Chuck Grassley: “I rise with determination to join Senators Akaka and Levin introducing legislation on an issue that should concern us…”

“I rise with determination to join Senators Akaka and Levin introducing legislation on an issue that should concern us all: the integrity of the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989. I enclose editorials and op-ed commentaries, ranging from the New York Times to the Washington Times highlighting the needs for this law to be reborn so that it achieves its potential for public service. Unfortunately, it has become a Trojan horse that may well be creating more reprisal victims than it protects. The impact for taxpayers could be to increase silent observers who passively conceal fraud, waste and abuse. That is unacceptable. I was proud to be an original co-sponsor of this law when it was passed unanimously by Congress in 1989, and when it was unanimously strengthened in 1994. Both were largely passed to overturn a series of hostile decisions by administrative agencies and an activist court with a monopoly on the statute's judicial review, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. The administrative agencies, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and the Merit Systems Protection Board, appear to have gotten the point. They have been operating largely within statutory boundaries. Despite the repeated unanimous congressional mandates, however, the Federal Circuit has stepped up its attacks on the Whistleblower Protection Act. Enough is enough.…”