Legislation that would strengthen protections for federal whistleblowers and stiffen penalties for supervisors who retaliate against those employees passed the House last week with support from U.S. Reps. Barbara Comstock (R-VA), French Hill (R-AR) and Martha Roby (R-AL).
The Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017, S. 585, would take additional steps to educate employees about whistleblower rights. The bill is named for a psychiatrist who took his own life after being punished for exposing that fellow practitioners in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) were overmedicating patients.
“The case of VA Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick is heartbreaking and should have never happened,” Comstock said. “Our dedicated federal employees need enhanced whistleblower protections and the Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick Whistleblower Protection Act will give those necessary protections by holding those who take action against whistleblowers accountable. Since I was a staffer of Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA), I have worked with government whistleblowers and strongly believe that if someone in our federal workforce sees wrongdoing they should have the necessary protections and feel comfortable reporting it.”
S. 585 would provide the Office of Special Counsel with resources needed to protect whistleblowers, it would support whistleblower protection training for managers and it would hold VA employees accountable for improper access to medical records of fellow VA employees.
“Central Arkansas is home to many of our nation’s brave veterans — and like all veterans, they have earned the right to have a VA that is free of waste, fraud and abuse and that allows staff to speak up without fear if they see something that is wrong,” Hill said. He added that the passage of the bill “… continues the House’s effort to insist on greater accountability across the executive branch. I am glad that those who share Dr. Kirkpatrick’s passion for helping our veterans will be free from fear of reprisal.”
Roby said that her experience working with whistleblowers at the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System taught her that the system often protects officials who don’t do their jobs or who even harm veterans.
Speaking on the House floor in support of the legislation, Roby said brave employees at the Central Alabama VA told the truth about misconduct and mismanagement at the VA at great personal risk to their careers.
In one of several specific examples of negligence Roby cited, administrators had tried to cover up the fact that more than 1,000 X-ray cancer screenings were lost for years, some revealing malignancies.
“Had it not been for the courage of those on the inside to expose this wrongdoing, the world might never have known,” Roby said. “To me and to the veterans whose lives they might have saved, they are heroes. But, that’s not how they were treated by VA officials. They were treated as enemies and outcasts — all because they tried to do the right thing. That is just wrong and it’s time to punish those who do it with harsher penalties.”