Ron’s working to protect whistleblowers who are helping veterans, but Harry Reid just blocked his bill for political reasons. As Ron said, “Rather than protect our nation’s veterans, Senator Reid prefers to play election-year politics, using the finest among us as a political football.”
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson’s push to pass a bill to protect federal whistleblowers from retaliation hit a roadblock Thursday when Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blocked the measure.
The bill, the Dr. Christopher Kirkpatrick Whistleblower Protection Act of 2015, was named after a 38-year-old psychologist who committed suicide after being fired from the troubled Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Kirkpatrick had raised concerns about patients’ medications.
The Homeland Security & Government Affairs committee, which Johnson chairs, passed the bill with unanimous bipartisan support. Johnson sought unanimous consent for the bill from the full Senate, when Reid raised an objection, halting progress. The Senate is now in recess until September.
“Rather than protect our nation’s veterans, Senator Reid prefers to play election-year politics, using the finest among us as a political football,” Johnson, the the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
“It’s appalling to me that Senator Harry Reid would block this common sense bill when veterans’ lives hang in the balance,” Johnson, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
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“It’s appalling to me that Senator Harry Reid would block this common sense bill when veterans’ lives hang in the balance,” Johnson said. “The finest among us — and the memory of Dr. Kirkpatrick — deserve better.”