21
the race, sex, ethnicity, national origin, disability 22
status, and status as a career employee or noncareer 23
employee of that individual, if that information has 24
already been collected in connection with the Federal 25
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employment or former Federal employment of that 1
individual.’’. 2
SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY. 3
If any provision of this Act, or of any amendment 4
made by this Act, or the application of any provision of 5
this Act, or of any amendment made by this Act, to any 6
person or circumstance is held to be unconstitutional, the 7
remainder of this Act, and the amendments made by this 8
Act, and the application of the provision this Act, or of 9
the amendment made by this Act, to any other person or 10
circumstance shall not be affected by the holding. 11
Æ
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