[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9149-9150]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO CAROLYN LERNER AND MARK COHEN

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the service 
of Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner. Ms. Lerner's term as the leader of 
the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, OSC, has expired. By many accounts, 
she has been the most successful leader of that office in the agency's 
40 year history.
  This office has a critical mission, one that is more important now 
than ever. It protects government whistleblowers and helps to eliminate 
government waste, fraud, and abuse. It is also responsible for the 
enforcement of the Hatch Act, which keeps the Federal workplace free 
from improper partisan politics.
  Special Counsel Lerner was confirmed unanimously by the Senate in 
June 2011. During her tenure, she restored the integrity of the Office 
of Special Counsel after a difficult period. Moreover, she 
reestablished the OSC as a safe and effective office to defend 
government whistleblowers.
  Moreover, I would also like to recognize the exemplary service of her 
principal deputy, Mark Cohen, who is leaving government service as 
well. The OSC played a critical role in protecting hundreds of 
whistleblowers at the Department of Veterans Affairs. They worked with 
these courageous employees to improve care for veterans at hospitals 
across the country, including efforts to improve conditions for 
veterans in the Baltimore VA.
  Under Ms. Lerner and Mr. Cohen's leadership, the OSC worked with 
Homeland Security whistleblowers to end an improper overtime program, 
saving the taxpayers $100 million a year according to the Congressional 
Budget Office.
  These and many, many other victories for whistleblowers and taxpayers 
set a new standard in terms of effectiveness for this important office.
  As my colleague and friend from Maryland, Congressman Cummings, 
stated in a recent Washington Post article, ``Ms. Lerner turned the 
Office of Special Counsel `into a model agency and set the bar as the 
head of that office.''' I ask unanimous consent to have this article 
printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
  As Senator Grassley, a longtime champion of government 
whistleblowers, stated in the same article, ``Her leadership should be 
a road map for future leaders of this office.''
  Given the office's important good government role, the OSC enjoyed 
broad, bipartisan support under Lerner and Cohen's leadership. I concur 
with my colleagues and encourage the next leaders of that office to 
follow their lead as I pay tribute to their government service.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Washington Post, June 7, 2017]

 Special Counsel Lerner Leaves Office as Trump Rejects Highly Praised 
                         Whistleblower Advocate

                           (By Joe Davidson)

       The defining moment for the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) 
     after Carolyn Lerner became head of the agency was a gruesome 
     one about body parts and a dismembered Marine.
       It's not the usual fare for the office on M Street NW that 
     deals with Hatch Act violations and prohibited personnel 
     practices. But protecting whistleblowers is where OSC makes 
     its reputation--as in the 2011 case involving the Defense 
     Department's Port Mortuary in Dover, Del.
       Soon this little but powerful office will have a new 
     special counsel. Rejecting the advice of Republicans and 
     Democrats to keep Lerner, President Trump has nominated Henry 
     Kerner to take her place. He is a former Republican 
     congressional staffer and currently assistant vice president 
     at the Cause of Action Institute, a small-government advocacy 
     organization.
       Lerner, who leaves office on June 14, had been on the job 
     only a few months when she revealed reports by federal 
     employees of grisly transgressions at the morgue operated by 
     the Air Force. Body parts were lost in two cases, and in 
     another, the office reported that the mangled body of a 
     Marine ``was dismembered with a saw in order to make the body 
     fit inside a military uniform, without the consent or 
     notification of the family.''
       With a staff that wouldn't begin to fill one Pentagon 
     hallway, Lerner humbled and embarrassed the Defense 
     Department, the government's largest agency. Lawmakers were 
     appalled. The Air Force secretary at the time expressed his 
     sincere ``regret'' for ``lapses in our standards at Dover,'' 
     a non-apologetic understatement.
       The action of the Office of Special Counsel--no relation to 
     a special prosecutor or to Robert S. Mueller III, the special 
     counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 
     presidential election--secured mortuary reforms and protected 
     the employees who were targets of Air Force retaliation.
       ``I think that we have sent the federal community a message 
     that whistleblowers should be valued,'' Lerner said Monday in 
     her office overlooking St. Matthew's Cathedral. 
     ``Whistleblowers now feel comfortable coming forward, and 
     that is helping our government.''
       The Port Mortuary case ``really helped the federal 
     community understand that OSC was robust enforcer of 
     whistleblower laws,'' she added.
       Considering the widespread retaliation against federal 
     whistleblowers, her assessment of their comfort might be 
     optimistic, but there is no doubt that the Office of Special 
     Counsel is a more robust agency than the moribund place they 
     found before she got there.
       It moved ``from last-resort option to first choice for 
     getting relief for whistleblowers,'' said Tom Devine, legal 
     director of the Government Accountability Project, a 
     whistleblower advocacy organization.
       Relief for individual whistleblowers also can mean systemic 
     improvements for federal agencies and taxpayers. The 
     Department of Veterans Affairs is the obvious example. 
     Congress approved VA improvements following a 2014 scandal 
     over the coverup of long patient wait times, which was 
     revealed by whistleblowers. Whistleblower disclosures also 
     led to a new overtime pay system for Border Patrol agents. 
     Lerner's office was instrumental in both.
       Devine's strong praise for OSC is not unqualified. ``The 
     bad news is they operate at a molasses pace'' in some 
     instances, he said. He added that he would like Lerner to be 
     more aggressive about taking legal action against federal 
     agencies that violate whistleblower rights.

[[Page 9150]]

       Despite the slow pace, agency statistics show impressive 
     gains. There were ``276 favorable actions for whistleblowers 
     and other victims of PPPs [prohibited personnel practices] 
     this past year, more than double the annual average,'' the 
     office said in its budget justification to Congress. ``In the 
     last two years, OSC has achieved five times the number of 
     favorable actions in whistleblower retaliation complaints 
     than in any prior two-year period in agency history. . . . In 
     FY 2016, for the second straight year, OSC received upwards 
     of 6,000 new matters, a 25 percent increase over the prior 
     two-year period.''
       The increased caseload leads to bigger backlogs, but it 
     also demonstrates that employees are more willing to trust 
     the office with sensitive cases.
       Ironic criticism comes from James J. Wilson, the agency's 
     chief human capital officer. He filed a whistleblower 
     retaliation complaint against Lerner with the Merit Systems 
     Protection Board after failing to find success before the 
     Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and 
     Efficiency. Regarding his complaints to the council, Wilson, 
     who previously filed grievances against former employers at 
     two other agencies, signed an affidavit saying, ``I received 
     final decisions closing these four matters with no further 
     action being taken.''
       Whatever the criticism of Lerner, it is outweighed by 
     praise from whistleblowers and Members of Congress.
       ``She's fearless,'' Robert MacLean, an air marshal 
     whistleblower, told me earlier this year. His was the first 
     federal whistleblower case heard by the Supreme Court and 
     MacLean credits his victory largely to work done by OSC.
       Unusual in this era of hyper-polarization, she is lauded by 
     both sides of the aisle.
       ``Leading the Office of Special Counsel requires a deep 
     appreciation for the patriotic work that whistleblowers do to 
     shine a light on fraud or misconduct in government. Carolyn 
     Lerner has been a steadfast advocate for government 
     whistleblowers, and I am grateful for her service at OSC,'' 
     said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the 
     Senate Judiciary Committee. ``Her leadership should be a road 
     map for future leaders of this office.''
       The Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus, founded by 
     Grassley and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), had urged the Trump 
     administration to retain Lerner.
       ``I am disappointed the president chose not to take Sen. 
     Grassley's and my recommendation to renominate Carolyn 
     Lerner, who is an experienced leader with bipartisan 
     support,'' said Wyden.
       It's also bicameral. Before Trump's decision, Rep. Rod Blum 
     (Iowa), Republican chairman of the House Whistleblower 
     Protection Caucus, led a bipartisan House letter saying 
     Lerner deserved another term. Among those who signed was Rep. 
     Elijah Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House 
     Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
       Lerner turned the Office of Special Counsel ``into a model 
     agency and set the bar as the head of that office,'' Cummings 
     said by email Monday. ``She served with independence and 
     tenacity to hold agency officials accountable when they 
     retaliated against whistleblowers.''

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