Inspector General Access Act of 2025

The bill changes section 413 of title 5 of the United States Code, which governs how the Department of Justice Inspector General can investigate DOJ employees. Right now, the law carves out some allegations involving DOJ personnel and keeps them from the Inspector General’s office, sending them instead to other internal DOJ offices. This bill strikes the language that creates that exception and removes the paragraph that described those special allegations. The bill also renumbers the remaining paragraphs so the section stays organized and fixes a cross-reference so it points to the right paragraph. In short, it gives the DOJ Inspector General direct authority over all covered allegations about DOJ employees, instead of excluding a specific category from the Inspector General’s reach.

The DOJ Inspector General is the main independent watchdog inside the Justice Department. Changing its powers can affect how possible misconduct by DOJ employees is reviewed. By removing an exception in current law, this bill would allow the Inspector General to handle a wider range of cases involving DOJ personnel. This could change which office inside DOJ looks into sensitive complaints and how those investigations are started and overseen. The exact real-world impact would depend on how often those previously excluded cases arise and how DOJ chooses to organize its other internal review offices after the change. The bill itself does not change penalties or create new crimes; it focuses on who is allowed to investigate.