Thank you, Jerry Shaw and FDR
for inviting me to this year’s conference and good morning y’all.
One of the things about San Antonio of course is the courageous spirit
of the Alamo and the heroic fight against overwhelming odds. Kind of
like the odds I'll get through my speech before Jerry gives me the “cut”
sign.
Sometimes we think of heroes as people who perform such
incredible feats that we could never be like them. Films today feature
superhero icons; our stories focus on supernatural powers. There was
even a spoof on all of this a couple of years ago, an animated movie
called “The Incredibles” about a family of superheroes who are forgotten
in a cynical world, and about how society rediscovers its need for real
heroes. My three-year-old, Anna, calls it “The Incroybles.”
But today I want to talk about some ordinary heroes. I
am borrowing that phrase from the title of Scott Turow’s recent and very
fine World War II novel. What does it mean to be ordinary heroes? Well,
the poet Rudyard Kipling says:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and
blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for
their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about,
don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too
good, nor talk too wise...You probably recognize that from the poem,
“If,” which my father first quoted to me. It speaks of the courage
needed in our everyday lives. Too often in government we see people
losing their heads and blaming everyone. Some even deal in lies or
deception. We need ordinary heroes to restore our sense of ethics in
government, our sense of decency and integrity in the process of how our
country is run. I am lucky because I get to help such heroes every day,
whistleblowers and other complainants who show real courage in speaking
the truth about law violations or abuse of authority or threats to
safety, all in spite of the threat of retaliation.
Like Leroy Smith, a Safety Manager at
the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) who disclosed to OSC that prison
employees and inmates were being exposed to toxic substances when they
smashed computer screens for recycling. OSHA warns that these materials
can cause serious health problems or even death. These toxic metals were
going into air vents and the cafeteria where people worked and ate.
Federal employees were exposed to these substances without proper masks.
Despite tests documenting these problems, management ordered
reactivations of recycling operations without implementing recommended
safety measures.
OSC demanded an investigation. BOP produced two
reports substantiating some of Smith’s allegations but ultimately
concluding that “BOP adequately addressed” all of the whistleblower’s
concerns. But Mr. Smith provided OSC with documents showing that
“management knowingly and willfully violate[d]” OSHA regulations, and
showed that the investigation “was not impartial or comprehensive,” even
neglecting to interview crucial witnesses. I determined the agency’s
response was unreasonable and their investigation of other facilities
cursory. Finally, the Department of Justice is doing an independent and
impartial investigation. Mr. Smith was reprised against, and we obtained
corrective action for him. All it took for Mr. Smith to be heroic was
the determination to do his job no matter the cost. In September we will
be awarding him our Public Servant Award.
Many other important disclosures were made
in the last year by Whistleblowers on security at our airports or on our
borders, or the medical care for our veterans. Recently, OSC obtained a
stay of a transfer of a DEA agent who blew the whistle on illegal
interrogation practices. These and many other actions taken on behalf of
Whistleblowers have positively affected safety and legality of agency
behavior.
Guts is the middle name of those heroes who volunteer
for our Reserve and National Guard. Texas boasts a large contingent of
reserve and guard on duty in Iraq. My own son is a Marine in his third
tour in Iraq right now. So I feel a special mission in protecting these
brave volunteers by upholding the Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA, by getting them their jobs and
benefits back and combating discrimination because of their service in
our armed forces. OSC splits jurisdiction over federal sector cases with
the Department of Labor as part of a three-year demonstration project.
In a recent case, the Air Force Academy denied a job to
a serviceman who was the unanimous number one choice of the selection
panel for an important faculty position. Amazingly, they decided that
their quota for civilian faculty members took precedence and he was
denied the job – solely because he was career military. OSC obtained a
settlement with the Academy, he was appointed to the job effective this
week.
In another case, a chemist, who previously worked in
the great state of Texas, was denied promotion because she was absent
from her agency due to military service and pregnancy. OSC obtained full
corrective action for her: she was promoted and awarded back pay at the
higher GS level.
In many cases, we get full back pay and other
corrective action for service members who have been told after a year or
two that their case has no merit. We have obtained corrective action in
more than 25% of the cases coming to us under the pilot program I
mentioned, and we have slashed time frames for obtaining relief by more
than 200 percent.
Our Hatch Act Unit shows that it has the courage to go
after officials high and low, to ensure that our federal government is
not used to further partisanship and coerce political activity. MSPB has
handed down important decisions recently on use of e mail. MSPB granted
OSC’s appeal of an ALJ’s decision to dismiss two OSC complaints for
disciplinary action. Partisan e-mails for President Bush and Senator
Kerry were sent by federal employees while on duty and in a federal
building. The Board reversed and sent the case back for a hearing on the
merits.
MSPB recently upheld a sixty-day suspension for a
federal employee who sent an e mail to over 300 individuals, including
co-workers, while on duty in a federal building, announcing a
re-election party for a congressman. The Judge found the e-mail was
“obviously directed toward the success of a re-election campaign.”
In a significant victory, the Board upheld the removal
of an attorney in the Small Business Administration, and a Green party
officer, for engaging for three years in partisan political activity
while on duty, including over 100 e-mails through his government
computer directed at the success of the Green Party, including
fundraising, outreach and recruitment, drafts of party platforms, and
the planning of a state-wide party convention.
Another ordinary hero was a whistleblower
who reported a Presidential appointee for illegal activity, abuse of
authority, and Hatch Act violations and was demoted and transferred for
her courage. We just obtained corrective action for this brave
whistleblower, and USDA’s rural development director for the state of
Alaska, a presidential Schedule C appointee, was forced to resign for
demanding that the Whistleblower fill out fraudulent travel vouchers and
do his outside political work on the job.
This case was a hybrid of Hatch Act and our
Investigation and Prosecution Division. Time does not permit me to tell
you the many stories of courage and the many examples of our fine
attorneys, personnelists and investigators in our screening unit and
prosecution division obtaining corrective and disciplinary action, but
you can read about them on our website at www.osc.gov. OSC has slashed
processing times by three hundred percent, and today OSC is backlog
free, making it possible to provide justice for all filers. We not only
get results at OSC, but we publish those results and educate the federal
workforce about their rights and the courage of their fellows.
We don’t need superheroes, but ordinary ones. Real
Americans have done heroic things throughout history whether it is the
firemen and policemen in New York on 9-11, or the heroes who braved
terrible circumstances in New Orleans in rescuing Katrina victims, or
the GS-11 next to you who reports wrongdoing. To me, they’re all
“incroybles” because they restore our faith in government and ourselves.
Kipling’s poem ends with this:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth
of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And-which is more-you'll
be a Man, my son!
If we can fill those unforgiving minutes of
work in our federal government with sixty seconds of merit, if we can
run the distance that our jobs require and honor, not reject, courageous
whistleblowers who light the way for greater integrity, if we can hold
up our heads and rise above partisanship on the job and protect the
rights of our returning service members, then we too will be ordinary
heroes.
Thank you.
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