Mr. President,
Today, I come to the Senate to speak about my ongoing Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) oversight regardingthe intentional misclassification of law enforcement positions.
As my colleagues know, I’ve done a lot of ATF oversight work dating back more than a decade.
The Obama-Biden administration cover-up in Fast and Furious is just one example.
But, today, we don’t need to go back to 2011.
Today, we’ll start in January 2018.
According to emails provided to me by ATF whistleblowers, ATF leadership was notified in January 2018 that some non-law enforcement positions were misclassified as law enforcement.
That misclassification cost taxpayers tens-of-millions of dollars, since law enforcement gets paid more than non-law enforcement positions.
Specifically, in ATF emails from January and June 2018, whistleblowers alerted ATF officials that positions in the Human Resources Division were misclassified.
The positions were classified as law enforcement but performed no law enforcement duties.
This is an example of why we need to pay more attention to the information that comes from the patriotic people we call whistleblowers.
Accordingly, they were misclassified in violation of the law.
That’s what oversight by Congress is all about – to make sure that the executive branch faithfully executes the laws according to the Constitution.
Emails from July 2019 show the whistleblowers contacted the Justice Management Division at Justice Department headquarters about these problems.
The whistleblowers informed the Justice Management Division that they notified ATF management of the misclassified positions, and that ATF hadn’t corrected the illegal conduct.
Based on what whistleblowers have told my office, the Justice Department didn’tbother to get back to them.
Then, in July 2019, one whistleblower reported the matter to the Office of Special Counsel and the other whistleblower made their report to that same office in April 2020.
After the second whistleblower reported ATF’s misconduct to the Office of Special Counsel, they opened the claim for investigation in May 2020.
On June 9, 2020, the Office of Special Counsel determined there was a substantial likelihood both whistleblowers’ allegations disclosed violations of law, rule or regulation; a gross waste of funds; and gross mismanagement.
Once again, emphasizing there was tens-of-millions of dollars wasted here.
The Office of Special Counsel referred the matter to the Attorney General for investigation.
Then, on November 2, 2020, the Office of Personnel Management partially suspended ATF’s position classification authority.
That office did so after preliminary findings from their investigation revealed that certain ATF non-law enforcement positions were misclassified in violation of statute and regulations.
On March 1, 2021, the Office of Personnel Management issued their final report substantiating the whistleblowers’ claims and found, “ATF leadership had acted outside of merit system principles and demonstrated disregard for the rule of law and regulations.”
This illegal scheme came to light because of brave whistleblowers.
The ATF whistleblowers were right.
All those government bureaucrats should’ve listened to them from the beginning;instead,ATF rudely ignored their evidence.
So, I wrote to Attorney General Garland and then Acting ATF Director Richardson concerning these findings on October 6, 2021.
I asked for copies of the final Office of Personnel Management report and an accounting of how much taxpayer dollars were wasted due to ATF’s illegal misconduct.
I also asked how long ATF unlawfully misclassified positions, and the total number of misclassified positions within all of ATF.
On December 15, 2021, the Justice Department responded that it couldn’t provide answers because of various ongoing investigations.
How tired I am of hearing from our federal law enforcement agencies that they can’t comment to congressional oversight investigations because of “ongoing investigations.”
It’s an excuse to avoid what they promise us every time they come before Congress that they’ll answer our questions.
Going on six months later, on April 7, 2022, the Justice Department provided me with a redacted copy of their investigative report, which they submitted to the Office of Special Counsel on March 29, 2022.
But they still failed to fully answer all of my questions.
Let me remind the Executive Branch yet again: the United States Congress maintains independent constitutional authority to investigate the federal government irrespective of any ongoing federal investigation.
After the conclusion of the investigations, on May 2, 2023, the Office of Special Counsel notified President Biden that the “whistleblowers’ allegations were wholly substantiated.”
That investigation found,“substantial waste, mismanagement and unlawful employment practices at the ATF.”
It also found, “For years, the agency intentionally misclassified jobs as law enforcement and paid these employees benefits to which they were not entitled.”
The Office of Special Counsel also found that ATF’s illegal scheme wasted at least 20 million taxpayer dollars.
When is the government going to learn that it needs to listen to whistleblowers instead of treating them like skunks at a picnic?
ATF could’ve saved the taxpayers at least 20 million dollars if they would’ve listened to these brave whistleblowers.
Then, on November 6, 2023, the Office of Personnel Management wrote to ATF and the Justice Department.
Incredibly, that letter restored ATF’s position classification authority effective immediately, even though ATF was unable to provide the necessary evidence to support that its updated position classifications were proper and within the law.
This restoration doesn’t bring the matter to a close.
On January 30of this year, my colleague from Iowa, Senator Ernst, and I wrote to the Justice Department and ATF.
In that letter, we noted that ATF's Internal Affairs Division had been investigating the illegal scheme.
We asked for answers and findings relating to that investigation.
Those government employees who were notified of the illegal misconduct and did nothing to investigate or stop it must be held accountable.
Because in this town, if heads don’t roll, nothing changes.
That applies the same, of course, to those who participated in the scheme.
No one is above the law. But, as of right now, because of ATF’s failure to give any update on the internal investigation, all Congress knows is that nobody’s been held accountable.
It’s very clearly hypocritical of the Biden administration’s ATF to revoke the licenses of firearms sellers for innocent clerical errors but refuse to hold its own employees accountable for an illegal misclassification scheme.
Finally, in our January 2024 letter, we also noted that whistleblowers alleged to us that the ATF had been illegally misclassifying positions for more than the five-year period reviewed by the Office of Personnel Management.
The Office of Special Counsel noted in their letter to President Biden the evidence suggests ATF engaged in this illegal activity since at least 2003 to 2004.
The whistleblowers also alleged to us that hundreds of employees across all ATF Field Divisions and Offices occupied positions they identified as misclassified.
Accordingly, if true, the cost to taxpayers for these misclassifications is likely significantly higher than 20 million dollars.
And, if true, the review done by the Office of Personnel Management was too narrow.
Clearly, the Justice Department and ATF have a lot of explaining to do.
The taxpayers deserve to know how much of their money ATF wasted. The taxpayers deserve to know who was held accountable and how. If nobody was held accountable, why not?
The entire matter is an example of the important role whistleblowers play in shining light on government waste, fraud and abuse.
Without the continued persistence of these brave whistleblowers to report wrongdoing, ATF’s illegal misclassification scheme, substantial waste of taxpayer funds and gross mismanagement would’ve likely continued.
I commend the grit of these whistleblowers.
My and Senator Ernst’s oversight of this matter will continue.
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