Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2017--Motion to Proceed--

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I rise today to ask my colleagues to honor the life of Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick by passing a bill to strengthen whistleblower protections.

Last year the Center for Investigative Reporting published an article that revealed allegations of opioid overprescription, whistleblower retaliation, and a culture of fear at the Tomah VA Medical Center in Tomah, WI. It also detailed the tragic story of Jason Simcakoski, who passed away at the Tomah VA in 2014 from mixed drug toxicity. Jason had over one dozen different drugs in his system when he died.

Jason's life is honored by a bipartisan bill introduced by my colleague from Wisconsin that I am pleased to cosponsor: the Jason Simcakoski Memorial Opioid Safety Act. The bill aims to improve VA opioid prescribing guidelines and ensure greater coordination and oversight for patient treatments.

When I learned of the problems at the Tomah VA, I immediately directed my Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee staff to investigate. They reviewed thousands of pages of documents and conducted 22 interviews. We held two hearings in Tomah and two in Washington, DC, to examine what happened at the facility and hear from whistleblowers across the country. On May 31 of this year, we released a 359-page report detailing the findings of our bipartisan investigation. The unfortunate conclusion of our investigation is that with proper disclosure, the tragedies of the Tomah VA could have been prevented.

One of the individuals who blew the whistle on these problems was a psychologist at the Tomah VA named Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick. His portrait stands beside me.

Chris came to Tomah in 2008. He treated veterans, the finest among us, for PTSD, substance abuse, and chronic pain. It didn't take long for him to realize that something was not right. Chris told his family and the union that he thought doctors were overprescribing, overmedicating patients.

The chief of staff of the facility was a doctor who had been known as the Candy Man as far back as 2004 because of the amount of opioids he prescribed for veterans. When the Candy Man found out that Chris was questioning his prescription practices, Chris was warned to stop. But rather than address Chris's concerns, the VA fired him. Tragically, late on the day that he was terminated, Chris committed suicide.

Chris's managers later said they felt coerced into firing him. Yet no one ever investigated Chris's suicide, and the agency was never held accountable.

Inspectors general are supposed to be the government's watchdogs. Instead of promptly investigating, preparing, and making a report of its investigation public, the VA Office of Inspector General took almost 3 years to prepare a short, extremely flawed report, administratively closed the investigation, and then buried the report.

Then last year, under pressure from news reports and my committee's investigation, the office issued an unsolicited white paper that defended its flawed work and attacked Chris. It even accused him of being a drug dealer. They were retaliating against a dead man.

Sean Kirkpatrick, Chris's brother, summed up the office's actions best. He told our committee: ``The haphazard attempt to discredit and slander Chris was absolutely outrageous to us when our brother was merely questioning opioid abuse and concerns that the veterans were not being cared for properly.''

Sean Kirkpatrick offered invaluable testimony to our committee and asked us to make commonsense changes to help ensure that what happened to Chris will not happen to someone else.

To address these recommendations and the problems our investigation uncovered, I introduced the Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick Whistleblower Protection Act. Among other things, the bill requires agencies to discipline supervisors who retaliate against whistleblowers and mandates training so employees know their rights and supervisors know how to handle complaints. The bill requires the VA to inform its employees about mental health services available to them and review their protocols to address threats from patients. The bill also prohibits VA employees from accessing the private medical records of coworkers when they blow the whistle as a means to retaliate against them.

I ask the full Senate to honor Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick and protect veterans and future whistleblowers by passing these commonsense reforms. It would be particularly special for the Senate to pass the bill today as, sadly, it is the 7-year anniversary of Chris's passing.

This bill received unanimous support of Democrats and Republicans on my committee in December by a vote of 16 to 0. It has the support of every Republican in the Senate. Yet, unfortunately, one or more Democrat Members have been blocking it. I haven't been told who they are, so I have come to the floor to ask that if a Senator objects to this bill, he or she explain why.

Protecting whistleblowers and putting our veterans first shouldn't be a partisan issue. I know it sure hasn't been one for me.

In fact, just yesterday the Jason Simcakoski Memorial Opioid Safety Act was approved as part of CARA. I was pleased to cosponsor the bill that the junior Senator from my State, a Democrat, introduced. I am not aware of any Republican Member who tried to block its inclusion in CARA, and I was pleased to do whatever I could in the Senate to ensure its passage because it is just good policy and it is just good for our veterans.

I ask my colleagues to give this bill the same respect by judging it based on policy, not politics. Put our veterans first.

499, S. 2127. I further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment be withdrawn, the Johnson substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, the title amendment be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, might I ask the majority leader: Are you objecting for yourself or on behalf of others? Further, is there a reason for the objection?

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Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, it is extremely disappointing that the minority leader has objected to a commonsense piece of legislation that was passed--again, let me repeat--unanimously out of my committee. Not one Democratic member of our committee objected to this. It was a good piece of legislation. It is so important.

I am shocked, coming from the private sector, how much retaliation actually occurs within government even though we passed numerous bills protecting whistleblowers. The fact is, had these tragedies been known, had the whistleblowers been protected, had the Office of Inspector General made its investigation reports public, tragedies would have been prevented.

One of the veterans who died at the Tomah VA was Thomas Baer. I was talking to his daughter a week or so after he passed from neglect, as he suffered a couple strokes waiting to be cared for.

She said: Senator, had I only known of the problems at the Tomah VA, I never would have taken my father there. He would be alive today.

All I am asking for is a commonsense bill that again was passed unanimously by my committee. Unfortunately, it is being objected to and will not pass today.

At a moment in time in our history when there are so many divisions in this country, this is one thing we all agree on in this body, to honor the promises to the finest among us, our veterans. This bill honors those promises. This bill would protect the whistleblowers who have the courage to come forward and report problems at the VA health care centers. This bill would help protect veterans in the future.

One of the things I am most proud of as chairman of the committee is I have worked in a very bipartisan fashion. I have forged agreements. I have looked for areas of agreement that unify us. By using that approach, a businessperson's approach, we have reported out of my committee 83 pieces of legislation--this is one of them--and 26 of those have been signed into law, again by finding areas of agreement that unify us as a committee, as a Senate, as a Congress, and as a Nation. This should have been one of those bills.

I sincerely hope we can overcome whatever objection, which was not stated on the floor, and pass this very important piece of whistleblower protection as soon as possible.

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