[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 43 (Monday, March 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2337-S2338]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Sunshine Week

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, every year, at this time of the year, 
Sunshine Week is held around the birthday of James Madison--not only a 
former President but one of our greatest Founding Fathers and the 
acclaimed ``Father of the Constitution.''
  Sunshine Week is a critical reminder of the need for transparency and 
open government. And our government is not as open as it should be.
  President Madison famously said that a great difficulty in forming a 
government operated by imperfect people was that you must oblige it--
meaning the government--to control itself. Well, amen to what Madison 
said.
  As a conservative, I have worked especially hard on Madison's 
challenge, making sure that the government controls itself. One way to 
do that is to limit the size and scope of the government. It is hard to 
control a government that does everything but make your bed and tuck 
you in to sleep.
  Another check on out-of-control government is separation of powers--
the same separation of powers when you study the essentials of American 
government. Congress doesn't execute laws. The President and the 
executive agencies shouldn't try to make laws. And neither should our 
courts.
  To control a government as big as ours, it takes a lot of very bright 
light shining on every Agency and Office. And instead of 1 week called 
Sunshine Week, we ought to have 365 days a year in which we have 
sunshine on our government's operation.
  I have long supported the Freedom of Information Act. And that act 
urges Agencies to be more responsive to record requests. That is 
essential to open government because it gives citizens access to 
information. As the old saying goes, knowledge is power.

[[Page S2338]]

  Congress also has a solemn constitutional duty to conduct strong 
oversight to ensure that the executive branch executes the laws as 
Congress has intended. You learn that in eighth grade civics class, 
called checks and balances of government. I call it oversight. But it 
is a constitutional responsibility.
  We can't legislate effectively unless we in Congress know what is 
going on behind the scenes, and most of that behind-the-scenes is in 
the executive branch of government. That is why whistleblowers are so 
very important and why I rely on whistleblowers to give me a lot of 
information I would not have other access to. So I consider them a very 
important part of doing my role, my constitutional responsibility of 
oversight to see that a President does what the Constitution says, and 
his oath says to faithfully execute the laws.
  These whistleblowers are patriots and our most powerful tool in 
rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct. Despite their vital 
contribution to good government, they are often targeted for 
retaliation and harassment. That should stop. In so many speeches, I 
have come to the floor of the U.S. Senate to point out specific 
examples of where these patriotic people we call whistleblowers are 
retaliated against and retaliated in a way that--the law says that 
retaliation is not lawful.
  There is a growing trend among Federal Agencies to place a blanket of 
silence over whistleblowers. The Agencies do this by violating 
whistleblower disclosure laws, including withholding notice of what we 
call anti-gag provisions. In other words, if you are the head of an 
Agency and you have a whistleblower, you can't tell them they can't 
talk to Congress.
  The law requires all Federal Agencies to include an anti-gag 
provision in their nondisclosure policies and forms. This provision 
notifies employees of their rights to report misconduct to Congress, to 
inspectors general, and to the Office of Special Counsel.
  Without knowing of the anti-gag provision's protections, employees 
who see government wrongdoing often stay in the shadows. If people are 
notified that they can talk to Congress and the law protects them, we 
are more apt to get information on wrongdoing, the misexpenditure of 
money, or laws not being carried out as we intended that Congress 
wouldn't even know about.
  The reason they don't speak is they fear the retaliation if they do 
speak out, and this is what I have spoken about so many times on the 
floor of the U.S. Senate. The fact that they are retaliated against is 
something that I say over and over again is unacceptable. That is why 
this week I wrote to all of our inspectors general of the executive 
branch of government, requesting they ensure this provision is 
included, as required by law, which will make it harder for Federal 
Agencies to conceal their wrongdoing.
  This year, whistleblowers have helped to let the sunshine in where it 
matters most. They are helping me track down vulnerable migrant 
children the Biden Department of Health and Human Services has failed 
to protect against potential trafficking. As we speak, law enforcement 
is working through information I provided to hopefully bring their own 
special kind of sunshine to the criminals taking advantage of these 
young kids.
  I have also sought information from government contractors who 
receive billions of taxpayer dollars to care for unaccompanied children 
but whose practices and failures are largely shielded from public 
knowledge and scrutiny. We need a full accounting of how contractors 
spend the taxpayers' hard-earned money.
  That is why last year I also launched an investigation into one of 
the Environmental Protection Agency's grant programs. That exposed 
significant waste. It turns out that the EPA doesn't even require the 
program's grantees to submit financial documents during the grant that 
show how taxpayer money is being spent by those various organizations.
  You would think Agencies would be very grateful when these failures 
are exposed. Instead, you know what--I was met with delay and 
obstruction by this administration's EPA. Accountability can be 
uncomfortable, and bureaucrats don't like it. After I reported that 
obstruction to the EPA Office of Inspector General, it agreed to audit 
the program and look into how EPA influenced grantees to obstruct my 
oversight.
  Then we get to the Justice Department and the FBI. Recently, the 
Justice Department indicted an FBI confidential human source who served 
as the basis for what is commonly known as the document 1023. That is 
the FBI-generated document that Chairman Comer in the House and I made 
public alleging criminal bribery schemes between the Biden family and a 
foreign national. Embarrassingly, for 3 years, the 1023 collected 
dust--until Congress and Justice Department whistleblowers forced the 
FBI and U.S. Attorney Weiss to interview that FBI source.
  The Federal indictment doesn't explain the full set of facts and 
leaves many questions unanswered. Those questions include how the 
Justice Department and the FBI could use this confidential human source 
for approximately 13 years, pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars, 
use his information in investigations and prosecutions, and then 
ultimately determine after 13 or 14 years that this guy is a liar. 
According to government documents in the court case, the FBI source was 
reporting information to the FBI as late as December 2023.
  This is a matter that requires extensive sunlight.
  If not for whistleblowers, my securing the document 1023 and 
releasing that document, do you know what? The FBI would still be 
believing the lies of their confidential human source, and they would 
still be paying taxpayer dollars to this confidential source for the 
lies he was giving to the FBI. Now, they have arrested him because of 
my oversight work. So what is the government doing to get all the money 
back that they paid him?
  In addition to my investigative efforts, I have worked with a 
bipartisan set of colleagues to strengthen attorney misconduct 
oversight at the Justice Department. For example, I cosponsored 
bipartisan legislation to close a loophole that prevents the inspector 
general at the Department of Justice from investigating alleged Justice 
Department attorney misconduct. Now, understand, in the Department of 
Justice, the inspector general, who is supposed to sort out wrongdoing, 
can't even investigate the lawyers of that Department when they do 
misconduct.
  My consistent efforts to let in sunshine continue across our 
government, whether it is asking the FBI to explain a memo targeting 
Catholics based on biased sources, ensuring our immigration officials 
follow the law and collect DNA from illegal migrants they encounter at 
the border, or even exposing flaws at the Veterans' Administration that 
endangered the privacy of our veterans.
  So we all ought to be thankful for Sunshine Week, which is an 
opportunity for us doing our constitutional duty of oversight to 
highlight these efforts and to remind us that shining a consistent 
light is essential to make government accountable to ``we the people.''
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Butler). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Senator from Louisiana.