Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, as a long-time advocate for whistleblowers, wrote to the Department of Veterans Affairs twice about VA retaliation against Brandon Coleman for pointing out poor treatment of suicidal veterans where he worked in Arizona.   Grassley made the following comment on the announcement of a settlement with Coleman and the VA, through the Office of Special Counsel, that will restore Coleman in a VA position.  Coleman had been on administrative leave for more than a year and prevented from running an addiction treatment program for veterans.

“Brandon Coleman is like many whistleblowers I’ve seen.  All these employees want is to fix what’s broken at their agencies so they can do their jobs.   They are patriots.  In this case, Brandon Coleman is getting back to helping veterans.  That’s good news for veterans and the taxpayers, but he shouldn’t have had to go through an ordeal of retaliation, including allegations of improper access of his medical records, which are now under investigation by the Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights.  Unfortunately, he’s not alone.  The VA and other agencies have a track record of treating whistleblowers badly.  Reports have indicated that the VA settles with whistleblowers using language that bars whistleblowers from making any negative comments to Congress about the facts behind the settlement – facts that Congress may need to know about.  This flies in the face of free speech and transparency.  The VA has a long way to go in showing that it will treat whistleblowers with respect.  The Office of Special Counsel and the Government Accountability Project deserve credit for doing an outstanding job for Brandon Coleman and many other whistleblowers at the VA and other agencies.  I wish Brandon all the best.

“On a related issue, the VA stands out among agencies in its use of paid administrative leave, where employees are paid and don’t come to work.  Agencies sometimes use paid administrative leave to sideline whistleblowers or avoid making management decisions.  Accurate, complete records of paid administrative leave are hard to elicit from the VA.  The committee of jurisdiction passed the bill I led in drafting to better define administrative leave and limit excessive leave at taxpayer expense.  I’m continuing to work on getting it enacted into law.”

Grassley’s letters to the VA on Coleman are available here and here.  

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