{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://delacruz.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4023", "De La Cruz's Bipartisan Bill to Strengthen HUD Whistleblower Protections Passes House", "2026-09-15", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "House", "TX", "Monica De La Cruz", "D000594", "delacruz.house.gov", "delacruz", "https://delacruz.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, Housing and Insurance Subcommittee Vice Chair Monica De La Cruz's bipartisan Whistleblower Protection Act passed the House. The legislation ensures that all Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) contracts, particularly those pre-dating 2013, include whistleblower protections.\n\nRead the full remarks below or watch here.\n\n\"Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 4646, the Whistleblower Protection Act, which passed with bipartisan support out of the Financial Services Committee.\n\nTexas families are stretching every dollar right now, while scammers are cashing in on taxpayer-funded programs.\n\nAnd while Texas families play by the rules, scammers and corrupt leaders shouldn\u2019t get rewarded.\n\nThat is why I am working to stop the abuse and bring accountability back to Washington, and this bill brings us closer to that goal by strengthening whistleblower protections for those wanting to rightfully \u201cblow the whistle\u201d on waste, fraud, and abuse in our government.\n\nWhistleblower protections are one of the most effective tools we have to combat waste, fraud, and abuse throughout our government.\n\nThis bipartisan legislation is simple: it clarifies that whistleblower protections apply to every HUD contractor, a vital step that is necessary due to the bureaucratic implementation of congressionally enacted, enhanced whistleblower protections originally passed in 2013.\n\nWhen Congress initially passed these enhanced whistleblower protections in 2013, known as Section 4712, it intended for them to apply to both contracts awarded before these became law, and to contracts that predated Section 4712 becoming law but have since been modified.\n\nUnfortunately, many HUD programs have contracts that are often decades long, meaning that there are still active HUD contracts that pre-date 2013 and do not include key protections from Section 4712, leaving thousands of HUD contractors with uncertainty.\n\nThis legislation fixes that by providing much-needed clarity to HUD and ensuring whistleblower protections apply to every HUD contractor, regardless of when a contract was signed.\n\nThis is something HUD has even asked for, most recently in their FY2027 budget request to Congress.\n\nWe must never allow retaliation against people who are simply trying to act in the taxpayers\u2019 best interest.", 1, "2026-09-17T09:52:05Z", "2026-09-17T09:53:00Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://delacruz.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4023"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5152106061577797, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}