Political Quotes

“It would be unfortunate, in our efforts to improve homeland security, if suddenly our government became less open, less transparent. It would appear if we do that, then the terrorists win, because their attack is on our basic premise of democracy, of a free and open society. The current language in the bill fails to protect transferred homeland security, civil servants from whistleblower reprisals. Under the current Whistleblower Protection Act, the standard bureaucratic response has been to silence messengers blowing the whistle on national security breakdowns. Now, the Schakowsky-Kucinich-Mink amendment is designed, and it is needed, to protect national security whistleblowers by allowing them to petition Congress directly and providing an effective remedy for any reprisal taken by the new agency. Whistleblower rights are workers' rights and no worker should lose his or her job for exposing waste, cover-up, and lies of his or her superiors. It is ironic that in a bill which is designed to fight terrorism we have a provision designed to terrorize workers. The passage of this amendment is vital to protect the security of the American people.”