Which U.S. Senator Blocked the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act?

Let's bang the drum once again to promote truth, transparency and integrity. In this rendition, let's collectively work to expose the Congressional coward, that is the United States Senator, who blocked the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. In the process, Senator “Coward” took a stand against our prized virtues while defending the monied interests of corporate elitism.

Did you just vomit thinking that our hallowed halls upon Capitol Hill are populated with such louts? Why haven't others on Capitol Hill raised a hue and cry? Fellow cowards? You think? Getting their bread “buttered” in the process? You think? What happened to our country?

High five and major kudos once again to the Project on Government Oversight for bringing attention to this travesty. Let's call out the cowards and demand the answer as to whom blocked this act. How so? Let's navigate as POGO writes,

Help Identify the Senator Who Placed a Secret Hold on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act

WNYC's On the Media and our partners at the Government Accountability Project (GAP) are spearheading an effort to identify the senator who torpedoed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) with a secret hold.

As you may recall, the WPEA—the product of a twelve-year effort to secure credible protections for federal whistleblowers—failed to reach the president's desk despite being passed unanimously in both chambers of Congress within a two-week period.

So what happened? After the House passed a watered-down version of the bill that had been passed unanimously in the Senate earlier in December, one senator placed a secret hold on the bill and promptly skipped town as the sun set on the 111th Congress.

POGO and others have called for the anonymous senator to come forward and own up to the hold. Now you can help flush the culprit out of the shadows by going here and asking your senators whether the hold was their doing. So far, 25 senators have been contacted. Seven have denied placing the hold.

When an individual acts in such a cowardly fashion and NOBODY else calls him out does that rise to the level of “aiding and abetting”? I think so. Those who would “aid and abet” an act of cowardice could also be defined as cowards. How do we confront such a crowd? WNYC provides

Tips for Tracking Down Anonymous Holds,

Tom Devine, Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project is no stranger to confronting Senators. So, to help us with On the Media's “Blow the Whistle” project, he has given us a list of tactics that GAP uses to help callers get the answers when they want when calling their Senators.

1. Call the main number for each Senator and say “in response to a public radio program we're checking to see if that office put a hold on S. 372, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, and would like to speak with the relevant staffer who worked on the bill.”

2. If there is any active or passive resistance (i.e., staffer is unavailable, etc.), we explain that unless we can receive a “no” answer to the question, we will report that senator's non-response as a passive admission by refusing to deny the hold.

3. We're persistent! We keep trying to reach the staffer until you connect. Sometimes it takes a few days, but with reminders that we don't want to unfairly hold them responsible for killing the taxpayer reform merely due to a communications gap, sooner or later we always talk to each other.

4. Once there's a dialogue with the right staffer, we just ask directly. Sometimes they'll say they didn't do it, but it's possible their boss did without telling them. The fallback to that or any other non-answers is to ask that they check and pin it down, so we don't have to report that the Senator's office takes the position it doesn't know whether he placed a hold on the bill and will not find out.

5.  When an office confesses, I make it a point not to be judgmental or aggressive, but to ask what was the context and reasoning for the decision. The staffer may want to make the boss look better. In the process of explaining we can learn more about who else was involved and what went on behind closed doors.

Do you believe our country has sunk to such depths? What happened to our statesmen and leaders? Well, time to teach this crowd a lesson. That lesson is, “you work for us. Your BOSS wants an answer.” We plan on getting it and exposing ALL those who fail to respond.

“Do you hear me?”

“Are you listening?”

“Do I need to say it a little louder?” “YOUR BOSS, the AMERICAN PEOPLE, WANTS AN ANSWER!!”

“Truth, transparency, and integrity. Which of those words don't you understand?”

“Now squeal!!!”

Larry Doyle

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I have no affiliation or business interest with any entity referenced in this commentary. The opinions expressed are my own and not those of Greenwich Investment Management. As President of Greenwich Investment Management, an SEC regulated privately held registered investment adviser, I am merely a proponent of real transparency within our markets so that investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.