There must be clear and consistent guidance to Federal employees on agency policies.

Some of them are still in early stages.

Thank you very much for your testimony, Ms. Kichak.

It is important that we respect a Federal employee's right to privacy as we work to protect them from disease threats.

There clearly is a lot more planning that needs to be done throughout the Federal Government.

I really appreciate your participation in these hearings, and we have worked so well together all these years on these issues.

Admiral, I know many people are anxious to hear about the progress being made with the development of a vaccine to combat the novel H1N1 virus.

I hope that agencies are learning from the ongoing H1N1 outbreak and taking corrective action for future planning.

I was disappointed to learn that, according to a GAO report, only one agency--the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)--responded that they had shared their pandemic planning with the unions that represent their employees.

Pandemic influenza continues to be a grave threat facing the United States and the world.

I think the important change that we are seeing is this is the first Administration that I think is, first of all, not threatening to veto this legislation.

I understand that the Administration is committed to transparency, but we must ensure that this Board makes fair decisions.

This issue is a priority for me, and I am optimistic that finally we will enact protections for whistleblowers this year.

The public is enfranchised to make decisions about government actions that have an impact on them.

This was the policy that the President campaigned on, and we have not heard a reason, a public policy basis to back off of that commitment.

We are in a period of unprecedented government spending, crises in terms of civil liberties, human rights abroad, as well as our economy that will require our government to be at its best.

I want to thank all of our witnesses. You have helped us to really think through the key concerns for finalizing this bill.

It is not sending a very good message to them that we are serious about whistleblower protection if we give them second-class due process compared to the rest of the labor force.

I should also add that many of them have some good ideas that can improve government operations.

They do not at the Merit Systems Protection Board right now.

Ms. Brian, under the WPA, agencies are required to inform their employees of their whistleblower rights.

I want to thank Senator Collins, the lead Republican cosponsor of S. 372, and Members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee who are cosponsors, including my good friend Senator Voinovich.

I am concerned that the new Administration may not yet be focused on moving forward with security clearance reforms.

CARES was a very data-rich, multi-layered process that involved a great deal of community input and outside review.

Thank you very much, Senator Burr.