[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 109 (Monday, July 14, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H6161-H6162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ALL CIRCUIT REVIEW EXTENSION ACT
Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 4197) to amend title 5, United States Code, to extend the period
of certain authority with respect to judicial review of Merit Systems
Protection Board decisions relating to whistleblowers, and for other
purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 4197
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``All Circuit Review Extension
Act''.
SEC. 2. JUDICIAL REVIEW OF MERIT SYSTEMS PROTECTION BOARD
DECISIONS RELATING TO WHISTLEBLOWERS.
(a) In General.--Section 7703(b)(1)(B) of title 5, United
States Code, is amended by striking ``2-year'' and inserting
``5-year''.
(b) Director Review.--Section 7703(d)(2) of such title is
amended by striking ``2-year'' and inserting ``5-year''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Arizona (Mr. Gosar) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona.
General Leave
Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Arizona?
There was no objection.
{time} 1715
Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
In November 2012, the President signed into law the Whistleblower
Protection Enhancement Act. This legislation was needed to update
existing law to better help protect whistleblowers from retaliation for
helping expose waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal Government.
Unfortunately, some managers were using loopholes in existing law to
punish well-intentioned employees for bringing bad behavior to the
light of day. These actions likely dissuaded some whistleblowers from
coming forward to end wasteful or corrupt activities.
In addition, during the Oversight Committee's work on this
legislation, it became apparent that many whistleblowers also may not
have been getting a fair shake in Federal circuit court. Therefore, the
legislation created a 2-year pilot allowing for all circuit review of
whistleblower appeals, enabling whistleblower cases to be appealed
outside the Federal circuit.
In the 18 months since the law's enactment, very few appeals have
been heard outside of the Federal circuit, giving Congress an
insufficient sample size to judge whether the various courts are
appropriate venues for whistleblower appeals.
H.R. 4197 simply extends the 2-year all circuit review pilot for an
additional 3 years. Extending the pilot will provide additional
evidence for Congress to consider as we seek to determine the fairest
and most efficient way for whistleblower cases to be handled under the
Federal court system.
We must do everything in our power to help defend those who seek to
do the right thing by protecting Americans and their hard-earned tax
dollars.
I want to thank Chairman Issa and Ranking Member Cummings for their
work on this legislation, and I support this legislation.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I introduced this bipartisan bill to protect important
due process rights for whistleblowers. I want to thank the original
cosponsors of this bill, Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa,
Federal Workforce Subcommittee Chairman Blake Farenthold, Ranking
Member Gerry Connolly, and longtime whistleblower advocate and fellow
Member from the State of Maryland, Representative Chris Van Hollen.
H.R. 4197 extends a provision in the Whistleblower Protection
Enhancement Act that was signed into law on November 27, 2012. Under
that law, whistleblowers were allowed to file appeals in any circuit
court of appeals with jurisdiction during the 2 years following
enactment. The 2-year period will expire on November 27 of this year.
This bill would extend the all circuit review provision for an
additional 3 years. Without this provision, whistleblowers could only
appeal a decision by the Merit Systems Protection Board to the United
States Court of Appeals for the Federal circuit.
The Federal circuit has become increasingly restrictive of
whistleblower
[[Page H6162]]
rights in its decisions over the years. Allowing other circuits to
consider appeals in whistleblower cases provides a peer review process
and check on the Federal circuit.
The Oversight Committee approved this bill on a bipartisan vote in
March. Following the committee's action, the Make It Safe Coalition, a
group of more than 50 organizations supporting whistleblower rights,
issued a statement. Here is some of what they said:
The House Government Reform Committee deserves credit for
bipartisan leadership on its experiment in structural due
process reforms. All circuit review is a sorely needed
provision to ensure that the WPEA is in force as Congress
intended.
Two years has not been enough time to evaluate whether the all
circuit review provision works as intended, as only a few cases have
made their way to other circuits so far.
I note this bill also would allow the Office of Personnel Management
to file for reviews of MSPB decisions in circuits other than the
Federal circuit for an additional 3 years.
Protecting the rights of whistleblowers fosters an environment where
employees feel safe coming forward with information, including
employees like the brave doctors, nurses, and administrative staff who
have come forward to expose mismanagement in the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
Federal whistleblowers are critical to exposing waste, fraud, and
abuse in the government, and we need to do all that we can to support
them.
With that, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
distinguished gentleman from the State of California (Mr. Issa).
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and Ranking Member
Cummings.
Mr. Speaker, the most important function that the Oversight Committee
does is, in fact, to expose waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal
bureaucracy. To that end, FOIA and whistleblowers are the two most
important tools we have. Ultimately, whistleblowers coming forward to
let us know something and the Freedom of Information Act, in addition
to congressional powers, are the only way that we can wrench the truth
out of a bureaucracy that often tends to be closed and, in fact,
protecting of mistakes and outright failures, including fraud.
The ranking member, rightfully so and very kindly, mentioned a
bipartisan effort that is underway here in the Congress to deal with
the crisis in our veterans' hospitals. Only last week, whistleblowers
testified under oath of the retaliation that they had seen when they
came forward to explain the problems they had. Doctors, health care
professionals, and administrators found that even in a caring
organization like the Veterans Administration, as their hospital
systems should be, if you simply talk about secret lists or failure to
provide care, you might very well experience retaliation. And they did.
So I think this is a particularly appropriate time for our committee,
under the leadership of our ranking member and this bill, H.R. 4197, to
bring this bill to the floor to let people know that we intend on
opening up further the protections for whistleblowers, because they are
and have been critical to the American people's right to know, both
through their Congress and through the public.
Mr. Speaker, I support the legislation, and I want to thank Mr.
Cummings for his work on it.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, again, I want to thank Chairman Issa for
all of his support. We couldn't have done it without him and his hard
work on this issue.
There is something that we are clearly bipartisan on, and that is
making sure that whistleblowers are protected. It is so very, very
important. It plays such a vital role. There is certain information
that we would never get under any circumstances if it were not for
them. If they are not protected or they feel threatened by exposing
problems in government they will be harmed, that is not healthy for our
government. It is not healthy for our country and certainly makes it
almost impossible for us to reach the highest level of effectiveness
and efficiency in our committee.
I want to thank him and all the members of our committee.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support H.R. 4197, a
great attempt to make sure there is fair and equitable access to the
fair facts so that justice can be served.
I urge all Members to support the bill, and I yield back the balance
of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 4197.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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