Political Quotes

“Mr. President, 25 years ago today the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 was signed into law. To mark that anniversary, I come to the floor to discuss some of the history that led to that legislation, the lessons learned over the past 25 years, and the work that still needs to be done to protect whistleblowers. I emphasize that last part because there still needs to be a lot of work done to protect whistleblowers. The Whistleblower Protection Act was the result of years of effort to protect Federal employees from retaliation. Eleven years before it became law in 1989, Congress tried to protect whistleblowers as part of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. I was then in the House of Representatives. There I met a person named Ernie Fitzgerald, who had blown the whistle on the Lockheed C-5 aircraft program going $2.3 billion over budget. Ernie was fired by the Air Force for doing that, and as he used to say: He was fired for the act of ``committing truth.'' When the Nixon tapes became public after Watergate, they revealed President Nixon personally telling his Chief of Staff to get rid of that SOB. That is how a famous whistleblower who pointed out the waste of $2.3 billion was treated. The Civil Service Commission did not reinstate Ernie until 12 years later. In the meantime, he was instrumental in helping get the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 passed. Yet it soon became very clear that law did not do enough to protect whistleblowers.…”