yes, miss buller?es.  appears that the actions taken by epa in really ignoring you and allowing whistle-blowers and others to be intimidated, this has under mined your position at inspector general to conduct yourñr legitimate investigative oversight responsibilities? would that be a fair statement? >> that would be a fair statement. >> the other thing that would concern me is using some language or exceptions that are in the law in the case of justice and peace corps to obstruct investigation or even worse to cover up, particularly concerned about the sexual abuse instances. some of these cases, the staff had told me may be like peace corps worker on peace corps worker or some locals on peace corps volunteers. is that the case? >> yes. >> and, again, it appears that it is sort of a blatant coverup of sexual abuse cases that some might embarrass the agency. i guess you expose yourself when you send people to foreign lands or on any mission to locals or foreign nationals taking advantage of american pe

buller? >> in my case it's very easy to pinpoint the time and the person. the passage of the act mandating the restrictive reporting was the impetus. the person was the general counsel. basically, he has taken the opportunity to interpret the act to impede our access. >> mr. elkins? >> in my case, you know, i have two agencies that i oversee, the csb and environmental protection agency. in both cases, i have to say that issues relative to access starts at the top with a clear message from the top that access will be granted, it will be granted. to the extent that there is a muddled message or the message is not clear, you end up in situations that we have here today. some of the -- on the csb side of the house, the issues started back in 2010, 2011. on the epa side of the house, some of the issues that we're dealing with today actually started before i even came on board. so this has been an ongoing sort of matter. to answer your question directly, it starts at the top. clear message from the

miss buller, i want to start with you. if this continued stonewalling of access to documents, what kind of harm -- potential harm can you see that would come from this, specifically with your work? >> well, in our case we do have the memorandum of understanding, so we are somewhat receiving information, but the problem with that is it's a temporary measure, and we can't rely on it being there because it can be taken away at any time. and if we don't receive access to the information that we need, we can't ensure the volunteers who have been victims of sexual assault are receiving the types of care and services that they need and are entitled to in order for them to move on with their lives. >> so is it your testimony today that victims might potentially continue to suffer if you don't get the kind of access to documents that is outlined in the memo of understanding, but if they quit providing that, could victims continue to be harmed? >> we'll never be able to tell. that's the big problem. we won't be able to tell whether

buller, would be for you to elaborate. you touched on it briefly in your testimony about how professionally your staff is, and how careful you are with anonymity. will you elaborate further and tell us more about systems, and procedures in place to protect anonymity. >> sure. all of my staff is required as is the peace corps staff to comply with all of the laws that protect personal identifying information, such as the privacy act, hipaa, things of that nature. we are all required by law to comply with those, the same way the peace corps staff is. furthermore, my investigators are trained investigators. we must comply with all of the guidelines from the attorney general. we have full law enforcement authority. we participate like any other law enforcement organization. my evaluators, when they go out to a post, they go to the volunteer sites and sit and interview individual volunteers and they tell them that they will not use their name. because they're trying to find out how well peace corps is actually supporting those v

buller, will be for you to elaborate. you touched on it briefly in your testimony about how professional your staff is and how careful you are with an n e anonymity. will you elaborate about procedures in place to protect anonymity? >> sure. all of my staff is required, as is peace corps staff, to comply with all of the lawsd that protect personal identifying information such as the privacy act, hipaa, things of that nature. we are all required by law to comply with those the same way that peace corps staff is. furthermore, my investigators are trained investigators. we must comply with all of the guidelines from the attorney general. we have full law enforcement authority. we participate like any other law enforcement organization, and my evaluators when they go out to a post, they go to the volunteer sight and interview volunteers and tell them they will not use their name. they're trying to find out how well peace corps is reporting volunteers. they do not use names. they aggregate information and bring it back to issu

buller, i want to start with you. this continued stonewalling of access to documents, what kind of harm -- potential harm could you see that would come forward with this specifically with your work. >> well, in our daze case we do have the memorandum of understanding so we are somewhat receiving information but the problem with that is it's a temporary measure and we can't rely on it being there because it can be taken away at any time. if we don't receive access to the information that we need, we can't ensure the volunteers who have been victims of sexual assault are receiving the types of care and services that they need and are entitled to in order for them to move on with their lives. >> so is it your testimony today that victims might continually continue to suffer if you don't get the kind of access to documents that is outlined in the memo of understanding, but this they quit providing that, could victims continue to be harmed? >> we'll never be able to tell. that's the big problem. we won't be able to tell wh

buller? just answer yes, ms. buller? >> yes. >> mr. elkins, with the epa, it appears that the action taken by epa in really ignoring you and allowing whistle blowers and others to be intimidated, this has undermind your position as inspector general to conduct your legitimate investigative oversight responsibilities. would that be a fair statement? >> yeah, that would be a fair statement. >> the other thing that would concern me is using some language or exceptions that are in the law and the case of justice and the peace corps to obstruct the investigation or even worse, to cover up, particularly concerned about the sexual abuse instances. now, some of these cases staff have told me may be like peace corps worker on peace corps worker or some locals on peace corps volunteers, is that the case? >> yes. >> and, again, it appears that it is sort of a blatant coverup of sexual abuse cases that some might embarrass the agency. i guess you expose yourself when you send people to foreign lands or on any mission to locals or foreign nationals

buller is the inspector general of the peace corps.n, pursuant to the committee rules, will you please rise to take the oath? and raise your right hand? do your solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you will give today will be the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth? please be seated. let the record reflect that all witnesses answered in the affirmative. since you're all skilled professionals and, mr. horowitz, since you're less than 24 hours from a similar event, you know that we'd like you to keep your opening statements to five minutes, summarize in any way you can and your entire statements will be placed in the record without objection. and with that, mr. horowitz, you're up. >> thank you, members of the committee. thank you for inviting me to testify at this important hearing. access by inspectors general to information and agency files go goes to the heart of our mission to provide nonpartisan oversight. that is why 47 inspectors general signed a letter late last month to congress expressing their concerns about t

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