Ron Johnson

I think every member of this Committee has become more upset as we hear this.

The touchstone quality that makes any organization successful is accountability.

Four thousand. That would be the retaliation complaints.

Those people ought to be rewarded, not retaliated against.

The whistleblowers in Puerto Rico's facility really need the help from this Committee to ensure that whistleblower retaliation does not keep on happening at our facility

It is enormously difficult apparently for department heads, Secretaries, top-level management to hold those people that retaliate against whistleblowers accountable.

Why is retaliation so rampant within the Federal Government?

Without proper oversight from our representative in Congress, it makes it even more difficult for us whistleblowers in Puerto Rico.

If we cannot hold individuals in the VA health care system and, quite honestly, any manager within the Federal Government accountable, we are going to continue to have problems within all these agencies.

I encourage whistleblowers, if you feel uncomfortable talking to your Office of Inspector General, if you feel uncomfortable talking to your direct supervisor about these things, come to our Committee, and we will certainly hear your story…

There is no way I could have started my business and grown it to the point I have in today's regulatory environment.

We have been trying to find that common ground and find those areas of agreement.

Why do we talk about a political solution when, let us face it, we are not going to have a political solution until there is a military victory.

I have heard, since I joined this committee, and from this administration, that we need to find a political solution, and I am wondering if that is really a realistic goal.

I do not know about you, but all I see Vladimir Putin doing is biding his time looking for on-ramps.

I think your points on solitary confinement are dead on and we need to fix that.

I think we can only draw the conclusion that in terms of curbing substance abuse and addiction, that those laws are a failure and that locking people up for drug offenses, particularly low-level non-violent drug offenses, is a huge waste…

I mean, I think if any member of this Committee had the opportunity to meet the hundreds of women that I did time with, you would probably walk away from getting to know those women with a deep feeling that their confinement in a prison…

We have recently had a major victory in a bipartisan manner, working with Governor Christie, to overhaul our State's bail system.

I think what you have seen in this hearing is that there is a great deal of bipartisan agreement that what we are doing just is not working.

From my standpoint, a rigorous dose of community reparation and those types of programs, community service, I think is probably appropriate for people that have committed crimes.

One of the things I am working with Senator Booker on is a 'ban the box' for Federal employees to serve as an example, so hopefully something like that would work to give people the opportunity to get a job.

I think that a very appropriate part of my punishment, if it was not confinement in a prison, would have been a lengthy term of community service working with people who are addicted to drugs and with families that are suffering from the…

We have such an uncompetitive regulatory environment.

I have often said that the first step in solving any problem is you have to properly define it and you have to admit you have it.