Ron Johnson

That is an incredibly important point you are making.

I would argue that the responsibility of the Inspector General is to make that information public and also make sure that something is done about it. And, that did not happen.

I hope that the VA will embrace and help support the passage of that piece of legislation to give those whistleblowers the protection they really need.

The level of retaliation against those people that have the courage to come forward, like Dr. Noelle Johnson, like Ryan Honl, like Chris Kirkpatrick, is jaw dropping.

Another piece of legislation I introduced was the Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick--let me give you the full title of that one as well: The Christopher Kirkpatrick Whistleblower Protection Act.

But we want to give you that authority, because you have to have it.

Unless we really have the ability to hold people accountable, that is what causes these types of tragedies.

I mean, I understand that probably the most corrosive thing to any organization is not being able to hold the bad actors accountable.

I was more than disappointed when the representatives from the VA testified against the Accountability Act.

I find this unbelievably puzzling and I do want to get to the bottom of this.

I mean, most people reading our report will say there is a lot of substantiated evidence to support that charge.

There was so many reports and it was so obvious that Dr. Houlihan, according to testimony, was a bully.

What I thought was quite shocking as we got involved in this situation, is that the Office of Inspector General had 140 reports on investigations and inspections that it buried.

I think I have had one Inspector General say, well, there was one we did not publish, because of concerns about national security.

Senator Carper, who is our Ranking Member of the Committee, has a statement and a Minority Views Memo that he would like in the record without objection.

Thank you, Senator Baldwin.

This is a case with Dr. Houlihan where it was he said/they said.

At the end of the day, we own this. VA leadership owns this.

The purpose of every hearing--the goal of every hearing is to deepen our understanding and to lay out the realities.

We want people, when they come from Syria or when they come from these other countries, where they are fleeing horror--once we make sure they are not a threat--we want them to feel a part of this country and a part of the 'American Dream.'

I believe the greatest threat we have, in terms of risk factors, stems from foreign fighters.

I will be highly supportive of beefing up and increasing the use of K-9 units.

So, the question I had is this: with those private sector contracted companies, are there the same long lines at those airports?

San Francisco is contracting with a private firm to do the TSA security, correct?

There is an affliction that affects this place, and it is called the 'denial of reality.'