New York Times: Investigator Issues Sharp Criticism of V.A. Response to Allegations About Care
Today

Summary: Yesterday, Carolyn Lerner, head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), sent a “blistering” letter to President Obama regarding how the Department of Veterans Affairs has failed to adequately investigate whistleblower concerns over delayed care for patients.

OSC, the federal agency charged with protecting whistleblowers and investigating their disclosures, is currently “reviewing more than 50 pending complaints from Veterans Affairs workers alleging harm to patient safety or health.” Twenty-nine of these have already been relayed to the VA for further investigation, an amount that constitutes more than one-quarter of all pending cases OSC has referred across the government. There are also 60 whistleblower reprisal cases being investigated by OSC related to this ongoing scandal.

In response, Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Sloan Gibson welcomed the letter, expressing how he is “deeply disappointed not only in the substantiation of allegations raised by whistleblowers, but also in the failures within VA to take whistleblower complaints seriously.”

In related news, a whistleblower from a Phoenix VA center is alleging that records of dead veterans were changed to hide how many died while waiting for care. Some records were reportedly changed in recent weeks while the scandal unfolded.

Key Quote: In the letter, Carolyn N. Lerner, head of the Office of Special Counsel, asserted that Veterans Affairs officials consistently had used a “harmless error” defense to dismiss as trivial numerous claims of shoddy patient care or long waiting times made by department employees in recent years. Ms. Lerner criticized the department, along with its Office of the Medical Inspector, for a longstanding pattern of refusing to use whistle-blower complaints to fix serious medical problems. 

Related Articles: Politico, Associated Press

The Hill: NSA Critics Hail Votes as Game-Changers
June 22, 2014

Summary: Some critics of the NSA surveillance programs are praising two amendments passed by the House of Representatives last week, stating that the votes signal an increasing chance to rein in the growing security state. The amendments were attached to the 2015 Defense Appropriations Bill. The first would “require the NSA to obtain a warrant to search for information about people in the U.S. when searching collections of communications involving foreigners,” while the second “would keep the NSA from working with the Commerce Department’s digital security agency to create faulty cryptography standards.”

In related news, the Obama administration recently announced the NSA metadata program has been extended for three additional months, until September 12.

ABA Journal: Fired Public Defender Files Whistleblower Suit Against his Former Employer
Yesterday

Summary: A former assistant public defender in Georgia has filed a whistleblower complaint stemming from his termination last fall, claiming that he was fired in retaliation for complaining about improper working conditions and a “huge caseload.”

 

 

Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.