Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. When we are going to pass a bill on a bipartisan basis, it might be useful to acknowledge the bill has a Democratic cosponsor. I am proud to be the lead cosponsor with Congressman Duffy on the Follow the Rules Act--in fact, he asked me to play that role--and I rise clearly in strong support of the legislation which will protect, critically, whistleblowers who disclose waste, fraud, and abuse. I want to thank my colleague, Representative Duffy, for working with me in a bipartisan way on this important bill. We initially introduced the bill together in the 114th Congress, and it passed the House without opposition. Unfortunately, the Senate did not act. Hopefully, this Congress we will be able to persuade the Senate to enact this important protection. This bill would clarify that, under the Whistleblower Protection Act, an employee who refuses to obey an order that would require the employee to violate a law, rule, or regulation is protected. Congressman Duffy and I introduced the bill to address a misinterpretation of the Whistleblower Protection Act by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the case of Rainey v. MSPB in 2016, as my colleague from Kentucky suggested. In that case, a contracting officer, Dr. Timothy Rainey, was ordered by his supervisor to tell a contractor to rehire a terminated subcontractor. Dr.…”