{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://mrvan.house.gov/media/press-releases/mrvan-opening-statement-oversight-and-investigations-subcommittee-hearing", "Mrvan Opening Statement for Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Hearing on Protecting Whistleblowers", "2023-11-02", "2023", "2023-11", "Democrat", "House", "IN", "Frank J. Mrvan", "M001214", "mrvan.house.gov", "mrvan", "https://mrvan.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, DC \u2013 Today, Ranking Member Frank J. Mrvan participated in the House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing entitled, \u201cTrust in Transparency: Holding VA Accountable and Protecting Whistleblowers.\u201d\n\nA video of the hearing is available here, and the Congressman\u2019s opening statement as prepared for delivery is below:\n\nWhistleblowers are the unsung heroes of our government that expose corruption, abuse, fraud and waste. Reporting evidence of wrongdoing from the inside is a courageous task, and whistleblowers often risk their livelihoods to expose critical issues. Their actions are paramount in holding the government accountable, and whistleblowers should be commended for the courage it takes to come forward.\n\nVA is entrusted with caring for our nation\u2019s veterans. VA employees must feel empowered to call out problems, including wrongdoing. Managers need to be trained on rules and policies, so they are also empowered to create and foster an open and transparent culture, which benefits everyone \u2013 from the public, to staff, to veterans \u2013 that engages with VA.\n\nOver many decades, Congress has authorized important institutions, which are charged with oversight and investigative authority, with administering whistleblower protection laws, and with holding the federal government accountable.\n\nWe have the VA Office of Inspector General, the Office of Special Counsel, and the Government Accountability Office as long-standing parts of that oversight and accountability structure. In 2017, Congress established another layer by creating the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection (OAWP) in response to a very serious and catastrophic accountability failure, which is the Phoenix wait times scandal.\n\nHowever, OAWP quickly failed at its mission due to egregious abuses by leadership, which were investigated by the Inspector General, and current leadership has had an uphill battle rebuilding OAWP into an office that can meet the mission established by Congress. From my perspective, OAWP has done a commendable job. It is now staffed up with dedicated individuals who are taking its responsibilities seriously. We are starting to see outputs that show the office can and wants to do the job.\n\nFrom our oversight work, we can see significant progress on the investigations side of the office. Over the past year, OAWP has worked to clear the backlog of complaints. Improvements have been made in case timelines and referrals. Now we are starting to see what is possible on the accountability side. We need more information on how VA is implementing OAWP\u2019s recommendations and understanding if this work is leading to institutional change. OAWP has a mandate to advise the Secretary on accountability matters and conduct data analysis to identify trends and issue reports. We\u2019ve seen some of the results of efforts in these areas, but there are other areas that would benefit from this analytics work, such as settlement agreements, ensuring that disciplinary actions are being used equitably across VA, and how the Department can further build a culture that values accountability.\n\nFrom reading the testimony of the organizations on the second panel, it is clear that a trust gap still exists between the whistleblower community and OAWP. I know OAWP is working in earnest to bridge that gap, and I look forward to discussing a few specifics about ongoing concerns with both VA and the good government groups.\n\nI know there have been questions since the 2017 law was passed about ways to enhance OAWP\u2019s independence. There are also fundamental questions about its purpose and how it should or should not differ from other oversight organizations, such as the IG and OSC. I hope we can have a thoughtful discussion on these, and other issues.\n\nWhistleblower protections and accountability are different sides of the same coin. They should not be in conflict. We should work hard towards accountability so that employees don\u2019t have to become whistleblowers. They should be able to speak up about concerns and have those concerns taken seriously by management. This is the goal we all should be working towards because that is what we owe to our veterans.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "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://mrvan.house.gov/media/press-releases/mrvan-opening-statement-oversight-and-investigations-subcommittee-hearing"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9759498536586761, "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"}