Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1064) to amend title 5, United States Code, to allow whistleblowers to disclose information to certain recipients, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the measure before us.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I introduced this bill, along with the distinguished Congressman from North Carolina, Mr. Mark Meadows, to make it easier for whistleblowers to disclose wrongdoing. This bill would protect whistleblowers who report waste, fraud, or abuse, to their supervisors at a government agency.

Under current law, an employee would not be protected from retaliation for disclosing information to a supervisor, even if the employee reasonably believes it is necessary to expose a violation of a law, rule, or regulation. A whistleblower is currently only protected by law if they make their disclosures to the Office of Special Counsel, an Inspector General, Congress, the head of the whistleblower's agency, or an employee designated by the head of the agency.

Under this bill, an employee who is covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act could report alleged misconduct to any supervisor in their direct chain of command. This sensible change in law would allow employees to provide evidence of wrongdoing to a supervisor instead of requiring employees to report all the way up to the head of an agency or an inspector general.

This change in the law would protect employees who use the proper channels at their agency to report waste, fraud, and abuse. Employees in the intelligence community already have these whistleblower protections as a result of a Presidential policy directive issued in 2012. This bill would ensure that all federal employees have the same protections as whistleblowers in the intelligence community.

I urge my colleagues to support this important bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 1064, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 995) to amend chapter 3 of title 5, United States Code, to require the publication of settlement agreements, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I support this commonsense measure. The Settlement Agreement Information Database Act would create a database of settlement agreements entered into by Federal agencies that relate to alleged violations of Federal, civil or criminal law.

The Office of Management and Budget would manage this database and set deadlines for submission. The heads of executive agencies would be required to submit details about the types of settlement agreements, the parties involved in the settlements, specific violations, and the dates on which the settlement agreements were agreed to.

The information about the settlement agreements would remain public until 5 years after the termination of the agreements. The information in the agreements would remain subject to the Freedom of Information Act, but if the head of the agency decided to keep an entire agreement confidential, he or she would be required to provide an explanation of that action.

This bill would improve the transparency surrounding settlement agreements which, in the past, have been difficult for the public to access.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the distinguished gentlemen from Alabama and from North Carolina for their congratulations and in sharing my excitement over the passage of my first bill.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of H.R. 995, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1079) to require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance on electronic consent forms, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I support this bill, the CASES for Constituents Act, introduced by Representatives Garret Graves and Joe Kennedy. This bill would modernize the way Federal agencies process Privacy Act waivers and make it easier for Members of Congress to help constituents get assistance from Federal agencies.

Our constituents are required to provide Federal agencies with written consent before our offices can obtain information from the agency on their behalf. Some agencies have outdated policies and still require these consent

forms to be mailed or faxed, which can be next to impossible in certain circumstances, such as after a major storm or other natural disaster.

Under this bill, the Office of Management and Budget would be required to create a template for electronic consent forms and issue guidance to agencies requiring them to accept such forms.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the bipartisan way in which this bill was developed, and I thank Representatives Graves and Kennedy for their diligent efforts to address this problem.

This is a good bipartisan bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I will just note for the record that I believe faxes may or may not have ended their usefulness before I was born.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. Speaker, I would like to join my colleague in thanking the staff. I was handheld through this entire process.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of H.R. 1079, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained, if I would have been here, I would have voted yes.

Madam Speaker, I was elected to fight for the people of my district, to challenge the way things are done here in Washington, and make sure our government starts working for the people. But it can't work for the people when it is not working at all.

It is not working for Christy, a hardworking air traffic controller, veteran, and single mother of two who is terrified. When she doesn't get her paycheck tomorrow, she won't be able to feed her kids. She works a good job. She shouldn't be afraid of meeting her kids' basic needs, and now she is looking for a job at night as a bartender.

It is not working for Eric, a 17-year career employee at the Federal Aviation Agency. He wrote to me, ``As an integral part of the Nation's air traffic control system, my focus has always been, and will always be, on safety.''

That is true for so many of the law enforcement officials, aviation specialists, and firefighters who are affected by this shutdown. They are focusing on our safety, and in return, they are not receiving pay for their work. Every day, that safety becomes more and more compromised.

It is not working for Diane, who works for the Angeles National Forest and lives paycheck to paycheck as almost 80 percent of this country does. She is gearing up for the economic turmoil of not getting a second paycheck tomorrow.

It is not working for John, who protects us, as a Federal prison guard, from terrorists, who is now driving Uber after his shifts in order to pay the bills.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues, the President, and our fellow Senators to open the government right now.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I am speaking with you today because it is past time to reopen critical functions of our government.

Aerospace and aviation are the backbone of my district. I just came from speaking with aviation professionals who are employed by the FAA, as well as pilots and other impacted organizations. It has never been more clear to me that this is a crisis of both safety and national security.

Air traffic controllers are given the huge task of ensuring that millions of passengers a day fly safely. Thousands of support professionals are furloughed or not working. They include specialists who provide tactical, strategic, and administrative support, and this puts Americans across the country in danger.

I have spoken to air traffic controllers in my district who are picking up second jobs in order to pay their bills and feed their kids.

Just yesterday, Christy, a veteran and mother of two, came all the way to D.C. from California to let me know the hardships that this shutdown has put her family through.

We can't afford these men and women to be operating at anything less than 100 percent. We need to pass this bill today and get our civil servants, our veterans back to work and protect all American citizens.