[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 121 (Thursday, July 26, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1622-E1623]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         INTRODUCTION OF THE WHISTLEBLOWER RECOVERY ACT OF 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 25, 2007

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Madam Speaker, today I am introducing the 
Whistleblower Recovery Act of 2007.
  This bill is in response to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision 
involving a claim under the False Claims Act by Mr. James Stone, who 
had worked at Rocky Flats when that Colorado site was a nuclear weapons 
facility of the Department of Energy.
  The decision not only denied his claim but also interpreted the law 
in a way that had the effect of narrowing the definition of potential 
``whistleblowers.'' To correct this narrow interpretation, this bill 
would make it clear that potential ``whistleblowers'' can include those 
who divulge knowledge of an alleged wrongdoing--even though such a 
whistleblower may not have had knowledge of the direct way in which the 
wrongdoing progressed--as long as the ``whistleblower'' disclosed the 
allegation and that the wrongdoing would not have been discovered and 
fines assessed were it not for the disclosure of the whistleblower.
  The False Claims Act, codified in title 31, United States Code, was 
established to encourage the disclosure of wrongdoing by Federal 
agencies or those contracting with or otherwise working on behalf of 
Federal agencies by allowing so-called ``whistleblowers'' to recover a 
portion of any awards recovered from judicial proceedings from such 
disclosures.
  On March 27, 2007, the United States Supreme Court, in Rockwell 
International Corp. v. United States, ruled Mr. Stone, a former 
employee at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant of the United States 
Department of Energy, was not entitled to recovery under the False 
Claims Act regarding the failure of a component of the cleanup of this 
site.
  The Court found that even though Mr. Stone was an ``independent 
source'' of allegations regarding the failure of the cleanup activity--
and of the public disclosure of those allegations--he could not recover 
because he did not have direct knowledge of the precise way that the 
failure occurred and was determined at trial. As a result, the Court 
concluded that it did not have jurisdiction to determine whether Mr. 
Stone was entitled to recovery.
  The Court's ruling may have the undesired effect of discouraging 
``whistleblowers'', as it could make it harder for them to gain access 
to the Court in order to prove that they may be entitled to recovery as 
an ``original source'' under the False Claims Act. By requiring that 
purported ``whistleblowers'' must know of the precise way in which an 
allegation or transaction of wrongdoing occurs, the Court set a high 
and potentially insurmountable hurdle for ``whistleblowers'' to meet.
  In the best interest of public policy--and to encourage people to 
come forward and disclose allegations of wrongdoing--it's necessary to 
make it clear that ``whistleblowers'' need only have direct knowledge 
of the public disclosure of the allegations or transactions and not of 
the precise way in which the wrongdoing occurs.

  In other words, if an action would not have been brought and an award 
granted under the

[[Page E1623]]

False Claims Act but for the public disclosures of the 
``whistleblower,'' that ``whistleblower'' should be allowed an award 
under the False Claims Act.
  Madam Speaker, this bill cannot help Mr. Stone. Not only did he lose 
his legal effort to recover as a ``whistleblower,'' regrettably, he 
died shortly after the Supreme Court issued its decision in his case. A 
short obituary from the Rocky Mountain News appears below.
  But the bill's purpose is to properly respect and encourage the 
efforts of ``whistleblowers'' like Mr. Stone who call out possible 
fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer money. We should not find ways to 
keep them from the courthouse door, but rather should find ways to keep 
that door open--and even responsibly widen it--so that 
``whistleblowers'' can have their day in court and seek the 
compensation they deserve. This bill will help in that regard, and it 
is a fitting way to remember and honor the courageous efforts of Mr. 
Stone and others like him.

             [From the Rocky Mountain News, Apr. 12, 2007]

                 Rocky Flats Whistle-Blower Dies at 82


              James Stone recently lost bid for $1 million

                     (By Laura Frank and Ann Imse)

       James Stone was an engineer to the core. And that made it 
     impossible for him to leave a problem until it was solved.
       His hardscrabble life in a Depression-era orphanage and his 
     hard-won engineering degree led to his career-defining 
     challenge: being the chief whistle-blower on environmental 
     crimes at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons site near Denver.
       ``He would work on a problem round the clock,'' son Bob 
     said. ``That's what got him in trouble at Rocky Flats. He 
     wanted to solve the problems, not ignore them.''
       Stone, who suffered from Alzheimer's, died Wednesday at the 
     Julia Temple Center in Englewood. He was 82.
       Stone, who worked at Rocky Flats from 1980 to 1986, was the 
     first Flats insider to go to the FBI with details of the 
     radioactive pollution released by the site contractor, 
     Rockwell International.
       Rockwell pleaded guilty to 10 environmental crimes and paid 
     $18.5 million in fines.
       Stone filed a whistle-blower fraud case against Rockwell 
     and won $4.2 million in damages for the federal government. 
     Just two weeks ago, after an 18-year fight, the U.S. Supreme 
     Court denied him a $1 million share in those damages.
       ``He died with nothing more than the clothes on his back 
     and the love of his family and friends,'' Bob Stone said. ``I 
     know if he had it to do all over again, even knowing how it 
     turned out, he would have done it just the same.''
       Stone was born in 1924. His parents couldn't afford to keep 
     him during the Depression, his son said, so he went to a 
     Catholic orphanage in St. Louis. As a young teen, a family 
     with a coal business took him in.
       Barred from World War II because of a hearing problem, he 
     worked on engineering jobs in Alaska, on the Air Force 
     Academy chapel and on the Brown Palace heating system. He 
     worked on missile silos in Idaho and Wyoming, and surveyed a 
     pipeline across Greenland. He also invented a sewage 
     treatment system for rural mountain homes and a municipal 
     trash incinerator.
       Stone helped design Rocky Flats before it opened in 1952, 
     and he warned against the location ``because Denver was 
     downwind a few miles away,'' said his longtime attorney and 
     friend Hartley Alley.
       Jon Lipsky, the FBI agent who led the 1989 raid on Rocky 
     Flats, said Stone ``was the first one who worked at the plant 
     to talk to me.''
       Stone's job was to identify problems at the plant and 
     recommend solutions. So he was able to give the FBI a road 
     map, Alley said.
       Alley said Stone was the source of a key allegation in the 
     FBI search warrant--that Rockwell was incinerating 
     radioactive waste in secret at night. That charge was dropped 
     when Rockwell settled the criminal case, and prosecutors said 
     it wasn't true. But Alley says he had two other clients who 
     witnessed it.
       Stone's motivation for filing the whistle-blower lawsuit in 
     1989 was patriotic, Alley said. ``He felt the people who 
     operated Rocky Flats in the 1980s were guilty of treason'' by 
     building nuclear weapons that wouldn't explode, Alley said.
       In the fraud suit, Stone alleged that Rockwell was 
     defrauding the government by taking money for building faulty 
     weapons while polluting the environment. Proving faulty 
     production was impossible because the evidence was 
     classified, Alley said.
       Jim Stone ``wasn't afraid of jumping into anything,'' his 
     son said. ``The world is a better place with people like 
     him.''
       Stone is survived by his wife Virginia, sons Bob, of 
     Lakewood, and Randy, of Wheat Ridge, five grandchildren and 
     13 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his 
     eldest son, James Stone Jr.

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