[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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