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Press Release Published: Apr 14, 2016

Committee Approves SOAR Act and Other Legislation

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WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a markup to consider multiple pieces of legislation, including the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Reauthorization Act. The following actions were taken by the Committee.

The Committee approved the following legislation:

H.R. 4901, the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Reauthorization Act (Rep. Chaffetz, R-UT);

  • The bill was agreed to by voice vote and reported favorably to the House.
  • As reported, the bill reauthorizes the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act for five years to continue the three-sector approach to education within the District of Columbia (DC), providing funding for DC public schools, DC public charter schools, and the Opportunity Scholarship Program.

H.R. 4921, the Ditto Act of 2016 (Rep. Walker, R-NC);

  • The bill was approved by voice vote and reported favorably to the House.
  • The bill as reported requires the Internal Revenue Service to maintain any record which it obtains from a person, and documents created from it, for at least three years.

H.R. 4465, the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act of 2016 (Rep. Denham, R-CA).

  • Rep. Lujan-Grisham (D-NM) offered an amendment to the ANS which was agreed to by voice vote.
  • The bill, as amended, passed by voice vote and was reported favorably to the House.
  • As amended, the bill establishes the Public Buildings Reform Board, a six-year board for identifying opportunities for cost savings and deficit reduction by reducing the federal government’s inventory of civilian real property.

H.R. 4902, to amend title 5, United States Code, to expand law enforcement availability pay to employees of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations (Rep. Hurd, R-TX);

  • The bill was agreed to by voice vote and reported favorably to the House.
  • As reported, the bill extends law enforcement availability pay to law enforcement officers of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations.

H.R. 4906, to amend title 5, United States Code, to clarify the eligibility of employees of a land management agency in a time-limited appointment to compete for a permanent appointment at any federal agency (Rep. Connolly, D-VA);

  • The bill was agreed to by voice vote and reported favorably to the House.
  • As reported, the bill clarifies the eligibility of employees of a land management agency in a time-limited appointment to compete for a permanent appointment.

H.R. 4904, the Making Electronic Government Accountable By Yielding Tangible Efficiencies Act of 2015 (Rep. Cartwright, D-PA);

  • The bill was agreed to by voice vote and reported favorably to the House.
  • As reported, the bill reforms the federal government’s management of information technology software licenses, requiring OMB to issue a directive to agency CIOs requiring them to develop a comprehensive software licensing policy.