Are you writing these days . A colleague and i conducted a survey of washington officials. Because everyone is always surveying americans to see what they think of washington, we said, lets survey washington to see what it thinks of america. So we surveyed officials and what i will call members of the policy community, that is the contractors, who often are interchangeable with officials, people who work in think tanks, everyone involved in developing rules and regulations. So i said, we want to see what they thought of americans. In fact, my original title for this book was what the government thinks of the people. Government thinks of the people. But publishers never like my titles, they always say my titles are no good. All right. So at any rate, i sent out so we wanted to find out what officials thought of us ordinary americans. She said, well, thats kind of interesting, but she said, Everybody Knows that ordinary americans are a bunch of idiots. Why do you need to do a survey to f
With . Prof. Ginsberg absolutely. This is a true story and those who live in washington have probably heard versions of the story. I was at a dinner party and sitting next to me was a pretty senior hhs executive, someone whom i have known for a long time, very nice person. And she said to me, well, what are you writing these days . So i said, a colleague and i conducted a survey of washington officials. Because everyone is always surveying americans to see what they think of washington, we said, lets survey washington to see what it thinks of america. So we surveyed officials and what i will call members of the policy community, that is the contractors, who often are interchangeable with officials, people who work in think tanks, everyone involved in developing rules and regulations. So i said, we want to see what they thought of americans. In fact, my original title for this book was what the government thinks of the people. But publishers never like my titles, they always say my titl
At any time. Today is the subcommittee entitled learning from va whistle blowers. On june 25th the subcommittee began this hearing to discuss the importance of va whistle blowers. We heard testimony from people inside the va who raised major questions and concerns about critical problems that affect the health and wellbeing of veterans. These witnesses were willing to blow the whistle even when it risked their live lee hood and careers. Unfortunately we learned that the va continues to struggle with the culture of retaliation against whistle blowers. In too many instances va leadership and supervisors have turned a blind eye to those in vas work force that have pointed out Serious Problems or attempted to support bad actors and even worse the whistle blowers are often the target of active retaliation. One striking example came from doctor catherine mitchells testimony. In 2014 she was one of a group of people working at the Phoenix Va Medical Center that exposed the existence of a secr
Subcommittee leaders say that is just one example. The subcommittee will come to order. Without objection the chair has authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. The subcommittee is convening a hearing on the document production efforts on the office of personnel management, the federal bureau of investigation and the General Services administration in response to various committees and subcommittee document request. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. I want to thank the witnesses for being here although i know there could be more comfortable hearings to attend. I regret we need to have this hearing. We are here because opm, the fbi has not substantially complied with the committees request for documents from several months ago. We will witness the stunning lack of cooperation across the administration in response to multiple congressional investigations. For this committee to inform its important constitutional oversight mission, we must have documents
At any time. Today is the subcommittee entitled learning from va whistle blowers. On june 25th the subcommittee began this hearing to discuss the importance of va whistle blowers. We heard testimony from people inside the va who raised major questions and concerns about critical problems that affect the health and wellbeing of veterans. These witnesses were willing to blow the whistle even when it risked their live lee hood and careers. Unfortunately we learned that the va continues to struggle with the culture of retaliation against whistle blowers. In too many instances va leadership and supervisors have turned a blind eye to those in vas work force that have pointed out Serious Problems or attempted to support bad actors and even worse the whistle blowers are often the target of active retaliation. One striking example came from doctor catherine mitchells testimony. In 2014 she was one of a group of people working at the Phoenix Va Medical Center that exposed the existence of a secr