Follow the Rules Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6186) to amend title 5, United States Code, to extend certain protections against prohibited personnel practices, and for other purposes.

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H.R. 6186, the Follow the Rules Act, introduced by Representative Sean Duffy. This legislation reiterates Congress' intent that whistleblower protections be broadly construed.

Whistleblowers are the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal Government. We should do all we can to protect them. Under the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, a whistleblower is protected for disclosing violations of laws, rules, or regulations; yet a recent opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit would limit the scope of those protections. The Federal Circuit held that Federal employees are not protected if they refuse to violate a rule or a regulation. This would mean whistleblowers could be ordered to violate the same rule or regulation whose violation they blew the whistle on. If they refuse, they could be retaliated against, such as being demoted or even fired.

In the case heard by the Federal Circuit, Dr. Timothy Allen Rainey, a contracting officer at the Department of State, was ordered to tell a contractor to rehire a terminated subcontractor. Dr. Rainey refused on the grounds it would violate the Federal Acquisition Regulation--governmentwide contracting standards that have been in place for over 30 years. These contracting standards are exactly the sort of thing the Oversight and Government Reform Committee oversees to ensure compliance. In return for his objections, Dr. Rainey was stripped of his duties as a contracting officer and was given a negative performance rating. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that, because Dr. Rainey was refusing to obey an order that would require him to violate a regulation and not a law, he could not be shielded by the Whistleblower Protection Act.

We should protect Federal workers who act in good faith to abide by the rules of their agencies. They shouldn't have to choose between disobeying the order of a supervisor and being disciplined for violating an agency's rules or regulations.

While nearly all Federal laws have implementing regulations, not all regulations have a detailed basis in law. Furthermore, agencies do not always train their employees to know which regulations are based in law. This means Federal workers may have to conduct extensive legal research before deciding on the safest course of action, in this case, whether to apply the very standards their own agencies put into place.

Whether the issue is regulations aimed against whistleblowers or whistleblowers acting to uphold other regulations, the issue is the same: we should incentivize and protect Federal employees for acting as principled civil servants. The Follow the Rules Act would send a clear, consistent message that Federal employees are expected to uphold standards of good government. It would ensure Federal workers are protected if they refuse to obey an order that would require them to violate even just a rule or a regulation.

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of the bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

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