{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20141024031248/http://coffman.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/read-the-threatening-emails-sent-to-a-va-whistleblower-after-he-appeared-on", "Read the Threatening Emails Sent to a VA Whistleblower After He Appeared on TV", "2014-10-22", "2014", "2014-10", "Republican", "House", "CO", "Mike Coffman", "C001077", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "The Department of Veterans Affairs last month tried to force one of its employees to sign a non-disclosure agreement and threatened disciplinary action, after the employee appeared on television to criticize the VA for failing in its mission to deliver health care to veterans.\nScott Davis is a program specialist at the VA\u2019s Health Eligibility Center in Atlanta, and more recently is a whistleblower who has testified in Congress about the VA\u2019s numerous failures. Davis has also been on several TV and radio shows to discuss the VA\u2019s failures over the last few months.\nAfter appearing on Fox News on September 2, Davis was emailed just minutes later by William Lamm, who asked Davis to appear at an Administrative Investigation Board meeting scheduled for September 4. Lamm said Davis would be asked to sign a copy of a \u201cnotice\u201d at that meeting.\nDavis told TheBlaze that he isn\u2019t sure what the Board meeting would cover, but based on the notice, it appeared to be an attempt to start an internal VA investigation into Davis\u2019s actions. The notice Davis was asked to sign said employees must testify \u201cfreely and honestly in cases respecting employment and disciplinary matters,\u201d and also said issues discussed as part of the investigation cannot be talked about outside the VA.\n\u201cVA Directive 0700 requires you to refrain from disclosing any information developed in the course of the investigation, including the substance of your testimony, with others, if so directed by the Convening Authority or by a member of the administrative investigative board,\u201d it reads. \u201cThis is to protect the integrity and fairness of the investigative process.\u201d\nDavis replied in an email on September 3 that the White House Office of Special Counsel is already investigating his whistleblower case, and said the VA has already determined that the OSC investigation must be concluded before the VA itself takes any action against Davis.\n\u201cTherefore, I will have to decline your invitation to meet tomorrow,\u201d Davis wrote. \u201cMr. Lamm, I respectfully ask that you please stop contacting me about this matter.\u201d\nLater that day, Lamm wrote back that Davis had no choice but to attend the meeting, and reminded him that the notice Davis was required to sign says refusing to testify on disciplinary matters \u201cmay be ground for disciplinary action.\u201d\n\u201cMr. Davis, with all due respect, the notification that was sent to you and to your representative to appear before the Administrative Investigation Board was not an invitation to which you can decline,\u201d Lamm wrote.\nLamm backed off his demand later in the day, in an email that said the VA wants to cooperate with the OSC, and that the OSC would not be able to have an \u201cAgent\u201d attend the planned hearing. Davis told TheBlaze that this veiled threat seemed empty, as the OSC told him personally that it does not employ any such \u201cAgents.\u201d\nStill, the exchange prompted Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) to write VA Secretary Robert McDonald about the VA\u2019s effort to silence Davis.\n\u201cMr. Davis recently indicated to my staff that he is receiving threatening emails regarding disciplinary action against him,\u201d Coffman wrote. \u201cHe indicated he is being harassed and investigated and that human resource officials have demanded that he sign a document, without a VA or OMB identification control number, purporting to be a Notice of Witness Obligations, Protections and Privacy.\u201d\n\u201cPlease be assured that retaliation against VA employees that have provided whistleblower information to Congress will not be tolerated,\u201d Coffman added. \u201cI request a response and explanation within five working days.\u201d\nDavis and House aides said they are not aware of a response from McDonald, more than a month after Coffman\u2019s letter was sent.\nIn the meantime, Davis is continuing to blow the whistle on the failure of the VA to clean up the mess after the health care scandal broke earlier this year. He\u2019s also tweeting updates at his Twitter profile, @ScottDavis_WB.\nMost recently, Davis has warned that the VA appears to be preparing to jettison thousands of old veterans\u2019 claims for healthcare that were never processed. Davis said the VA has been sending letters to people who filed these unanswered claims, and appears to be preparing to argue that it can freely drop any outstanding claim unless veterans write back.\nThe trouble is, Davis said, is that the VA is getting a response rate of about 8 percent, and said the VA appears to be looking for an easy way to justify ditching these old claims.\nDavis added that eliminating potentially hundreds of thousands of old claims would let the VA boast about improving its performance rate for veterans seeking medical help, when really it would only be trashing claims it never answered. \u201cBy deleting the record, you\u2019re deleting your true turnaround time,\u201d he told TheBlaze.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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://web.archive.org/web/20141024031248/http://coffman.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/read-the-threatening-emails-sent-to-a-va-whistleblower-after-he-appeared-on"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7527892012149096, "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"}