Nomination Objection

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I am taking this opportunity to notice my objection to the Senate proceeding to the nomination of Janine Anne Davidson of Virginia to be Under Secretary of the Navy. My concern is not with Ms. Davidson's nomination, per se, but with a larger matter concerning the Navy and its policies and practices with regard to retaliation against whistleblowers.

On October 21, 2015, the Washington Post reported that the Navy plans to promote RDML Brian L. Losey, even though the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, OIG, has found on multiple occasions that he retaliated against perceived whistleblowers in response to whistleblower complaints and, in some cases, simply the belief that such complaints had been made. According to the article, the OIG has reported that Rear Admiral Losey went so far as to make a list of suspected whistleblowers and intentionally target them for discipline, demotion, and internal investigation. In several instances, the OIG recommended personnel action be taken against Rear Admiral Losey for these actions. However, the Navy appears poised to ignore those findings and promote Rear Admiral Losey.

On November 13, 2015, I joined with seven other Senators, both Democrats and Republicans, in a request to Jon T. Rymer, the inspector general for the Department of Defense, for the OIG investigation reports related to Rear Admiral Losey's conduct. Those reports were provided to me and to the other Senators signing the November 13 letter just 3 days ago, on December 15, 2015, in redacted form.

Until I have had an opportunity to thoroughly review the inspector general's findings related to Rear Admiral Losey and until I have received assurances from the Navy that it will address those findings specifically and has policies in place to sanction retaliation against whistleblowers more broadly, I will object to the Senate proceeding with the Davidson nomination.

(At the request of Mr. Lee, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

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