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Requires people and entities that work with covered federal agencies to promptly cooperate with Inspector General (IG) requests for information, interviews, or documents. Agencies must adopt and publish a written cooperation policy for their personnel soon after enactment, set time limits and notification rules for responses, and may impose administrative discipline on employees or contractors who fail to comply.
Defines “appropriate congressional committees” to mean the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and any other relevant congressional committee or subcommittee of jurisdiction.
Defines “covered agency” to mean (A) an establishment, and (B) a designated Federal entity as defined in section 415.
Defines “covered request” as a request for information, access, or assistance under section 406 (including interviews or document access), and lists explicit exclusions (e.g., requests limited by section 406(a)(1)(B), certain information reasonably refused, information prohibited by specified Secretaries/AG under listed sections, and certain grand jury materials protected by rule 6(e) unless AG grants access).
Defines “Inspector General” to mean an Inspector General of a covered agency.
Requires any officer or employee of a covered agency (including the agency head and any political appointee), any grant recipient or subgrantee of a covered agency at any tier, and any contractor or subcontractor of a covered agency at any tier to comply with a covered request from an Inspector General no later than 60 days after receiving the request.
Who is affected and how:
Contractors, subcontractors, consultants, grantees, and other non-Federal entities that work with covered federal agencies will be directly affected: they must respond to IG requests for documents, information, and interviews within specified timeframes or notify the agency of delays. This creates additional compliance duties and potential administrative risk for noncompliance.
Federal agency personnel must follow agency policies implementing the requirement and may be subject to administrative discipline for failing to cooperate. Agency heads must draft and distribute written policies, creating an internal administrative task for agencies.
Inspectors General benefit from clearer statutory authority to obtain records and interviews from people and entities tied to agency operations, likely improving oversight and investigative access.
The change increases administrative workload for agencies and contractors: tracking requests, meeting deadlines, preserving and producing documents, and issuing or following policies. Small contractors and grant recipients may face relatively higher compliance costs.
The text (as summarized) uses administrative discipline for enforcement rather than criminal penalties, so impacts are chiefly on employment, contract standing, or grant relationships rather than criminal exposure.
Potential tradeoffs include improved government oversight and accountability versus increased paperwork, potential disputes over scope of requests, and concerns about protecting legitimately privileged or classified information (the summary does not describe exemptions for privilege or classified materials). Agencies will need to manage these tensions in written policies and practices.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
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Introduced October 21, 2025 by Richard Blumenthal · Last progress October 21, 2025
FALCON Act of 2025
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Introduced in Senate