All Circuit Review Extension Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and Ranking Member Cummings.

Mr. Speaker, the most important function that the Oversight Committee does is, in fact, to expose waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal bureaucracy. To that end, FOIA and whistleblowers are the two most important tools we have. Ultimately, whistleblowers coming forward to let us know something and the Freedom of Information Act, in addition to congressional powers, are the only way that we can wrench the truth out of a bureaucracy that often tends to be closed and, in fact, protecting of mistakes and outright failures, including fraud.

The ranking member, rightfully so and very kindly, mentioned a bipartisan effort that is underway here in the Congress to deal with the crisis in our veterans' hospitals. Only last week, whistleblowers testified under oath of the retaliation that they had seen when they came forward to explain the problems they had. Doctors, health care professionals, and administrators found that even in a caring organization like the Veterans Administration, as their hospital systems should be, if you simply talk about secret lists or failure to provide care, you might very well experience retaliation. And they did.

So I think this is a particularly appropriate time for our committee, under the leadership of our ranking member and this bill, H.R. 4197, to bring this bill to the floor to let people know that we intend on opening up further the protections for whistleblowers, because they are and have been critical to the American people's right to know, both through their Congress and through the public.

Mr. Speaker, I support the legislation, and I want to thank Mr. Cummings for his work on it.

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