Oversight Committee to Mark Up Bills to Protect Whistleblowers and Promote Transparency - June 29th

Because this is long overdue and it is time to discuss the facts - updated with link to House Oversight Steaming of June 29th Hearing

Point of Personal Privilege - it is entirely your choice on who or what to believe. As a general rule anyone and I mean anyone who uses their social media voice to encourage “leaking of classified information or intelligence reports” it brings me no joy in saying; “ {insert names} should really reconsider what they are doing” Leaks in DC do happen but encouraging public servants to betray their oath of office just so you can go viral or remain relevant. How very sad. And how very unAmerican of you.

A certain crew that encouraged and at times —out right demands the CRIMINAL and UNLAWFUL leaks. Do you think this some how makes this crew trustworthy or otherwise important? Spoiler it doesn’t —it makes them worse than QANON-MAGA. Arguably those people might not know the difference but this crew does or at least they pretend that they do. Albeit the jury in the Court of Public opinion is subject to change.

Sadly for nearly two years I believed this crew’s bombilation and disparate conspiracy theories . My atonement is sticking to facts and occasionally calling their nonsense out. Keep in mind this crew mislead hundreds of thousands with their “neat story telling” —and this crew also profited off of their “fantastical story telling” (and some are still making money) Yet of all of their prognostications, have any actually materialized or come to pass? Nothing that’s right None. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. For Example you repeatedly stated that on January 20, 2021 Trump would be indicted because of his “mob ties” —your crew also falsely stated NATO had invoked Article V. Most audaciously your crew said Trump was going to be removed from the GOP 2020 ticket.

The thing is most of us, just wanted the facts, original documents aka receipts and someone to set our expectations. I’ve regretted that I amplified this crew’s “stories” — I unwittingly became an accessory to their damaging “story telling”. And for the record a true Patriotic American would never encourage the unlawful leaking or rationalize it with an incoherent word salad that went like this; “game over - Trump is done and the intelligence community just needs to drop their reports so we can read them” —it doesn’t work that way, at all.

In the postmortem after-action analysis, I realized why so many believed this crew’s disinformation and misinformation —you offered a sense of immediate gratification. Coupled with this crew’s “mobs gotta mob” narrative which they had to sell to the masses. At one point I asked “if Jared really is under a sweeping counterintelligence investigation why does he still have access to the PDB” …a satisfactory answer was never proffered and I think my question was reasonable and asked in a respectful manner. In the end I sure hope your skullduggery was worth it - see archived whistleblower thread

Leaking versus lawful whistleblower status and inherent protections..

…under the Trump Administration - conflating whistleblowers as leakers and leakers as whistleblowers became a weapon. Of political destruction and undoubted put a chilling effect on potential whistleblowers. In some respects Trump’s wholesale conflation of what constitutes a lawful disclosure and Congress’ intended statutory protections afforded to whistleblowers —in short Trump sought to criminalize a lawful whistleblower and he certainly (albeit inappropriately) used the immense power of the Department of Justice to “hunt the leakers” -you can read more here and here

The reality is the leaks were coming from inside Trump’s own White House —yet that did not impede his conflation of a leaker versus whistleblower

In February 2017 Trump;

“we’ll find the leaders and they will pay a hefty price”

Also notice felons (that Trump later pardoned) disgraced Representatives Chris “insider-trading” Collins and Duncan “I cheated on my wife” Hunter - the company you keep - something—something

Save the Date: Tuesday, June 29 at 9:00 a.m. ET,

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, will hold a hybrid business meeting to consider bills that will enhance whistleblower protections for federal employees and increase transparency of political appointees. The June 29th hearing has been months in the making.

January 2020 Chairwoman Maloney to the panel

The Committee will consider the following legislation:

• H.R. 2988, Whistleblower Protection Improvement Act;

• H.R. 2043, Periodically Listing Updates to Management (PLUM) Act;

• H.R. 1224, Merit System Protection Board Empowerment Act;

• H.R. 3559, Cyber Rotational Workforce Act;

• H.R. 3787, District of Columbia Local Juror Nondiscrimination Act; and

• H.R. 1204, District of Columbia Chief Financial Officer Salary Home Rule Act.

A leaker isn’t a whistleblower ….and a whistleblower isn’t always a leaker…

H.R. 2988, THE WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION IMPROVEMENT ACT - will strengthen whistleblower protections for federal employees by enacting the following:

• Clarify that no federal government employee—including the President or Vice President of the United States—may interfere with or retaliate against a federal employee sharing information with Congress.

• Prohibit agencies from launching retaliatory investigations against employees who blow the whistle.

• Prohibit retaliation against an employee for disclosing to a supervisor any violations of law, gross mismanagement or waste, abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.

• Limit public disclosure of the identity of an employee who engages in whistleblowing activity.

H.R. 2988 (which was originally introduced during the 116th Congress H.R.7935 - Whistleblower Protection Improvement Act of 2020) also addresses and helps to ensure due process and equitable relief for federal employees by including the following actions:

• Provide timely consideration and appeals for employees who request a delay in adverse personnel actions.

• Grant whistleblowers access to a jury trial in federal district court if the Merit Systems Protections Board does not issue a decision in 180 days (or 240 days for complex cases).

• Clarify that whistleblowers who prevail are entitled to recover attorney fees and be granted necessary relief to make them whole, such as through training, restoration of seniority, or a promotion consistent with the employee’s record.

And lastly H.R. 2988 - seeks to extend Title 5 protections to

• non-career Senior Executive Service employees

• Public Health Service officers or applicants

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s commissioned officer corps

Other bills that will be discussed during the June 29th Hearing:

H.R. 1204, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER SALARY HOME RULE ACT

• …in short this bill would give the District of Columbia the authority to pass a law to increase the pay of its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) above the existing statutory allowable pay for the CFO.

H.R. 2043, THE PLUM ACT - Senator Carper introduced a companion bill in the Senate, S. 857. The PLUM Act would require;

• Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to develop and maintain a publicly accessible website with data on senior leaders in government that meets modern data standards.

• The bill would implement recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Administrative Conference of the United States

For those who don’t know - the “Plum Book” is published shortly after the Presidential Election. The Plum Book itemizes Federal civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government that may be subject to noncompetitive appointment, nationwide...the December 2020 Plum Book

The major categories of positions listed in United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions are;

• Executive Schedule and salary-equivalent positions paid at the rates established for levels I through V of the Executive Schedule;

• Senior Executive Service "General" positions and Senior Foreign Service positions;

• Schedule C positions excepted from the competitive service by the President, or by the Director, Office of Personnel Management, and other positions at the GS-14 and above level excepted from the competitive civil service by law, because of the confidential or policy-determining nature of the position duties.

H.R. 3599, THE FEDERAL ROTATIONAL CYBER WORKFORCE PROGRAM ACT - the text of the bill hasn’t hit the legislative docket yet but I embedded the link so you can track the progress. A friend of mine sent me the summary of H.R. 3599 - which reads in part:

The Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act would establish a personnel rotation program for cybersecurity professionals at federal agencies, creating valuable career development and collaboration opportunities.

OPM would issue an operational plan providing policies, processes, and procedures for the program, and GAO would report on agency participation in, and employees’ experiences of, the program.

You can read S.1097 which appears to be nearly identical to H.R.3599 - so for now I’d save the date and maybe tune into the House Oversight June 29th hearing.

And not to belabor this point. if you’re listening to a crew who’s relentlessly saying “just leak it” then I think you should reevaluate who you are getting your “news” from. For me -I’d rather stick to facts, following the law and those who consistently provide access to original documents versus ….the prior. And for the record this isn’t personal it’s about what actually matters, the facts, the receipts and critical thinking… it’s Monday and on Mondays I tend to be otherwise preoccupied with Teams and Red Teams calls. Because it’s not like those bonbons are going to eat themselves nor are the beans going to flick themselves.

Update:

Tomorrow’s Business Meeting will be lived streamed via the House OverSighr YouTube Channel