Sean Duffy: “I thank the gentleman from Arizona for yielding, and I thank my friends across the aisle for their support of this…”

“I thank the gentleman from Arizona for yielding, and I thank my friends across the aisle for their support of this commonsense piece of legislation that, again, rights a wrong perception from the U.S. Court of Appeals. Mr. Speaker, many of us in this institution do talk about how we are a nation of laws; but, unfortunately, on June 7, when the U.S. Court of Appeals handed down its decision, it ruled that we are a nation of laws but not a nation of rules and regulations, at least as they apply to Federal workers. We have had a good discussion about the case. Dr. Timothy Rainey, just to summarize again, is a State Department employee who was asked to violate the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and he didn't want to do it; so he denied, and he invoked his right to disobey under the Whistleblower Protection Act. This was brought to the Merit Systems Protection Board, and it ruled against Dr. Rainey. It went to the U.S. Court of Appeals, and it also found against Dr. Rainey. This exposed a glaring inconsistency in the application of the Whistleblower Protection Act, which, again, is inconsistent with the intent of this institution. So we ask ourselves: What does this mean? I chair the Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation. Federal whistleblowers play an important role in exposing the mismanagement at Federal agencies and in supporting the oversight that all of us do in this Congress.…”