Political Quotes

“Mr. President, during my time in the Senate, I have always tried to honor the work of whistleblowers. Those who speak up about government wrongdoing ought to be rewarded and not sidelined and punished. But that is exactly what happened in the Indian Health Service according to a recently released internal report. Now, this goes back a few years, but it still is a constant reminder of how whistleblowers aren't listened to and bad things happen. According to this internal report, in August 2006, a Dr. Mark Butterbrodt wrote to his superiors about a fellow doctor. Over the course of years, he repeatedly made extremely serious whistleblower complaints alleging that his colleague, a Dr. Stanley Weber, was sexually assaulting his young patients. He was not alone, because other staff tried to report Weber to those at the very top. His behavior was described as an ``open secret.'' It is even alleged that the standard orientation for new nurses included a warning to never leave Dr. Weber alone with young boys. The response from the Indian Health Service senior staff was silence, so the crimes continued. Over a decade after the first whistleblower report, Dr. Weber continued to sexually assault young boys who came to the Indian Health Service for help. Instead of removing the man who had been repeatedly, credibly accused of sexually abusing his patients, they punished the whistleblower. Too often in government, we see the people who report wrongdoing being punished.…”