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Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I thank Senator Cornyn for his strong remarks in support of honest elections. I come to the floor for a different reason. But in support of what Senator Cornyn said, I want people to know that I have spoken on this issue already and I am not going to speak again, but I support and am a cosponsor of the SAVE America Act. Sunshine Week

Mr. President, in eighth grade civics and high school government classes, people studying the Congress and article I of the Constitution probably go away from that study with a view that Congress only passes legislation and appropriates money.

I wish they spent as much time on the constitutional responsibility of the Congress to be a check on the executive branch of government. I call that oversight; in schools, it is probably called other terms. I come to the floor today to emphasize this because this is the 21st anniversary of Sunshine Week.

Sunshine Week continues to be a crucial reminder of the importance of open government and transparency. Sunshine Week emphasizes the checks and balances of government. There are 535 Members of Congress that have the responsibility of not only passing laws but to see that the President faithfully executes those laws according to congressional intent and when the President doesn't do that, to call a President out on that point of view. It is too bad we only use 1 week a year out of 52 to emphasize that. But Sunshine Week emphasizes something that is pretty simple: The public's business ought to be public.

It also emphasizes another thing: that transparency and accountability are important checks on the Federal Government. It reminds bureaucrats that they ultimately work for and answer to ``we the people.''

One transparency tool that I value is the Freedom of Information Act. That law requires government to proactively make materials public and also to respond to our requests and the public's requests for information.

After all, if it doesn't deal with national security and people's privacy, the public's business ought to be public. Last year, I held a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing highlighting how important this law is to government transparency, and congressional oversight is a part of my constitutional duty to protect taxpayers and to hold government accountable to the American people. That also applies to 534 other Members of Congress.

Now, a very important way to make this role of checks and balances work is listening to whistleblowers. Whistleblowers play a very critical role in this duty of congressional oversight. Whistleblowers are, for the most part, in the executive branch of government.

They know what is being done according to the law and money being spent appropriately. They see something wrong, they tell higher-ups in their Agency about it. Sometimes that doesn't happen, or they don't get the actions that they think is appropriate to make sure the law is followed. So then these whistleblowers end up coming to those of us in Congress.

Whistleblowers are patriots and our most powerful tool in rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse--and, of course, misconduct, including the weaponization of our government.

Too often, whistleblowers are treated like skunks at a picnic in the Agencies they work in when they ought to be commended for their bravery. It ought to be easier, not harder, for whistleblowers to report misconduct, particularly to the Congress. Whistleblowers must be protected from retaliation and fully informed of their rights under the laws we have passed protecting whistleblowers.

That is why this Congress, I have introduced legislation to extend the anti-gag provision to cover Federal employees of executive Agency government corporations. This anti-gag provision requires government nondisclosure policies and similar agreements to inform employees that they can blow the whistle to Congress and to the Agencies' inspectors general.

I have also introduced bipartisan legislation clarifying that duty speech whistleblowers have the same burdens of proof as other Federal employees to prove retaliation.

I have worked with the Trump administration to fix the wrongs of the Biden administration for whistleblowers across multiple Federal Agencies. I have urged Secretary Bessent to remedy the Biden-era retaliation against IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler. Thanks to the Trump administration--because this wouldn't have happened without Trump's being reelected--in March of 2025, these whistleblowers were promoted to leadership positions. Of course, let me emphasize, they shouldn't have been fired in the first place. These are two examples of whistleblowers being treated like skunks at a picnic.

I have also worked with the Trump Department of Homeland Security to secure promotions for Customs and Border Patrol whistleblowers Mark Jones, Mike Taylor, and Fred Wynn in May of 2025. These men faced severe retaliation during the Biden administration.

In August of last year, I assisted 10 FBI whistleblowers with their compensation agreements with the FBI. These whistleblowers were subject to demotions, security clearance suspensions, and other retaliation for reporting misconduct at the Biden Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Earlier this year, I worked with the Trump administration to secure an Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms whistleblower new employment and a financial agreement. He, like others, was severely retaliated against by the Biden Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms Agency.

Thanks to whistleblowers, we know that partisan FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors created and advanced the partisan investigation known as Arctic Frost. Arctic Frost was a vehicle to improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus. Subpoenas went out for about 400 conservative and Republican organizations and individuals.

Jack Smith and the FBI secretly obtained tolling data for Republican Members of Congress. Jack Smith and his team issued at least 197 subpoenas targeting these 400 individuals and entities.

By the way, all of these entities and individuals were Republican.

Jack Smith set out--almost the day after Trump announced he was going to seek reelection--to put President Trump in prison, and that all went on during the Biden administration.

I have launched a new Arctic Frost website that outlines my investigations and the thousands of pages of records that I have made public. I would like to note to everybody: A majority of these records were made public through me from whistleblowers, not the government Agency itself, which once again emphasized that if you want the public's business to be public, if you want transparency to bring accountability, you will see the very important role that whistleblowers play in government accountability.

In November last year, I also made public records showing that partisan officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI interfered with investigations into alleged wrongdoing by the Clinton campaign. Despite records showing that FBI agents had evidence the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee intentionally concealed payments that targeted then-Candidate Trump--meaning during his first campaign--Department of Justice officials Richard Pilger and J.P. Cooney declined to investigate. Pilger and Cooney were also at the center of green-lighting Arctic Frost and Jack Smith's elector case against President Trump.

Now, it happens that political infection isn't just a Department of Justice and FBI problem. In November 2024, I wrote to FEMA after reports alleged Agency workers instructed a team responding to hurricane survivors to avoid homes with yard signs showing support for President Trump. Reportedly, at least 20 homes in Florida weren't given opportunities for FEMA assistance. In response to my oversight requests, the Trump FEMA told my office it had fired three employees who had engaged in this type of misconduct for political purposes, which was presumably to hurt President Trump's election efforts.

Through my oversight, I have also exposed flaws in the Health and Human Services program called the National Human Trafficking Hotline. I have also pressed the State Department on then-Secretary Kerry's obstruction of arrests of Iranian terrorists. Third, I have sought to obtain information from multiple Agencies on the Afghan evacuees responsible for the horrific shooting of two servicemembers from the West Virginia National Guard.

The Federal Government isn't the only bad actor that whistleblowers provided sunlight on. Last Congress, the Simon Wiesenthal Center disclosed to my office that Credit Suisse obstructed an internal investigation of the bank's Nazi-linked accounts. In February 2026, I held a bipartisan Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on this very matter. It revealed that Credit Suisse had maintained at least 890 accounts linked to Nazi officials. My hearing also revealed that UBS--a bank that has since acquired Credit Suisse--has begun similar obstructive conduct.

So, here, I get to the end of my remarks.

As my examples show, whistleblowers are the key to transparency. Sunshine Week, which we are celebrating this week, is an opportunity for the country to highlight the righteous fight for transparency in government.

Again, I repeat: The public's business ought to be public. The transparency of everything that goes on in government brings accountability.

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