On the recordSeptember 25, 2019
I thank the chair of the committee for yielding. Madam Speaker, this is a powder keg. This is not as my colleagues on the other side are trying to suggest it is, but they are dealing with alternative facts. As co-chair of the Whistleblower Caucus, I can point to the fact that $54 billion has been returned to the taxpayers of this country because men and women had the courage to stand up and point out tax evasion, fraud, abuse, and waste. Now, we have a whistleblower here who was defined as not being a whistleblower by the Attorney General, and now we are all saying he is a whistleblower. He doesn't even have the protections of a whistleblower based on the analysis by the Attorney General. One thing is very clear here, Members: But for the fact that this whistleblower came forward, but for the fact that the inspector general found that it was both credible and urgent, and but for the fact, after the DNI did not deem it to be sent to the committee, it was the inspector general who had the courage to contact the chair of this committee to inform him that there was a whistleblower pending that brought this all to the fore. So let's be very clear: There was a concerted effort by the administration to shut down this whistleblower, to restrict the money that was supposed to go to Ukraine on June 18--or July 18.
