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S. Hrg. 114–447 

BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON RETALIATION: 

ACCOUNTS OF CURRENT AND FORMER FEDERAL 

AGENCY WHISTLEBLOWERS 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON 

HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JUNE 11, 2015 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov/ 

Printed for the use of the 

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

( 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin Chairman 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

ROB PORTMAN, Ohio 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

JONI ERNST, Iowa 

BEN SASSE, Nebraska 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

GARY C. PETERS, Michigan 

KEITH B. ASHDOWN, Staff Director 

DAVID N. BREWER, Chief Investigative Counsel 

COURTNEY J. ALLEN, Counsel 

EMILY M. MARTIN, Counsel 

BRIAN M. DOWNEY, Senior Investigator 

MICHAEL LUEPTOW, Investigative Counsel 

GABRIELLE A. BATKIN. Minority Staff Director 

JOHN P. KILVINGTON, Minority Deputy Staff Director 

TROY H. CRIBB, Minority Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs 

KATHERINE C. SYBENGA, Minority Senior Counsel 

REBECCA S. MADDOX, Minority Counsel 

BRIAN TURBYFILL, Minority Senior Professional Staff Member 

LAURA W. KILBRIDE, Chief Clerk 

LAUREN M. CORCORAN, Hearing Clerk 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Opening statements: Page 

Senator Johnson ............................................................................................... 1 

Senator Carper ................................................................................................. 2 

Senator Ernst .................................................................................................... 21 

Senator Portman .............................................................................................. 23 

Prepared statements: 

Senator Johnson ............................................................................................... 33 

Senator Carper ................................................................................................. 35 

WITNESSES 

THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2015 

Lieutenant Colonel Jason Luke Amerine, United States Army .......................... 5 

Taylor Johnson, Senior Special Agent, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security ..................................................................................................................... 7 

Michael Keegan, Former Associate Commissioner for Facilities and Supply 

Management, U.S. Social Security Administration ........................................... 9 

Jose R. Ducos-Bello, Chief Officer, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. 

Department of Homeland Security ..................................................................... 11 

Thomas M. Devine, Legal Director, Government Accountability Project ........... 14 

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WITNESSES

Amerine, Lieutenant Colonel Jason Luke: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 5 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 37 

Devine, Thomas M.: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 14 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 67 

Ducos-Bello, Jose R.: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 11 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 59 

Johnson, Taylor: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 7 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 40 

Keegan, Michael: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 9 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 43 

APPENDIX 

Prepared statement for the Record from National Treasury Employees Union 87 

Response to post-hearing questions submitted for the Record from Mr. Devine 90 

(1) 

BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON RETALIATION: 

ACCOUNTS OF CURRENT AND FORMER 

FEDERAL AGENCY WHISTLEBLOWERS 

THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2015 

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY

AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, 

Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:37 a.m., in room 

SD–342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Ron Johnson, Chairman of the Committee, presiding. 

Present: Senators Johnson, Portman, Ayotte, Ernst, Sasse, Carper, McCaskill, and Booker. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN JOHNSON 

Chairman JOHNSON. This hearing will come to order. 

Good morning, everybody. I want to welcome our witnesses, say 

how much I appreciate your thoughtful testimony. I have read it 

all. There are some pretty compelling stories. This is, from my 

standpoint, a very important hearing. 

As I have looked back at the laws written and designed to protect people that have the courage to come forward within government to blow the whistle, to tell the truth, to highlight problems 

of waste and abuse and corruption and potential criminal activity 

within departments and agencies, we have a number of laws and 

they date back quite a few years. With Mr. Devine’s testimony, I 

added a new one. I did not realize it went back as far as 1912 with 

the Lloyd-LaFollette Act, followed by the Civil Service Reform Act 

of 1978, then the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) of 1989, and 

then the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) of 

2012. And yet, we still have problems. 

My own experience with this, having come to government pretty 

late in life, started really with the events with the Secret Service 

in Cartagena, and then as we started looking at the reports being 

issued and written by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the 

fact that there was retaliation, or certainly evidence of retaliation 

against members of that inspection team for being forthright. 

And then followed up just recently with our border security hearings. We had a Customs and Border Protection Agent (CBP), Chris 

Cabrera, testify before this Committee contradicting some of the information from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but 

also testifying under oath, as all of you will be doing here today. 

A couple months later he testified on March 17, 2015. A few 
2 

months later, right before another hearing on May 13, 2015, this 

Committee was made aware that Agent Cabrera was being scheduled for a hearing in front of the Internal Affairs. 

Now, I raised the issue with then, still, Deputy Chief of U.S. Border Patrol Ron Botello and I stated, because of my Lutheran background, I will put the best construction on things, and I was assuming that that hearing with Internal Affairs was all about being 

concerned about what he was bringing to the table and wanting to 

correct any errors within the Customs and Border Protection Agency. I am not so sure that was the case. Fortunately, because we 

highlighted it in our hearing, that Internal Affairs hearing with 

Mr. Cabrera was canceled that same day rather abruptly. So, I 

have a certain sense that maybe that was not so innocent, they 

really had something else in mind with that hearing. 

So, these issues are very serious. As a result, my office has set 

up a website, whistleblower@RonJohnson.senate.gov. We have already had over 130 whistleblowers throughout the government contact our office, and what we have here today are four of the individuals that did contact our office. And, I am also mindful through Mr. 

Devine’s testimony that probably the greatest risk any whistleblower incurs is when they contact Congress. It sounds like that is 

where the greatest retaliation can occur. 

So, again, I want to thank all the witnesses for coming here. The 

purpose of this hearing is not to adjudicate the issues you have 

raised. That will occur through a process, a procedure. The purpose 

of this hearing is to highlight so the American people understand 

and so that this Committee understands that once an individual 

steps forward and puts their career at risk, exposes themselves to 

the type of retaliation that is, unfortunately, all too common, we 

want to hear what type of retaliation is inflicted on individuals and 

what form of retaliation—or, what forms retaliation takes. So, that 

is really the purpose of this hearing. 

I do want to caution people, there may be some areas where 

some testimony might come close to revealing classified information or law enforcement sensitive. I want to make sure we do not 

breach those restrictions. 

But, with that, again, I want to welcome all of our witnesses. I 

appreciate your courage. I appreciate the courage of anybody willing to step forward and risk that kind of retaliation, and I am looking forward to hearing your testimony and your answers to our 

questions. 

With that, Senator Carper. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CARPER 

Senator CARPER. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. 

It is a pleasure to meet all of you and to welcome you here today. 

Thank you for your service in different arenas, and particularly 

those of you who serve in uniform and who have served in the uniform of our country in the past. 

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your efforts to highlight the retaliation that too many of our Federal employees have faced over the 

years, and even today, when they have blown the whistle on waste, 

blown the whistle on fraud and abuse and misbehavior within their 

agencies. You have heard me often talk about how invaluable the 
3 

work is of the Inspector Generals (IGs) across our government, the 

Government Accountability Office (GAO) and others are to this 

Committee as we work together to get better results for less money 

and reduce our Federal debt—continue to reduce our Federal debt. 

I am reminded today that many times, it is actually Federal employees and contractors within the government that first draw attention to issues or wrongdoings in their agencies. They are just as 

vital a part of our team as we work together to make this government of ours even better. Without people who are willing to stand 

up and say something is wrong when they see that it is wrong, it 

would be much harder to root out waste, root out fraud and abuse. 

And, in order to encourage people to stand up, we need to ensure 

that when they do, they will not be punished for doing so. 

I have been a longtime proponent of strengthening agency oversight by hearing from and protecting Federal whistleblowers. A few 

years ago, a whistleblower from the Dover Air Force Base within 

my State contacted my Dover office with information about mismanagement at the base mortuary, the Air Force mortuary, and actually the mortuary for our country, where we bring home the remains of our fallen heroes. 

My office was able to draw attention to both of these issues and 

the retaliation that the whistleblower in fact, were facing. At the 

end of the day, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and their investigation led to disciplinary action not against the whistleblowers, 

but against several people in leadership positions at the base within the mortuary itself, their top officer at the mortuary, a colonel, 

and the reinstatement of whistleblowers and others there. 

I was struck by the courage of these brave whistleblowers who 

risked so much to right a wrong. To be honest with you, I was also 

struck by the good work done by the Office of Special Counsel, 

whose responsibilities include looking out for the whistleblowers 

and making sure they get a fair shake, as well taxpayers. 

This Committee as a whole also has a strong history of working 

with individual whistleblowers to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. 

For example, in our last Congress, testimony from whistleblowers 

was critical to a hearing and investigation led by former Senator 

Tom Coburn, former Senator Carl Levin, into an Administrative 

Law Judge (ALJ) office in West Virginia which is responsible for 

reviewing thousands of applications for Social Security Disability 

programs. That hearing, I am sure you recall, Mr. Chairman, that 

hearing was powerful and proved critical to improving accountability and oversight into the disability program. 

These whistleblowers performed an important role in both the investigation and in the hearing. A number of women, very brave, 

courageous women, really, put everything on the line, their jobs, 

their livelihood, their lives, in order to be able to tell us the truth. 

And, without them, there would have been no investigation, there 

would have been no hearing, and the fraud the Committee shined 

a light on may have never been uncovered. 

So, I believe in whistleblowers and I am grateful for whistleblowers and think that we need to follow the Golden Rule, make 

sure they are treated like we would want to be treated if we were 

in their place. Those are just two recent examples of the critical 

role that whistleblowers can play. 
4 

I was pleased to learn in preparing for this hearing that the Office of Special Counsel has made significant progress in the last 

couple of years under the leadership of Special Counsel Carolyn 

Lerner in protecting whistleblowers. In fact, I have been told that 

favorable outcomes for whistleblowers that came to the Office of 

Special Counsel have increased since 2007, not just by 100 percent, 

not by 200 percent, not by 300 percent, not by 400 percent, not by 

500 percent, but by 600 percent. It is a huge turnaround and great 

improvement. 

That is an impressive statistic, but Congress and the Administration have additional work to do to better ensure that individuals 

feel free to speak out without fear of retaliation. In fact, we passed 

the most recent law, I think, 3 years ago, in 2012. I was happy to 

support that legislation to further strengthen the role of the Special Counsel to enable them to encourage whistleblowers to muster 

the courage, and make sure that when they do, that they are not 

retaliated against. 

Before we go any further, though, I would be remiss if I did not 

also note, as the Chairman already has, that the whistleblowers 

here today have retaliation claims that have not yet been fully substantiated and cases that are still pending. Having said that, on 

the one hand, I am glad that we have the opportunity to hear from 

all of you. We welcome you today. But, to be honest, I have some 

concerns about publicly discussing cases that involve ongoing investigations and litigation. Congress has established, as you know, 

paths for whistleblowers to obtain independent, objective reviews of 

their complaints. They can do this through the Office of Special 

Counsel, as we have done in my own State at the Dover Air Force 

Base, through the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB), the Offices of Inspector Generals, and the Federal Courts, and I hope that 

today’s hearing is not seen as interfering with or somehow prejudging the reviews relating to our witnesses’ claims that are underway today. 

I would also note that there are some perspectives on the issues 

that our witnesses raise that we will not hear today, perspectives 

that would help us better understand these issues, and I hope that 

as we continue our oversight on this subject—and I hope we will— 

we will have the opportunity to hear from the agencies involved, 

especially from the Office of Special Counsel. 

That said, I nonetheless hope that we can learn some valuable 

lessons here today about the experiences that our whistleblowers 

face, what we can do to better support them, and how we can improve both the climate and the process for whistleblowers in the future. 

Again, I appreciate the hearing, Mr. Chairman, and I am especially pleased to join you as a member of the newly created Senate 

Whistleblower Caucus. We look forward to working on these and 

other important issues. Thank you. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you, Senator Carper, and I can assure you, this is just the first step. This is the first hearing. Again, 

the purpose is to highlight the form of retaliation and what happens, and we will continue to delve into the subject with probably 

multiple hearings. 
5 

1The prepared statement of Colonel Amerine appears in the Appendix on page 37. 

With that, it is the tradition of this Committee to swear in witnesses, so if you could all rise and raise your right hand. 

Do you swear the testimony you will give before this Committee 

will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so 

help you, God? 

Colonel AMERINE. I do. 

Ms. JOHNSON. I do. 

Mr. KEEGAN. I do. 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. I do. 

Mr. DEVINE. I do. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you. Please be seated. 

Our first witness is Lieutenant Colonel Jason Amerine. Lieutenant Colonel Amerine serves in the United States Army and led a 

Special Forces Team in Afghanistan in 2001, for which he received 

a Purple Heart and Bronze Star with V Device which notes participation in acts of heroism involving conflict with an armed enemy. 

Lieutenant Colonel Amerine has raised concerns about hostage recovery efforts to Congress. 

Lieutenant Colonel Amerine. 

TESTIMONY OF LIEUTENANT COLONEL JASON LUKE 

AMERINE,1 UNITED STATES ARMY 

Colonel AMERINE. Thank you, sir. Warren Weinstein is dead. 

Colin Rutherford, Josh Boyle, Caitlin Coleman, and the child she 

bore in captivity remain hostages in Pakistan. I used every resource available, but I failed them. 

One of those resources was my constitutional right to speak to 

Members of Congress. You passed the Military Whistleblower Protection Act to ensure such access. But after I made protected disclosures to Congress, the Army suspended my clearance, removed me 

from my job, and sought to court martial me. 

As a soldier, I support and defend the Constitution of the United 

States in order to have a government in which the voices of the 

people are heard. My team had a difficult mission and I used all 

legal means available to recover the hostages. You, the Congress, 

were my last resort. But, now I am labeled a whistleblower, a term 

that is both radioactive and derogatory. I am before you because 

I did my duty, and you need to ensure all in uniform could go on 

doing their duty without fear of reprisal. 

Let me be clear. I never blame my situation on the White House. 

My loyalty is to my Commander in Chief as I support and defend 

the Constitution. Whatever I say today is not as a Republican or 

a Democrat, but as a soldier without allegiance to any political parties. 

In early 2013, my office was asked to help get Sergeant Bergdahl 

home. We audited the recovery effort and determined that the reason the effort failed for 4 years was because our Nation lacked an 

organization that can synchronize the efforts of all our government 

agencies to get our hostages home. We also realized that there 

were civilian hostages in Pakistan that nobody was trying to free, 

so we added them to our mission. 
6 

I assessed that both issues were caused by an evolutionary 

misstep that created stovepipes of our Federal agencies. The Department of Defense (DOD) faced this problem in the 1980s, as the 

Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines operated independently of one 

another, leading to the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. Transformation on that scale literally takes an Act of Congress. 

To get the hostages home, my team worked three lines of effort: 

fix the coordination of the recovery, develop a viable trade, and get 

the Taliban back to the negotiating table. My team was equipped 

to address the latter two of those tasks, but fixing the government’s 

interagency process was obviously beyond our capability. 

Recovering Sergeant Bergdahl was a critical step to carrying out 

our Commander in Chief’s objective of ending the longest war in 

American history, so I went to Congress in order to repair a dysfunctional bureaucracy to support our President. It caused the 

Army to place me under criminal investigation. 

I spoke to Representative Duncan Hunter, because he is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. I needed him to buttress our efforts with two simple messages. The hostage recovery 

effort was broken, and because of that, five hostages and a prisoner 

of war had little hope of escaping Pakistan. 

It started to work. His dialogue with the Department of Defense 

led quickly to the appointment of Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Lumpkin as a Hostage Recovery Coordinator for 

the Pentagon. This step enabled the DOD to act decisively on the 

Bergdahl trade once the Taliban sought a deal. 

But the civilian hostages were forgotten during negotiations. I 

continued to work with Representative Hunter to try to get them 

home. He set up a meeting between my office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), then the FBI formally complained to 

the Army that information I was sharing with them was classified. 

It was not. The Department of Defense Inspector General has since 

reviewed the information through my DOD IG complaint and confirmed it was not classified through a Joint Staff review. But still, 

I am under investigation. 

A terrible irony—a horrible irony—is that my security clearance 

was suspended on January 15, the day after Warren Weinstein was 

killed. We were the only effort trying to free the civilian hostages 

in Pakistan and the FBI succeeded in ending our efforts the day 

after a U.S. drone strike killed Warren Weinstein. 

Am I right? Is the system broken? Layers upon layers of bureaucracy hid the extent of our failure from our leaders. I believe 

we all failed the Commander in Chief by not getting critical advice 

to him. I believe we all failed the Secretary of Defense, who likely 

never knew the extent of interagency dysfunction. But now I am 

considered a whistleblower for raising these issues. 

There has been no transparency to the Army’s investigation of 

my protected communications with Representative Hunter. The 

Army would not even confirm why I was being investigated for the 

last 5 months until this week, and they only did that because of 

today’s hearing. 

Danielle Brian and Mandy Smithberger of the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) have been a godsend, and Representatives 
7 

1The prepared statement of Ms. Johnson appears in the Appendix on page 40. 

Duncan Hunter and Jackie Speier stood up for me where nobody 

else in Congress did until today. 

I am truly grateful for the opportunity to testify before you. The 

outpouring of support from fellow service members has been humbling. Worst for me is that the cadets I taught at West Point, now 

officers rising in the ranks, are reaching out to me to see if I am 

OK. I fear for their safety when they go to war, and now they fear 

for my safety in Washington. Is that the enduring message we 

want to send? 

And, we must not forget, Warren Weinstein is dead, while Colin 

Rutherford, Josh Boyle, Caitlin Coleman, and her child remain hostages. Who is fighting for them? 

Thank you. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel. Thank you 

for your service to this Nation. 

I will point out that Representative Hunter is in the audience 

here, so welcome, sir. 

Our next witness is Ms. Taylor Johnson. Ms. Johnson is a Senior 

Special Agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a component under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Special Agent Johnson has raised concerns about national security and 

criminal risks in the EB–5 program to her management and to the 

DHS Office of Inspector General. Ms. Johnson. 

TESTIMONY OF TAYLOR JOHNSON,1 SENIOR SPECIAL AGENT, 

HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS, U.S. IMMIGRATION 

AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY 

Ms. JOHNSON. Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Carper, and 

distinguished Members of the Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to speak before you guys today surrounding the issues and 

obstacles with whistleblowing. 

I am a Special Agent. I have been with HSI for about 11 years. 

I have been responsible for investigating large transnational organized crime groups involved in money laundering, narcotics, and 

bulk cash smuggling. I will not bore the Committee with any 

awards or commendations, although I have received some of the 

highest honors of our Department and my Office of Personnel Management (OPM) file reflects clearly yearly promotions. 

After disclosing gross mismanagement, waste, and fraud that 

threatened general public safety, national security risks, and public 

corruption surrounding the EB–5 project, I was subjected to a significant amount of harassment and retaliation. With the approval 

of my chain of command, I began investigating the EB–5 regional 

center and a U.S. investor. Some of the violations investigated surrounding the project included Title 18 statutes of major fraud, 

money laundering, bank and wire fraud. In addition, I discovered 

ties to organized crime and high-ranking officials and politicians 

who had received large campaign contributions and promotions 

that appeared to have facilitated the program. 

I disclosed this to my management and later the Office of Inspector General, specific examples of national security risk associated 
8 

with the EB–5 and the project under investigation. Some of those 

security risks coincided with what the Central Intelligence Agency 

(CIA), the FBI, and the Securities and Exchange Commission 

(SEC) have already discovered, as well. 

During the course of the investigation, I discovered that EB–5 

applicants from China, Russia, Pakistan, Malaysia had been approved in as little as 16 days. The files lacked the basic and necessary law enforcement queries, and that was evident by the regional center’s SOFs and applicants’ 526s. I found over 800 operational EB–5 regional centers throughout the United States. This 

was a disturbing number for me, since the United States only allows 10,000 applications per year. I could not identify how the U.S. 

Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) was holding each regional center accountable or how they were tracked once they were 

inside the United States. 

In addition, a complete and detailed account of the funds that 

went into the EB–5 project was never completed or produced after 

several requests related to that investigation. It became evident 

that there were some serious and significant national security risks 

to that program. 

From the onset of the investigation, my management began getting complaints from outside agencies and high-ranking officials. 

As a result, I was removed from the investigation and it was ultimately shut down and closed. 

Shortly after I was escorted by three supervisors from my desk 

and out of my permit duty station, I was not permitted to access 

my case files or personal items. I was removed initially over 50 

miles, in direct violation of Title 5. My weapon and credentials 

were taken against the agency’s firearms policy. My government 

vehicle was confiscated. Access to the building and all government 

databases was revoked. I was told I could not even carry or own 

a personal weapon, which is a constitutional rights violation. 

I have been placed on absent without leave (AWOL) on six separate occasions, four of which were during my meetings and interviews with OIG and the OSC. When an adoption social worker 

tried to contact and verify employment, she was told that I had 

been terminated for a criminal offense. I almost lost my one-yearold child. 

I report to a building that houses inmates, where parolees report, 

and in an area that has the highest homicide and transient population in the United States. I am continuously placed in dangerous 

situations with no way to protect myself or others. Management 

has willfully obstructed me from competing for any promotions and 

injured my prospects to promote. 

Last, after being contacted by the Office of Inspector General on 

the EB–5 case and designated as a witness, the agency falsely accused me of misconduct during a border enforcement operation in 

2011. It resulted in a termination recommendation. The allegations 

surrounding the termination have since been proven unfounded by 

the OSC and the agency has recognized that. 

The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) produced an inaccurate and biased report in an attempt to terminate my employment and remained in contact with the same chain of command 
9 

1The prepared statement of Mr. Keegan appears in the Appendix on page 43. 

who had shut down the EB–5 case. This is a direct conflict of interest. 

The 2011 complaint was used after the agency was unable to 

substantiate any allegations against me and as a tool to ensure 

that I could not testify for the OIG or continue the investigation 

into the EB–5 program. There are no policies in place which limit 

the disciplinary actions against agents. Agents are placed on administrative restrictions for years at a time, which is a gross mismanagement and a waste when these agents are needed to support 

cases and protect the United States. 

I was slandered to the point that I could not perform my job because of the malicious and false gossip. It took away the time and 

happiness from my family, and I am still currently being held hostage by my own agency. It is demoralizing to myself and agents to 

have directors and senior leadership bury their heads in the sand 

and ignore the reports of undue influence and surveys that clearly 

identify agents wanting to do their jobs, but being unable to because of the leadership. It condones and encourages bad behavior 

within the Department of Homeland Security. 

I am here to inform the Committee at an agent level of the retaliation surrounding one of the largest investigative branches of the 

Federal Government. Agents and officers need to be valued by 

management, not punished, when they disclose factual and important information to our leadership. 

In closing, it is important to have agents at your front line coming forward on issues that affect the safety of our Nation. To this 

Committee, I look forward to listening to your insight and answering any questions you may have. Thank you, sir. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you, Ms. Johnson. 

Our next witness is Mr. Michael Keegan. Mr. Keegan is a retired 

Associate Commissioner for Facilities and Supply Management at 

the Social Security Administration (SSA). Mr. Keegan has raised 

concerns about waste within the Social Security Administration. 

Mr. Keegan. 

TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL KEEGAN,1 FORMER ASSOCIATE COMMISSIONER FOR FACILITIES AND SUPPLY MANAGEMENT, 

U.S. SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION 

Mr. KEEGAN. Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Carper, and 

distinguished Members of this Committee, thank you for this opportunity to discuss my demotion, reassignment, and retaliation 

during my tenure at the Social Security Administration. 

In July 2011, I was recruited by former Deputy Commissioner, 

Budget, Finance, and Management, Michael Gallagher specifically 

to assume management and responsibility for the Office of Facilities and Supply Management (OFSM), an organization of approximately 500 employees and contractors operating and administering 

management and real estate actions for hundreds of SSA facilities 

across our country. 

In January 2012, I was assigned as the Project Executive for the 

construction of a replacement computer data center. This project 

was funded via a $500 million appropriation as part of the Amer-
10 

ican Reinvestment and Recovery Initiative. Congress had been 

briefed by SSA officials that the appropriation was needed to replace the existing National Computing Center (NCC), located on 

the SSA headquarters in Woodlawn, Maryland. 

Most notably, the replacement data center occupied only one 

floor of the entire National Computing Center, with approximately 

75 employees. However, an additional 925 employees work in the 

building’s other three floors. The centerpiece of the justification 

presented to Congress was that the NCC was beyond economical 

repair, in terrible condition, and had to be replaced in totality. 

My duties further required attendance at quarterly congressional 

staff meetings before the House Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Social Security. SSA was required to brief the Committee on the progress and costs of the NCC replacement project. 

I was an important member of SSA’s delegation. 

In the course of performing these duties, I discovered a number 

of serious problems at SSA. I first brought these problems to the 

attention of Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Budget, Finance, and 

Management, Ms. Tina Waddell, who did not act on my recommendations and instead instructed me to brief the new incoming 

Deputy Commissioner of Budget, Finance, and Management. 

In February 2013, Mr. Peter Spencer was brought out of retirement by Acting Commissioner Carolyn Colvin to assume the duties 

of Deputy Commissioner. Soon after Mr. Spencer’s arrival, I gave 

him a detailed briefing on serious issues that I believed included 

misleading Congress, waste and abuse. I further raised employee 

overtime and travel abuse issues. However, the most significant 

issues I raised involved SSA’s representations to Congress to replace the entire National Computing Center when, at most, only 

the part of the NCC that held SSA’s Data Center needed replacement. 

As an example of this lack of candor, testimony on the record 

from Patrick O’Carroll, SSA’s Inspector General, references the National Computing Center replacement with the National Support 

Center Data Center. Page three of that testimony notes that SSA 

represented it was monitoring and improving NCC plumbing conditions, foundations, and monitoring HVAC ductwork as examples. 

This was no mistake or misunderstanding. SSA was specifically advised by an independent assessor to revise a Jacobs Engineering 

report to directly address the Committee’s inquiries on construction 

cost and future use of the NCC. SSA refused to follow this recommendation and chose not to be forthright with Congress. 

Further, there was no mistake. At depositions, my attorney specifically asked and clarified for Ms. Colvin and her top aides that 

SSA never had any plans to replace all four floors or the entire National Computer Center. Attached for the Committee’s review are 

Exhibits 5 through 7 of deposition transcripts which demonstrate 

this lack of candor. 

I ask the Committee to pay special attention to Ms. Colvin’s deposition transcript, where she denies knowledge of that which National Computing Center employees do; where she testifies that she 

never saw the reassignment letter that ruined my career, a letter 

which she signed; notably, her testimony that her Chief of Staff 

made the critical decisions against me, which was squarely contra-
11 

1The prepared statement of Mr. Ducos-Bello appears in the Appendix on page 59. 

dicted by her Chief of Staff’s testimony which stated she made 

those decisions. 

I ask the Committee to read pages 41 to 46 of Mr. Spencer’s testimony as an exhibit, in which he dances around basic questions 

about whether he would consider purposely misleading Congress to 

be unethical. Mr. Spencer actually testified that he could not affirmatively say that purposely misleading Congress is necessarily 

unethical. 

Shortly after my report to Mr. Spencer, I was removed from the 

quarterly congressional staff briefings. A week later, a formal investigation was launched against me. Although I was cleared from 

the completely fabricated discrimination and hostile work environment allegations, I was removed from my position and left to languish in an empty office with a few tasks that a junior administrative employee could complete. 

To this day, after 22,000 pages have been turned over by SSA in 

discovery and 10 depositions by my attorneys, nothing has been 

shown by SSA that I deserved this retaliation. 

In July 2014, after blowing the whistle again on Ms. Colvin for misrepresenting to Congress the success of a $300 million disability 

case processing computer system, I finally made the very difficult 

decision to retire from government service 5 years earlier than 

planned, which has caused me significant hardship. 

I would be pleased to answer any questions that the Committee 

may have for me. Thank you. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you, Mr. Keegan. 

Our next witness is Jose Ducos-Bello. Mr. Ducos-Bello is a Chief 

Officer with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington, DC. Officer Ducos-Bello has raised concerns about overtime 

abuse at the Customs and Border Protection to the Office of Special 

Counsel. Mr. Ducos-Bello. 

TESTIMONY OF JOSE R. DUCOS-BELLO,1 CHIEF OFFICER, U.S. 

CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF 

HOMELAND SECURITY 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. Good morning to all. Chairman Johnson, 

Ranking Member Carper, and Members of the Committee, thank 

you for inviting me to appear before you today to help you blow the 

whistle on retaliation. 

I am a former member of the United States Army Aviation and 

I served with dignity and honor for over 6 years until honorable 

discharge, because during a military operation in 1993, I suffered 

a severe injury which incapacitated me to perform my duties for 60 

percent of my physical ability to continue flying. 

Of my duties after my recuperation, I decided that I would like 

to continue serving the government, as I dreamed when I was a 

child raised in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, next to the Ramey Air Force 

Base, where I enjoy watching all those B–52s going into practice 

during the Cold War and I say to myself, one day, I am going to 

be up there. Well, God gave me that opportunity. 

Moreover, I spent a year in Walter Reed in a body cast 

recuperating from my injuries, and with the help of my wife and 
12 

the physical therapist, I started walking again. And, I am proven 

testimony that to this day, I can do law enforcement work with all 

my pains and aches. 

When I was early discharged in 1995, I immediately took a position as a U.S. Customs Inspector in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where 

I made a lot of good things for this Nation and I continue serving 

with bright honor and dignity to this day. When I joined in 1995, 

I completed to this day 20 years of active service with the service 

that is now the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs 

and Border Protection. 

Sadly, because I did the right thing, I have suffered retaliation 

from the people that I would have expected to have received support and complete admiration from doing the honorable thing, because I remember back in 1986, as I did just now when I raised 

my hand and swear to tell the truth, I also swear to protect the 

Constitution of the United States against all foreign and domestic 

enemies. Well, Members of the Committee, we are dealing right 

now with domestic enemies, enemies that have no intention of respecting the Whistleblower Act and protect the people that do the 

right thing by reporting wrongdoing in the government. 

I reported the fraud, waste, and abuse of authority of more than $1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money, and all of us in here are taxpayers, and I am an American citizen and I am proud of that. And, 

I am also proud of serving this Nation as a public servant. All of 

us are public servants. We are not entitled to anything but to do 

our job for future generations so that this Nation prospers and continues for many years to come. We do not want to see the United 

States burned up, like Rome did hundreds of years ago. 

I do not want to say that I am swinging for Republicans or for 

Democrats. That is not the issue at hand over here. This is bipartisan. 

My duty from the moment I got this badge and a weapon to fight 

for America in a war and two conflicts is to defend the Constitution 

of the United States and to kiss Old Glory every time I can, because that is my pride. That is my legacy to my children. If I am 

here, it is for a reason, to leave a legacy to my children. 

And as Senator Carper was saying earlier, we have to protect the 

way that we spend Federal funding. Nobody is entitled to say, 

‘‘Well, forget about it. It is the government’s money.’’ No. It is my 

money. It is your money. Every time you file taxes every year, it 

is your money. 

I have to say that CBP should avoid right now wars that they 

cannot win and never raise your flag for an asinine cause like 

fraud and corruption. I have been made the villain, the black 

sheep, the inconvenient truth to the Department of Homeland Security, and that has to stop. I know we have many provisions in 

our system to protect whistleblowers, but the agencies, they do not 

care and they try to cover it up as much as I can. 

My situation is well known. I have been suffering. I lost my job 

at the Commission Situation Room. I cannot go back. And, gladly 

with the help of the Senate and the Office of the Special Counsel, 

I am getting there. I am going to get my job back, even if it is the 

last thing I do, because I worked there for 11 years and I never 

did anything wrong to deserve what is coming to me. 
13 

I also, with the help of this Committee and the help of the OSC, 

I am trying very hard to have the OSC gain more power over their 

investigation, because the agencies do not respect the way they 

handle their investigation. 

And, I want to end with a quote that President Obama, our leader in charge of this great Nation, when he said, ‘‘Democracy must 

be built through open societies that share information. When there 

is information, there is enlightenment. When there is a debate, 

there are solutions. When there is no sharing of power, no rule of 

law, no accountability, there is abuse, corruption, subjugation, and 

indignity.’’ 

I have been called many things. People laugh about my accent 

in Spanish. People might say that I am a colorful character. People 

may think that I am just a second-class citizen. And, I remember 

Senator John McCain telling me, ‘‘if you are, Mr. Ducos, a secondclass citizen because you were born in Puerto Rico, then I am right 

in the bus with you, because I was born in Panama.’’ 

There is no place in our government, in our society, to reprise, 

to discriminate against people that do the right thing. I am one 

against many, and look what I did. I am still standing. I am still 

here. I have a job. And, I want to do my job, with your help. 

Also, I would like to cite something that helps me go by every 

day. Honor is simply the morality of superior men. Believe that you 

can do something and you are halfway there. And, like Theodore 

Roosevelt said, speak softly and carry a big stick. 

So, in conclusion, and let me find my paper—I have everything 

in order here—my professional reputation has been tarnished in 

public and social media and my family has suffered the ill effects 

to my well being. These are the facts and the evidence that I have 

provided to the staff of the Committee. It will be much more. I will 

never do my 6 minutes if I tell you all the retaliation things that 

my agency has done to me. It is in writing, and it is accessible to 

you as evidence. 

But more now than ever, I will ensure that all Federal employees 

feel secure to report acts of corruption, waste, or security concerns 

that can bring grave danger to our national security. When it 

comes to Federal agencies committing acts of wrongdoing, we are 

not scoundrels. We are the undercover cops on the lookout to prevent Uncle Sam from being pick-pocketed. 

Thank you very much, and I am looking forward to answering 

any questions that you may have for me. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you, Mr. Ducos-Bello. Thank you for 

your testimony, for your service to this Nation, for your patriotism. 

I do not think there is anybody in this room that does not think 

you are anything but a first-class citizen. 

Our next witness is Mr. Tom Devine. Mr. Devine is a Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest organization to assist whistleblowers. Mr. 

Devine. 
14 

1The prepared statement of Mr. Devine appears in the Appendix on page 67. 

TESTIMONY OF THOMAS M. DEVINE,1 LEGAL DIRECTOR, 

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT 

Mr. DEVINE. Thank you. The testimony from the last four witnesses personifies why I have spent the last 35 years working at 

the Government Accountability Project (GAP) instead of getting a 

real job, and today’s hearing is welcome, much needed oversight for 

the marathon struggle to turn paper rights into reality. 

Working with over 6,000 whistleblowers since 1979, one of the 

primary lessons that I have learned is that passing these laws is 

just the first step on a very long journey, and today’s witnesses did 

just a great job of sharing lessons learned based on their personal 

experiences. I would like to extend that to the bigger picture. 

And, the first lesson to be shared is one that I think is pretty 

obvious, that whistleblowing through Congress can have the greatest impact, making a difference against abuses of power that betray the public trust. In our experience, no other audience comes 

close. 

But, correspondingly, the second lesson is this makes Congress 

the highest-risk audience for whistleblowers, and that is because 

there is a direct linear relationship between the severity of the 

threat posed by a disclosure and the viciousness of retaliation. 

Since Congress has more impact, it is higher stakes in both directions. 

The third lesson is that retaliation does not end. After blowing 

the whistle, employees face often a lifelong struggle for professional 

survival. This is a life’s crossroads decision. 

The fourth lesson that I think is worth sharing is that since the 

WPEA was passed, creative harassment tactics are circumventing 

its mandate. These are very serious challenges. The most all-encompassing is the sensitive jobs loophole. This is a national security loophole that would subsume the entire civil service rule of law 

that has kept the Federal labor force nonpartisan and professional 

since 1883. There has been no empirical studies or basis for scrapping the Civil Service System. There is no structure in place for 

governmentwide replacement or alternative to it. But, the Federal 

Circuit Court of Appeals, the same court that forced passage of the 

WPEA, has approved it. 

Last Friday, the Office of Personnel Management issued final 

regulations. It is full steam ahead. And, under those rules, the government has uncontrolled power to designate almost any position 

as national security sensitive. Once that happens, sensitive employees no longer have the right to defend themselves in any kind of 

hearing. They do not even necessarily have the right to know what 

they were charged with doing wrong in order to lose their designation to work for the Federal Government. 

Now, the Administration has said, well, we are not attacking the 

Whistleblower Protection Act, but that is very disingenuous. The 

agencies will still have the authority to present an unreviewable, 

independent justification for their actions, even if retaliation is 

proven, loss of the sensitive job designation, and that means that, 

by definition, every whistleblower will lose a case who has a sensitive job. We can still have the Whistleblower Protection Act. It 
15 

will give you the right to lose and turn the WPEA into a bad joke. 

Unless Congress acts, we are on the verge of replacing the rule of 

law with a national security spoils system, and taxpayers will be 

the big losers. 

The second creative tactic that I would like to highlight is criminalizing whistleblowers. As we have seen from this morning’s testimony, a new tactic is instead of just trying to fire someone, put 

them under criminal investigation and then give them the choice 

of either resigning or facing a prosecutive referral. This is very attractive. It is much easier, much less muss and fuss than litigation. 

You have to prepare formal charges and depositions and legal briefings and hearings and lawyers. All you need is one good investigative bully. 

Second, you cannot lose. The worst that will happen is that the 

agency will have to close the case, and then next month, they can 

open up a new case on a new pretext. I had one whistleblower who 

faced 30 years of serial criminal investigations. He was fighting 

bribery in the Chicago meat yards. 

The third factor is the chilling effect of facing jail time is much 

more severe than the chilling effect from possible loss of your job. 

The fifth lesson learned is that the Whistleblower Protection Act 

is a work in progress. The two most significant structural reforms 

for the Act to achieve its premise have not yet been finalized. GAO 

must recommend whether, like almost every other group of employees in the U.S. labor force, Federal Government whistleblowers will 

be able to enforce their rights through District Court jury trials if 

they do not get a timely administrative ruling and normal access 

to appeals courts. The all circuits review provision of the WPEA is 

just an experiment. 

Senators, these are the structural cornerstones for the WPEA to 

work. The GAO report is due in a year and a half and it is time 

for them to get started on it. 

The sixth lesson learned is that we are overdue reauthorizing— 

on oversight and reauthorizing of the Merit System Agencies that 

implement the WPEA, the Office of Special Counsel and the MSPB. 

The good news is that the leaders of these two agencies have really 

an unquestionable commitment to the merit system in their agency 

missions. It would be silly to challenge their good faith. And in 

both agencies, their performance is probably the highest in the history since they have been created in 1978. 

The bad news is this is a very low bar. At the MSPB, while the 

full board has been very even-handed, the Administrative Judges 

are extremely hostile to the Whistleblower Protection Act. I cannot 

honestly tell employees that they have a fair chance at justice 

doing an MSPB hearing. And at the Office of Special Counsel, despite a 600 percent increase in corrective actions, that has brought 

us up to 2.6 percent of people who file complaints there, which 

means that although they are doing a lot better, whistleblowers 

still do not have a fighting chance at justice when they try to act 

on their rights under this law. 

The bottom line: The WPEA was a great first step. The commitment of the agency leaders charged with enforcing it is an outstanding second step. But, we have got a long way to go before we 
16 

achieve the Act’s purposes. There is a lot of work, and thanks for 

holding this hearing to help us get started. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you, Mr. Devine, for your testimony. 

Let me start by saying, as I was reading the testimony, as I am 

listening to it, coming from the private sector, where when you are 

at the top of a company, it is always hard to get the information 

not filtered so that you really get the truth, I mean, as I am hearing what was brought to the attention of superiors, I am thinking 

you ought to be having medals pinned to your chest, not have retaliation inflicted upon you. 

So, what I would like to ask the whistleblowers here, I want you 

to very, hopefully as easily as possible, describe to me why, why 

were you retaliated against. I would like to start with Lieutenant 

Colonel Amerine. I appreciate you meeting with me in my office 

yesterday, because you told me an awful lot yesterday, which I appreciate. I think I maybe have your ‘‘why,’’ but I want you to confirm this. 

You told me that in the course of your attempts to gain the freedom of these hostages in Afghanistan and Pakistan, you were made 

aware—it is your belief that the government did pay a ransom and 

that ransom money was stolen, and second, that you believed you 

were pretty close to potentially having a deal where we would get 

seven hostages in exchange for one Taliban leader, and instead, we 

got one hostage in exchange for five Taliban leaders. Is that, kind 

of in a nutshell, that information, is that why you have been retaliated against, or what is the reason? 

Colonel AMERINE. Yes, sir. I think that there are layers of this, 

as I said, in terms of layers of the bureaucracy. On December 1, 

2014, Representative Hunter submitted a complaint to the IG alleging an illegal or questionable ransom possibly being paid for 

Sergeant Bergdahl. There was a good deal of evidence that it occurred and a lot of questions as to how it occurred. That complaint 

implicated both the DOD organization and the FBI. 

So, part of what lit the fuse was the same folks in the FBI that 

were basically implicated in the DOD IG complaint of December 1 

were the ones that later complained to the Army that I was sharing sensitive information with Representative Hunter. 

Another aspect of it on the FBI side was, I think, just the general 

frustration with Representative Hunter pushing them hard on civilian hostages and their awareness that I was speaking to Representative Hunter about all of this. I mean, he even set up the 

meeting between my office and the FBI to try to help them out 

with some of this, and after the meeting, they responded by contacting Caitlin Coleman’s father and threatening him not to speak 

to Representative Hunter again or he would stop getting supported 

by the FBI. I mean, just atrocious treatment of family. 

So, the FBI complained to the Army, and for reasons to be seen, 

there was a bit of a debate within the Army whether I actually did 

anything wrong. My understanding is one party, who—I just do not 

want to be speculative, but there was a big debate within the Army 

over whether I did anything wrong, and that led to the investigation. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Can you tell me a little bit about what deal 

you thought you had for the release of the hostages? 
17 

Colonel AMERINE. So, my office worked options. We looked at a 

whole variety of options. One of the options that we developed, we 

called it the one-for-seven option. It entailed six hostages and a 

seventh person I would just rather not discuss today. So, the six 

hostages—it was actually five hostages and a prisoner of war. So, 

Sergeant Bergdahl, Caitlin Coleman, the child she bore in captivity, Josh Boyle, and Colin Rutherford. When we saw that nobody 

else was trying to get them home, we were working every initiative 

possible. 

One was the one-for-seven, and in that, we were looking at Haji 

Bashar Noorzai. He was described as the Pablo Escobar of Afghanistan and we realized that he actually was just another warlord. He 

was actually an ally of the Karzai regime. We lured him to the 

United States under a false promise of safe passage and basically 

unsealed an indictment and put him in jail for life. Some felt he 

was a wretched human being and others felt he was wronged. 

As we looked at the options, we looked at five-for-one, which we 

thought had died in 2012, as the worst option, and so for us, it was 

we are not getting Bergdahl, let alone the other hostages, back for 

free. Every option was going to be painful. So, the Noorzai option, 

for us, was one that was at least less painful. So, we were able to 

reach out to the Noorzai tribe itself that we believed could free the 

hostages and we made a lot of progress on it. I briefed it widely, 

but in the end, when the Taliban came to the table, the State Department basically said it must be the five-for-one, that is the only 

viable option we have, and that is what we went with. 

Chairman JOHNSON. So, I can see how members of the government, if there was an option for seven—for six Americans for one 

Taliban and the deal ended up being five Taliban for one American, 

they probably would not want that too highly publicized, so—OK. 

That makes sense to me. 

Ms. Taylor, can you, again, try and encapsulate it pretty concisely in terms of why. Who was threatened? What was threatened? 

Ms. JOHNSON. I think with regards to who was involved in the 

investigation—I think that because of the people that were involved with the investigation, it maybe put a different light and 

there was a lot of extra outside influences and kind of back and 

forth with the different members and different agencies. So, we are 

all kind of—as police officers, the last thing you want to be is listed 

as a whistleblower, and you usually ride the wave and you keep 

your head down and your mouth shut, and I actually did that in 

this case until I was contacted by the Inspector General’s Office, 

and we are required to cooperate with them and I did, and I think 

breaking that silence kind of—I mean, I had everything in a 12- 

year career thrown at me and a lot of stuff that was not factual. 

So, I think there were a lot of issues surrounding that as far as 

the retaliation. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Briefly, because I do not want to lose this 

thread, you said as an investigator, the last thing you want to be 

known as is a whistleblower. Is that because it is well known, the 

retribution, the retaliation? 

Ms. JOHNSON. Well, there is a brotherhood. You do not want to 

see your colleagues hurt. And in this case, I do not see a lot of corruption or a lot of problems at the agent level. What I have seen 
18 

is some significant problems at a leadership level, and that is not 

to get anybody in trouble. I think one family in DHS being hurt 

is enough. I just think there needs to be some corrective action. 

And, I lost my train of thought. Did that answer your question? 

Chairman JOHNSON. It does. Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Senator 

Carper. 

Senator CARPER. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. 

Again, our thanks to all of you for being here and for sharing 

your stories with us. 

On Veterans Day, I went up and down the State of Delaware, 

and there are any number of places where we met with veterans, 

young and old, their families, families of people who died serving 

our country, and it was just a wonderful uplifting of their service. 

One of the things that Delaware is noted for, we are the first State 

to ratify the Constitution, and one of the gatherings that we had 

was in Dover, Delaware. 

The Constitution of our country was first ratified in Dover, Delaware, a place called the Golden Fleece Tavern, on December 7, 

1787, over 200-and-some years ago. And, at that particular event, 

they actually closed down the streets, the main streets in town, the 

intersection of State Street and Loockerman Street, and we had 

hundreds of veterans and their families, like, all in a big circle 

around the intersection. And, we were gathered about 200 yards 

from where the Golden Fleece Tavern once stood, where the Constitution was first ratified on December 7, 1787. 

And, I invited the folks that were there that day, as I invited 

people in other assemblies that day, on Veterans and Memorial 

Day, I invited them to join me doing something that a lot of us did 

when we were kids in school, and that is to recite the Preamble to 

our Constitution. I did not expect them to know it verbatim, but 

I would read a few words and they would repeat them until we finished the Preamble. We did this up and down the State. I love 

doing it, and I think people enjoyed it, as well. 

But, you recall the Preamble to our Constitution starts off with 

these words, ‘‘We the people of the United States, in order to form 

a more perfect Union.’’ Think about that, ‘‘in order to form a more 

perfect Union.’’ It does not say, ‘‘in order to form a perfect Union,’’ 

but a more perfect Union. 

And, for me, one of my core values, and perhaps one of yours, 

is everything I do, I know I can do better, and the folks who wrote 

that Constitution, and it was ratified on December 7, 1787, down 

the street from where we gathered on Memorial Day, they realized 

it was not perfect, and they realized with future generations, we 

had to do better, and better, and better. 

As Mr. Devine notes, we have been working at this for a while 

with respect to whistleblower protection. My recollection was the 

Whistleblower Protection Act was first adopted in the 1980s. I do 

not recall who was President, who signed it into law. Do you recall? 

Mr. DEVINE. Yes. President Reagan was in office when Congress 

first passed it, but President Bush was in office when the law was 

finally signed. 

Senator CARPER. There we go. Thank you. But, we have been 

working on this for a while, and we were working on it in 2012 

with the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, which I sup-
19 

ported and a number of us supported, signed into law by our current President. 

I want to ask you, if you would, Mr. Devine, thinking about the 

enhancements that we adopted in 2012, why they are an improvement over what existed before that, and while there is still more 

that we need to do, could you just walk us through a few of the 

further changes that you believe are needed, and just give us a couple of real life examples of how those changes would improve whistleblower protection. 

Mr. DEVINE. Thank you, Senator. I think the most significant are 

following through and completing the structural reforms that will 

provide an adequate foundation for these rights to be implemented. 

Congress had to pass the law four times because there was not normal access to appeals court in the one court that handled all the 

cases. It happened to be extremely hostile to the law and that lack 

of healthy competition was an Achilles’ heel. 

The WPEA structurally solved that for a 5-year experiment, normal access to appeals courts, and that needs to be made permanent. It is the case with every other whistleblower law on the 

books, except the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, which has 

no judicial review. 

The second structural reform is if there is not a speedy administrative ruling, like all the corporate whistleblower statutes, being 

able to start fresh then in court and have justice determined by a 

jury of the citizens that whistleblowers are purporting to defend 

when they risk their careers. This District Court access is particularly significant. Get the politics out of these cases when it is a politically charged dispute or an extremely high stakes one, or when 

it is highly complex or technical and you need the resources of the 

District Court. The MSPB was set up to resolve office disputes, not 

to deal with major issues of national policy. 

With respect to the administrative agencies, I think that there 

needs to be some very intensive training of the Administrative 

Judges at the Merit Systems Protection Board. The No FEAR Act 

says that we have to train all the government managers and bureaucrats in what the rights are in these laws. The people who are 

conducting the hearings, in the administrative hearing, they need 

to get up to speed on this law, too, and unfortunately, the decisions 

have been very uneven. 

At the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, I think the area that Congress could—besides just oversight, which is always healthy—the 

area where Congress could make the most difference is by giving 

them the authority to issue stays for temporary relief. In my experience, the most significant factor, whether we have sort of a longterm marathon nightmare or whether the agencies decide to get serious and have a resolution that both sides can live with and move 

on from, is whether there is temporary relief. If there is not, the 

agencies just starve out the whistleblower. That will make a huge 

difference. 

Finally, those issues of the national security loophole and retaliatory investigations, which threatened every witness this morning 

but for which they have very uncertain rights under the WPA, that 

is sort of the menu of work to be done. 

Senator CARPER. All right. Thanks for all of that. 
20 

Several of you today are wearing uniforms. Others have worn 

them. Some Army, Navy, and Mr. Ducos, what branch of service 

did you serve in? 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. My branch of service, the Department of 

Homeland Security. The component is U.S. Customs and Border 

Protection. 

Senator CARPER. When you were on active duty with the military. I thought I understood you to say that you served on active 

duty. 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. Yes. The United States Army Aviation. 

Senator CARPER. Good. Thanks. I spent 5 years in Southeast 

Asia and another 18 years in a cold war. I was a Naval flight officer on active duty and later reserve duty, retired Navy Captain, 

and Commander in Chief of the Delaware National Guard for 8 

years when I was Governor. I have huge respect for you, particularly those of you who have worn those uniforms, and thank you 

for your service in that regard. 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. Thank you, sir, and the slogan back then really helped me a lot. Be all you can be. 

Senator CARPER. That is good. 

Mr. Devine, just take a minute and tell us with respect to how 

we treat whistleblowers who are civilians as opposed to those that 

are military personnel, just give us a minute on how—since we 

have both civilian and military personnel on our panel today, and 

I know you work with both, can you just briefly discuss the differences between whistleblower protections for the two, just briefly. 

Mr. DEVINE. Yes, sir. The Military Whistleblower Protection Act 

is the lowest common denominator in the U.S. Code for accountability through whistleblower protection. The key differences between the civilian and military law is, first, that the military law 

does not have the fair burdens of proof that have given whistleblowers a fighting chance in their hearings. 

The second is that there is no right to an administrative due 

process hearing. Everything is enforced by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General. GAO has repeatedly condemned 

their work as inadequate, and again, we get numerous whistleblowers from that unit whose disclosures are that it is operating 

as a plumbers unit to help finish off the people who seek help 

there. It is a very severe problem. We need due process. 

And, finally, there is no judicial review there. There is some outstanding legislation which is the Service Members Justice Act, 

which has been introduced by Senator Boxer, joined by Senator 

Grassley, and vetted by all the whistleblower support organizations 

that could even the playing field and we think that it is outstanding. 

Senator CARPER. Good. Ms. Johnson, Mr. Devine just mentioned 

Senator Grassley’s name, and I would just share, Ms. Johnson, this 

is really pertinent to what you said earlier. For years, the Department of Homeland Security has called on the Congress to make 

changes in the EB–5 program, a well intended program, but a 

flawed program. Earlier this month, Senator Grassley and Senator 

Leahy introduced legislation that actually reflects the changes that 

the Department and the agency has actually been asking us to do, 

so I am encouraged by that. 
21 

Ms. JOHNSON. I saw that, sir. I think that is great. 

Senator CARPER. Yes. Thank you. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you, Senator Carper. 

Next is Senator Ernst, because she is almost always here on 

time—probably always on time—— [Laughter.] 

And a very faithful attendee of these hearings, which I truly appreciate. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ERNST 

Senator ERNST. Thank you. 

Chairman JOHNSON. So, Senator Ernst. 

Senator ERNST. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Senator 

Carper, Ranking Member. 

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for being here today. I appreciate it so much. And, Colonel Amerine, I do want to take just 

a moment and thank you very much for your service to this Nation 

and to all of you, as well. But, you have been in some very difficult 

circumstances and I do appreciate you being here today. 

As someone who has served, I do take this very seriously in my 

new role as a Senator and as someone who has made a commitment to protect our men and women that serve in the United 

States Armed Forces, whether they are still serving in uniform or 

whether they are veterans from eras of the past. So, whether it is 

through proper medical care through the Veterans Administration 

(VA), or whether it is in your circumstance, we will make sure that 

that is a priority. 

I will take just a little bit of issue with your testimony. In here, 

sir, you say that you have failed, and you have not failed. I will 

never accept that, because what you have done is raise an issue 

that is extremely important to this Nation and in making sure that 

we receive those hostages back. So, you have not failed. We have 

just not yet succeeded. So, that day will come. We will make sure 

that that day comes. 

So, to you, thank you so much for all of your efforts and we will 

continue working on this. I look forward to working with you, Senator Johnson, on some of these very specific issues, especially with 

the good Colonel. 

To the rest of you, I do want to ask very briefly—my time is very 

limited here today—but, those of you—I know you have recent 

cases, but have there been any repercussions for those who have 

come after you and retaliated against you? Have you seen any correction from that end, if you could just briefly. Mr. Ducos-Bello, if 

you would please start, just very briefly, have you seen those that 

retaliated against you being disciplined? 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. Well, my retaliation started back in the end 

of 2012 and to this day is ongoing. I was disarmed for no reason, 

like my fellow law enforcement officer here, illegally. They turned 

every single stone that they could find during my 20 years’ career 

and they could not find anything. My review performance is fully 

successful throughout the years. I do not have this because somebody gave it to me as a gift. I earned them. This one is the Blue 

Eagle Award that I received for meticulously searching and researching a container coming from Colombia with 8,000 pounds of 
22 

cocaine. And when I was in the field, I was very diligent doing and 

discharging my duties. 

And, I moved up the chain of command the right way, not by 

making a network of friends, but by earning my rank, my position. 

And to this day, the agency has treated me with no respect. For 

the past 6 months, I have been sitting in a folding chair with no 

desk, no duties, no program to manage, nothing. I just show my 

face for 8 hours and all my talents are going to waste. 

Senator ERNST. But no correction on—— 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. No correction. They are fixated in that they 

have not done anything wrong, that as a whistleblower, I committed the worst crime to CBP by taking the administratively uncontrollable overtime (AUO) away from the Border Patrol and the 

CBP officers that changed their series from 1895 to 1801 in order 

for them to be seduced by the Border Patrol in drawing that AUO 

with this in legal. Now, you tell me, I am an 1895, abide by the 

Constitution to obey and discharge the law. How come, in less than 

an hour in the Library of Congress I came upon the regulations 

and the law that governs the use of AUO, and for those who do not 

know what AUO means, it is the uncontrollable overtime that they 

draw at 20 percent, 25 percent of their yearly salary. 

Senator ERNST. And thank you. I would like to go ahead and 

move to, just very briefly, to some of the other members on our 

panel. Thank you—— 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. Yes, ma’am. You are welcome. 

Senator ERNST [continuing]. Very much for being here today. Mr. 

Keegan. 

Mr. KEEGAN. Thank you, Senator. I have absolutely no knowledge that there has been any accountability repercussion in any 

way involving senior leadership at the Social Security Administration. I can very quickly characterize this in two areas. If you recall 

from my testimony, I testified that my supervisor, Mr. Spencer, actually testified at deposition under oath that he could not 

uncategorically agree that misrepresenting facts to Congress was 

not ethical. 

The second thing I would tell you is that there is a mentality at 

the Social Security Administration, which I witnessed in many senior level meetings, concerning bad information stays in the house. 

We do not air our dirty laundry to Congress. We protect our leadership at all costs. 

And, third, I would just say, in my 44-year career in the military 

and private sector and as a senior executive for agencies, the Social 

Security Administration has the worst track record of accountability and taking responsibility for their actions that I have ever 

seen, and I do not mean that in a flippant manner, Senator, but 

I mean that sincerely. 

Senator ERNST. Thank you. 

And, Ms. Johnson. 

Ms. JOHNSON. I will keep mine very short. There has been no 

corrective action. 

Senator ERNST. OK. I appreciate that. 

And, Colonel Amerine, yours is a very special case. Any specifics 

that you would like us to know? 

Colonel AMERINE. No, ma’am. 
23 

Senator ERNST. OK. Thank you very much for your testimony 

today. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you, Senator. Senator Portman. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR PORTMAN 

Senator PORTMAN. Thank you to Chairman Johnson and to 

Ranking Member Carper for having the hearing, and mostly to 

thank you all for being here and being willing to share your sometimes very personal experiences and troubling experiences. 

I saw Mr. Devine’s testimony before I came in today, and he repeated it in his remarks. He said, this is one of your highest-risk 

audiences, so I hope that at the end of the day, you are happy you 

shared this information with us and we do not end up being a high 

risk to you for speaking to the U.S. Congress, your elected representatives, because we need the information. This Committee, in 

particular, is an oversight Committee, so our job is to ensure that 

the government works better for all the taxpayers, hard working 

taxpayers out there that we represent. So, it is really important 

you are here today to talk about the broader policies issues as you 

have, but also to put some context around it, what really happened 

to you. 

And, to your responses a moment ago from Senator Ernst as to 

what actually has happened that has changed in the departments, 

it is discouraging. I do think, Ms. Johnson, that the legislation that 

you mentioned earlier affirmatively, you said you thought that was 

a good idea to move forward on some reforms, indicates that maybe 

Congress is able to move on some legislative changes, and I want 

to talk about that for a second, if I could, and maybe start with 

the military side. 

There has been some discussion—Mr. Devine was asked about 

the military whistleblower protections versus other departments 

and agencies. He said it was the lowest common denominator. We 

talked about no judicial review. We talked about the burden of 

proof is the lowest common denominator. He was concerned about 

lack of a due process hearing. 

One of my concerns is about what the GAO has said. In May of 

this year, they issued a report, and it was about investigations into 

retaliation complaints from military whistleblowers. It said they 

took three times longer than the legal requirement of 180 days. So, 

that alone, it seems to me, indicates that we have got a problem 

on the military side. 

It also talked about the chain of command issue, that service 

members are required to report wrongdoing outside the chain of 

command, but that that conflicts with other military guidance and 

that sometimes that is very difficult, therefore, to go outside the 

chain of command and to have an independent process. 

And, so, I guess, if I could, Colonel Amerine, to you, the IG responded to the GAO report by saying that they concurred with the 

recommendation and they were committed to, and I quote, ‘‘requiring service investigators to attest in writing that they are outside 

the immediate chain of command of both the service member submitting the allegation and the individual or individuals alleged of 

taking retaliatory action.’’ Is this attestation requirement for whis-
24 

tleblower investigations sufficient to ensure independence from the 

chain of command, in your view? 

Colonel AMERINE. I believe it is. I mean, the DOD IG has a very 

difficult job, and their treatment of me as I filed a whistleblower 

retaliation complaint with them was first class. It is a slow process, 

but I have not hit the six, the 180 days yet. So, the investigation 

is ongoing and they are working it as hard as they can. 

Senator PORTMAN. Well, I am glad to hear that in your case. 

And, in terms of the complaints that have taken almost three times 

longer than the legal requirement of 180 days we talked about, 

why do you think that is, and what should the IG do to respond 

to that, or what should we be doing legislatively in terms of the 

overall structure of the military side of whistleblower retaliation? 

Colonel AMERINE. Yes, sir. I mean, some of that is beyond anything I claim expertise in, so I have to kind of scope it down to 

what I am seeing. I mean, in my case, I had a retirement date of 

June 1 that everybody was aware of. The DOD IG reviewed my 

complaint that included the information that supposedly was a security violation to Representative Hunter, and through the Joint 

Staff, the DOD IG determined that my complaint was not classified, which would pretty much mean the information I spoke to 

Hunter about, which by design was meant to be unclassified, was 

actually unclassified. 

Senator PORTMAN. And it was the FBI that had said that they 

thought it was classified, correct? 

Colonel AMERINE. Right. The FBI filed the complaint, and even 

in a session with Representative Hunter basically said that, well, 

we had to put him in his place. I mean, they felt that it was one 

of those things where it was a shot across the bow. Well, they did 

that with a criminal allegation. So, they kind of underestimated 

the effect of telling the Army that I am leaking secret information 

and that led to the situation I am in right now. I mean, on the 

positive side, the calamity allowed me to share with you aspects of 

the broader dysfunction I was dealing with. 

But, in terms of resolving this, it should have been resolved with 

a simple conversation. Before the FBI complaint even hit, I notified 

my chain of command what was coming and they told me, yes, you 

did nothing wrong. And then somebody more senior, for unknown 

reasons to me, demanded this be thoroughly investigated. OK, that 

is fine. But in 5 months, nobody has spoken to me about what actually occurred. 

And, that is where I think you run into the issue, is the only organization that, to me, is actually kind of effectively grinding 

through this so far is DOD IG. I mean, everything they did, I felt 

was first class, regardless of how they ultimately conclude this in 

the end. But, them getting out to interview everybody involved is 

very difficult, because they will approach someone, and in the 

interview, who is going to incriminate themselves? 

So, I mean, I think the DOD IG just has an enormously difficult 

task and the time lines are the things that, really, they have to be 

enforced. A-hundred-and-eighty days is actually kind of hell for 

somebody trying to retire from the military and start a new career, 

but from what I have seen, I understand why it is 180 days. 
25 

But, the chain of command on top of that needs to have a role 

in this where I do not understand why, when the Army heard that 

there is an allegation of me speaking to Representative Hunter, 

they did not think that maybe they ought to dig into it a bit before 

they started criminal charges. And when they deleted my retirement, they can only do that with an eye toward court martial. So, 

basically, all I could take away from this is they are seeking to 

court martial me under allegations of sharing sensitive information 

with a Representative on the House Armed Services Committee. I 

mean, it is utterly ridiculous, in my mind, but, obviously, I am the 

criminal in this case. So, to me, the chain of command really 

should have stepped up and realized that they needed to handle 

this a little bit more smartly than basically going after me with a 

CID investigation. 

Senator PORTMAN. And had a conversation with you at the outset, which you indicate they did not have? They did not ask you, 

is that accurate? 

Colonel AMERINE. My chain of command never spoke to me. The 

only time I was spoken to was on January 15, when this began, 

when I was told that I would be escorted out of the Pentagon because I am under criminal investigation. 

Senator PORTMAN. Thank you, Colonel. 

We have discussed today the IGs. We have also discussed the Office of Special Counsel, and I have very little time remaining, but 

just quickly maybe, Ms. Johnson, you could talk to us about your 

experience with the IG. Has the Inspector General been responsive 

to your concerns? 

Ms. JOHNSON. Yes, they have. Two investigations have been 

opened. I am not really at liberty to talk about that. But, they were 

able to open an investigation into the personnel actions and the 

whistleblower complaint in addition to some other investigations 

related to that criminal investigation. 

They have a lot more authority as far as subpoena powers than, 

I think, the OSC. In my case, the OSC had a really tough time getting my agency to kind of cooperate with the documents, giving 

them what would make them look good versus what was actually 

requested. 

The OPR system, for us, at least, at the DHS level was awful. 

It is my opinion that that needs to be made a permanent 14 in SAC 

LA. The Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASACs), the RAC, and 

the SAC are all agents from Los Angeles under SAC Los Angeles. 

So, for me, going through that OPR process on the numerous allegations that came up after this EB–5 and it was an awful process. 

It was the SAC communicating back and forth. But, the OSC was 

eventually good at finding that, and so was the OIG, and seeing 

the communications and the conflict of interest. 

The IG was probably above and beyond the best one so far as far 

as investigating. 

Senator PORTMAN. So, OSC was helpful in trying to figure it out, 

but they did not have the—you mentioned the subpoena powers. 

They did not have the authority to get the information in a timely 

basis, whereas the IG was able to be a little more effective. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Right. They kept running into walls. 
26 

Senator PORTMAN. Yes. Well, my time has expired. Thank you 

very much, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate again all you all being 

here and being willing to testify before us today. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you, sir. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you, Senator Portman. 

Mr. Devine, in your testimony, again, I was looking at these laws 

ahead of time, and for me, it started back in 1978, and I guess it 

is with the Civil Service Act. But, in your testimony you enlightened me that, no, it really started with the Lloyd-LaFollette Act in 

1912. And, you said that it was an anti-retaliation law that created 

a no-exceptions right to communicate with Congress. 

Mr. DEVINE. Yes. 

Chairman JOHNSON. This is really the point we are talking about 

here with Lieutenant Colonel Amerine. He has an absolute no-exception right to communicate with Congress. What has gone haywire? In particular, the question I asked earlier is I keep asking 

myself why. Again, coming from the private sector, I am always— 

especially at the top of the organization—I am always looking for 

individuals to let me know what is going on so I can actually address problems. So, again, we should be pinning medals on these 

people’s chests as opposed to retaliating against them. So, tell me 

a little bit about that Lloyd-LaFollette law. But, also, is there some 

very common, very universal answer to the question, why? 

Mr. DEVINE. The Lloyd-LaFollette Act is an excellent principle, 

but it is hampered because there is no procedure to enforce it and 

there are no remedies even if you found a violation somehow. So, 

it is just basically a symbolic law and it has been waiting a long 

time to get some teeth in it. 

As far as the more fundamental question, I have asked myself 

that for a long time, Senator, and I think my own insights are that 

the Federal agencies and some private organizations, too, behave 

this way almost as the institutional equivalent of an animal instinct. An animal’s instinct is to destroy anything that threatens it 

and organizations behave the same way. In fact, I do. When somebody slugs me, I do not think, you know, maybe there is a lesson 

to be learned from that and we should talk this through. What is 

the cause of it? I want to flatten that person who attacked me because I am angry, they hurt me, and because I do not want to give 

them a chance to do it again. 

This is the way institutions react to whistleblowers. Snuff out 

the threat. And, it is unfortunate. It is very short-sighted. Whistleblowers are like the bitter pill that keeps you out of the hospital. 

It is bad news in the short term, but it can be important for your 

survival. You have got a whole cliche on it. Do not kill the messenger. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Again, that is awful general. As I listened 

to the four witnesses here, in my mind, I can at least assume some 

specific-wise. Somebody being protected, some piece of information 

that we did not want to have disclosed, like for Lieutenant Colonel 

Amerine, the fact that there really was potentially a deal of seven 

Americans for one Taliban, that there might have been a ransom 

paid that was stolen. 

I am going to get back to the other witnesses to find out their 

specific ‘‘why,’’ but, I mean, is it not—again, I am looking for your 
27 

knowledge, because you have been dealing with this a long time. 

Is it protecting an individual or people in power? 

Mr. DEVINE. Part of it is the structure of the communications. 

When a whistleblower works up through the organizational chain 

of command, sooner or later, you reach someone who is, maybe is 

responsible for the wrongdoing and a conflict of interest kicks in by 

someone who has power over the messenger. That is why it is so 

important that when there is that conflict, when it is not just a 

mistake that everybody wants to fix but somebody is engaged in 

wrongdoing, that they have safe, clear access to Congress to circumvent the conflict of interest and get some independent response 

to their concerns. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Well, again, that is why we set up our 

whistleblower@RonJohnson.senate.gov, just throw that plug out 

there. And, of course, I am assuming the four individuals here will 

have some measure of protection by coming public and showing 

courage. 

Mr. Keegan, I would like to kind of pick up with you specifically. 

Again, can you point to a ‘‘why,’’ and then I am going to ask the 

other whistleblowers, what does it cost you? I understand in terms 

of this type of retaliation there is reputational harm. That is a cost. 

It is a grave cost. Having a hostile work environment in all kinds 

of ways. Sitting on a folding chair, not having a desk, all those 

types of things. But, I want the dollar cost. I really want you to 

let us know how has this cost you financially. 

But, first, Mr. Keegan, I wanted to give you the opportunity of 

why in your case. 

Mr. KEEGAN. Why I think it was done? 

Chairman JOHNSON. Yes. I mean, was somebody trying to protect 

themselves? Was it just this general, overall, we want to protect 

the Social Security Administration? 

Mr. KEEGAN. Well, I believe, Senator, having sat in a number of 

high level meetings at Social Security in the months prior to this 

debacle that happened to me, Acting Commissioner Colvin was in 

the beginning stages of believing she was going to be nominated 

and then finally being nominated. In at least three meetings, the 

Chief of Staff, James Kissko, Ms. Colvin’s No. 2 person, made the 

statement that nothing is going to leave this agency that is going 

to embarrass Carolyn Colvin. I cannot make a direct connection between that and what happened to me, but it certainly seems to 

make some sense to me. 

In answer to your question of what it cost me, I had a 44-year 

career military, 12 years in the private sector, and 12 years in Senior Executive Service (SES). I had nothing but outstanding performance ratings, awards, and promotions until my very last performance review at the Social Security Administration, which 

capped off my 44 years and basically destroyed everything that I 

had worked for in my career. 

It practically cost me my marriage, to be perfectly frank, because 

one year of sitting in an office staring at four walls and watching 

the clock tick, being a very high energy, results-oriented person, for 

me was a death by a thousand cuts. 

What it cost me financially, I finally just could not take it any 

more and I retired. I retired 5 years early. I was not financially 
28 

prepared to retire, and I have not been able to get a job consistent 

with my background and my experience for two reasons. One, I 

cannot get a reference, and No. 2, how do I explain on a resume 

how I went from a senior member of the Senior Executive Service 

to a non-supervisory advisor with no responsibility, no accountability, and no duties? I think the cost—I think my wife would tell 

you, Senator, the cost has been inordinate and enormous. 

Chairman JOHNSON. OK. Thank you. Mr. Ducos-Bello. 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. Thank you. For me, the biggest cost has been 

watching my son trying to jump out of his high school roof because 

he saw his father lost his uniform, his weapon. He has always been 

very proud of my career and the way I performed my duties, not 

only at work, but off duty. I have raised three excellent children. 

But, it was the most costing and emotionally devastating thing that 

I had to do, receive that phone call that no father wants to receive, 

that your son is on the roof of his high school getting ready to jump 

because his father is going through a whistleblower retaliation action. 

Luckily, I was there. I got in time. The police were there and the 

fire department was there with the jumping blanket. He finally 

jumped and he was held by Montgomery County Police and he 

would not let anybody arrest him. He has to be arrested by his father. And, with great pain, I picked my son, who is autistic, to 

come down to the office, put the handcuffs on him, and took him 

to the patrol, and then I followed in my vehicle and spent 2 days 

in the hospital talking to him that my problem was going to be resolved eventually, that patience will pay off. Financially, it has cost me over $41,000 in lawyers’ fees just to 

keep my job. I am in that up to my neck, but as a responsible citizen, I pay all of them and waiting, hopefully, that one day I can 

be compensated for all the troubles that financially I have put myself into because I did the right thing. 

Chairman JOHNSON. OK—— 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. This is very hard for me. I mean, I am reliving something that no father wants to relive. But, it has put a 

strain, like Mr. Keegan said, put a big strain on my 26-year marriage. But, luckily for me, I have a very supporting wife that I can 

talk to. I used the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), went to 

therapy and talked to a counselor and she told me, ‘‘You have not 

done anything wrong. You should be proud of yourself.’’ 

And, why did we create this new enhancement Whistleblower 

Protection Act in 2012 if we are not going to clear the air and punish the guilty and protect the whistleblower? 

Chairman JOHNSON. OK. Thank you. Ms. Johnson. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Yes, sir. I think a few things that folks said, just 

kind of about protecting people in power. The Lieutenant Colonel 

here, just having a little bit of common sense and starting a conversation could just—there was not that communication there. 

And, I think, ultimately, as far as reasons, it is protecting people. 

It is maybe our leadership not having the courage to kind of stand 

up and say, OK, these are our people. We need to take care of 

them. It is supposed to be a family. And, that is not all their fault. 

There have been a lot of people with the merger, and, we are all 

dealing with a number of things. 
29 

Chairman JOHNSON. OK. Again, I was looking for the cost. I 

mean, what—— 

Ms. JOHNSON. Oh, I thought you said the cause. I am sorry. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Oh, I am sorry. Cost. 

Ms. JOHNSON. I apologize. There is always that financial cost 

with legal fees. I had a great job, so I adopted my two little girls. 

So, I have two older ones from my first—so, I have four kids, and 

I am in the middle of an adoption. My salary was affected. I did 

not get a step increase. So, not only did I add two kids to my 

household, but I did not get my increase. They finally did fix that. 

But, the phone calls. There is a huge expense just to being an 

active member of your family. I mean, the joy is kind of, like, 

sucked out of your life. I am pretty fun, and I like to work hard 

and go home and play hard. You lose a little bit of that, because 

it really just sucks it out of you. 

Chairman JOHNSON. OK. Thank you. Lieutenant Colonel. 

Colonel AMERINE. I mean, for me, I had to burn 2 months of 

leave that I had intended to use for retirement leave, so that was 

about $18,000, because initially when my security clearance was 

suspended, they moved me out of a ‘‘top secret’’ facility to put me 

in a ‘‘secret’’ open storage facility, where my presence in and of 

itself would have represented a security violation while I am under 

investigation for a security violation. 

So, I mean, I took 2 months’ leave just to get out of there and 

to not potentially further incriminate myself, and then thanks to 

my JAG, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Ruhling, I was able to finally get 

assigned to a position where I would not be committing a security 

violation by going to work. 

There are some legal fees. We will see how far that goes. But, 

I mean, the broader cost to me is what it shows the younger soldiers and officers in the Army. I mean, we always have difficulty 

with our junior officers and our junior noncommissioned officers, 

showing them that remaining in the military, working your way up 

the ranks is something you ought to aspire to do. And, I mean, 

here are all these officers that I knew as cadets that are seeing 

what is happening to me and the example set for them is terrible. 

And, what does it do to the Army? The Army is killing itself with 

things like this. When you go after people who are reporting significant issues and crimes, when you go after people who are whistleblowing, although I still loathe the term, you end up setting a 

terrible example for all the other people that are seeing the retaliation. So, that is the cost to me that matters, is what it is doing to 

my Army. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel. I think 

that, really, is, in the end, the final answer of why. Whether it is 

organizational or it is protecting somebody else, it is really trying 

to make an example of somebody so the next person does not step 

forward. Is that not kind of the bottom line? Senator Carper. 

Senator CARPER. Again, thank you so much for being here, for 

sharing your stories with us, and again for your service, past and 

present, to our country. 

Several of you said things that reminded me of a sad chapter in 

our State last week when we buried the son of Joe Biden and Jill 

Biden. And, Joe Biden has this saying that I have heard him use 
30 

any number of times when he has spoken at funerals, and he has 

said, talking to the family of the deceased, that his hope was that 

the day would come when the thought of that individual would 

bring a smile to their face before it brought a tear to their eye. 

Now, several of you said the word ‘‘whistleblower’’ is not a term 

of endearment, and my hope is that you live long enough, and we 

do, too, that just like Vice President Biden talked about the 

thought of a loved one bringing a smile to the face of the surviving 

family members, my hope is that in the future, people in our government, in our country, when they hear the term ‘‘whistleblower,’’ 

that it will bring a smile to their face before it brings a tear to 

their eye. So, that is one thing. 

The second thing I want to say, I want to go back to Dover Air 

Force Base. Dover Air Force Base is one of the finest Air Force 

bases in the world. Some of you have been there, and they are one 

of the best—they are maybe the best airlift base we have in the 

country, in the world. And, they had a sacred duty there that involved not so much airlift as it did a mortuary and receiving the 

bodies or the remains of our fallen heroes. 

And, there were things that were going on in that mortuary that 

were inappropriate, that were wrong, and there were some of the 

folks who worked there knew about it and tried to get it changed 

from within, were not successful, and they ended up going outside. 

They came to our office, our Senate office, and we were not sure 

initially that this—they were credible, but they won us over. They 

convinced us that they were there for the right reasons. 

The Office of Special Counsel got involved, and I want to tell you, 

I was impressed. Going into that, I did not know a lot about the 

Office of Special Counsel, but they were like a dog with a bone trying to make sure that justice was done. 

And, I go to the Air Force Base a lot. It is an important constituent of ours, of our delegation. And, one of the last visits, I 

went over to the base last year—I have been there since—but I 

went back to the mortuary. It is an incredible facility. Some of the 

hardest work that is done by anybody I have ever served with in 

the military was the work that folks did there with the remains. 

If you have ever been there, it is incredible work they do. I applaud 

them for the work that they do. 

But, some people thought it did not adhere to the high standards 

that they should have. But, I went back to the mortuary last year, 

and when I walked in, the first couple of people I saw were the 

whistleblowers. And, I looked around to find the colonel who used 

to run the place. Long gone. And, I looked around for the civilian 

personnel who reported to the colonel. Long gone. And, who was 

running the place? Well, the team that included the whistleblowers, more committed than ever to doing the right thing. 

Mr. Devine, I want to ask you, talk a little bit about the entity, 

the counsel, the Special Counsel that actually got involved in this 

case in Dover. I am sure that is not the only instance where they 

did the Lord’s work and made sure that justice was done. But, talk 

about the work that they do throughout the government. In this 

case, it was in a military installation. Just talk about the work that 

they do and how can we help them do a better job. 
31 

Mr. DEVINE. Well, they have made the—I think the Office of Special Counsel is probably the best agency in the Federal Government 

for whistleblowers to seek justice. As we say, it is a low bar, but 

they are doing their best there. And, it is particularly impressive, 

because just 4 years ago, they were coming out of chaos where they 

were the subject of FBI raids and the previous Special Counsel was 

convicted of criminal misconduct. So, they have come a long ways. 

The areas where we are the most impressed with them are their 

alternative dispute resolution, which is probably the most effective 

unit in the Federal Government at making a difference and getting 

speedy resolution with just results for whistleblowers. They have 

been very aggressive in using their new authority under the WPEA 

to file amicus curiae briefs, friend of the court briefs, that have 

been outstanding. They have increased their corrective actions significantly there. They have overhauled their Disclosure Unit for 

whistleblowers who try and make a difference so that it is much 

more employee friendly and can hold the agencies accountable for 

following up and acting on the problems that are confirmed. Those 

are all very positive developments. 

We think that they can do better in their Complaints Examining 

Unit. The quality of the reviews for screening these cases for investigation is extremely uneven, in my experience, in reports that we 

receive. We think that they need to go for stays, temporary relief, 

more frequently. That has actually been going down slightly in recent years, and that is the single most important factor that there 

is for whistleblowers to get an acceptable ending. 

And, finally, we think they need to actually litigate some cases. 

The OSC has told me that, well, the reason they do not litigate is 

the agencies always surrender whenever they recommend corrective—— 

Senator CARPER. The agencies what? 

Mr. DEVINE. They have said that they never really have a chance 

to go to trial and defeat a retaliation case because the agencies always surrender. 

Senator CARPER. Oh, OK. 

Mr. DEVINE. I think maybe they are picking on the wrong enemies or the wrong issues. We can help them find some whistleblower cases where the agencies will fight back on disputes that 

make a difference. 

Senator CARPER. All right. 

A closing thought, if I could. Again, our thanks to each of you 

for joining us today, and for your service to our country, past and 

present. 

I would note, as I did earlier in my opening statement, I think 

the Chairman did, as well, we have before us five very impressive 

people, but missing at the table are those who have another perspective on the stories that you have told and I think we need to 

keep that in mind. These are matters that are still being adjudicated, and we will have to let the process go forward. 

I am encouraged by what you said, Mr. Devine, about the 

changes that flowed from the adoption of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancements Act that we passed in 2012 with my support. 

I think it might have been before the Chairman joined us here. 

But, I am encouraged that it is working. 
32 

[Telephone ringing.] 

I am also thankful to those of you who turned off your cell 

phones before you came in. [Laughter.] 

The last thing I want to say is this. You all have talked about 

your core values. I do not know if you knew it or not, but you have. 

And, I have my own. The Chairman has his own. Actually, they are 

pretty similar, and I will close with these. No. 1, figure out the 

right thing to do. Just do it. Not the easy thing, not the expedient 

thing, what is the right thing to do. We all need to do that, including the folks who are running these agencies where you feel that 

you have not been treated well. 

Second is the Golden Rule. Treat other people the way we want 

to be treated, the most important rule of all. 

And the third—I have referenced it already, and the idea is to 

focus on excellence in everything we do. If it is not perfect, make 

it better. Everything I do, I know I can do better. All these agencies 

we have throughout the Federal Government, we can do better. We 

need to focus on, ‘‘in order to form a more perfect Union.’’ 

And, the last one is, just do not give up. If you know you are 

right, you think you are right—— 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. Never. 

Senator CARPER [continuing]. Just do not give up. Never give up. 

And, I think those are some of the core values that I hear sounded 

here today, and they are good values for us as individuals and, I 

think, for Congress and for our country. 

Thank you again. God bless. 

Mr. DUCOS-BELLO. Amen. 

Chairman JOHNSON. Thank you, Senator Carper. 

I would also like to thank all of our witnesses for, again, your 

thoughtful testimony, your thoughtful answers to our questions, 

your courage for coming forward. I want to thank every whistleblower that has the courage to come forward to tell the truth. 

I agree with the goal of the Lloyd-LaFollette Act, an anti-retaliation law that created a no-exceptions right to communicate with 

Congress, which is why we have set up our website, 

whistleblower@RonJohnson.senate.gov. So, again, I want to encourage other individuals of courage to come forward. It is the only way 

we are going to reform government, reform bureaucracy, is if people know about it, if the public has the light of day shone upon 

abuse and corruption. So, again, thank you all for your testimony, 

for coming forward. 

The hearing record will remain open for 15 days, until June 26, 

at 5 p.m., for the submission of statements and questions for the 

record. 

This hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 12:27 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.] 
(33) 

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