To:
Jackson, Ryan[jackson.ryan@epa.gov]
From: The Washington Post
Sent: Fri 6/9/2017 4:00:34 PM
Subject: [SPAM] Federal Insider: Special Counsel Lerner leaves office as Trump rejects highly praised
whistleblower advocate
Special Counsel Lerner leaves office as Trump rejects highly praised whistleblower advocate
By Joe Davidson
Shirine Moazed and Elizabeth McMurray (L-R ) look on as Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner hands whistleblower James Parsons an honorary award in 2012. Parsons works at the Dover Mortuary. The whistleblowers' case resulted In major changes in the way soldiers' remains are treated at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary. (Photo by Daniel C. Britt / The Washington Post)
The defining moment for the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) after Carolyn Lerner becam-r b-ad of the agency was a gruesome one about body parts and a dismembered Marine.
It's not the usual fare for the office on M Street NW that deals with Hatch Act violations and prohibited personnel practices. But protecting whistleblowers is where OSC makes its reputation -- as in the 2011 case involving the Defense Department's Port Mortuary in Dover, Del.
Soon this little but powerful office will have a m w special counsel. acting the advice of Republicans and Democrats to keep Lerner, President Trump has nominated Henry Kerner to take her place. He is a former Republican congressional staffer and currently assistant vice president at the Cause of Action Institute, a small-government advocacy organization.
Lerner, who leaves office on June 14, had been on the job only
months
when s
/ealed reports by federal employees of grisly transgressions at
the morgue operated by the < i rwce. Body parts were lost in t"0 cases,
and in another, the office reported that the mangled body of a Marine "was
dismembered with a saw in order to make the body fit insid
litary
uniform, without the consent or notification of the family."
With a staff that wouldn't begin to fill or
itagon hallway, Lerner humbled
and embarrassed the Defense Department, the government's largest
agency. Lawmakers were appalled. The Air Force secretary at the time
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expressed his sincere "regret" for "lapses in o ?r wandards at Dover," a non apologetic understatement.
Th tion of the Office of Special . n insel -- no relation to a special prosecutor or to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election -- secured mortuary reforms and protected the employees who were targets of Air Force retaliation.
"I think that we have sent the federal community a message that whistleblowers should be valued," Lerner said Monday in her office overlooking St. Matthew's Cathedral. "Whistleblowers now feel comfortable coming forward, and that is helping our government."
federal agencies thatviolate whistleblower rights. ,
. x. X1
LeadingThe Office of Special Counsel requires a deep appreciation for the
gove
n
gra
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(prohibited personnel practices]........................ more than double the annual average," the office said in its budget justification to Congress. "In the last two years, OSC has achieved five times the number of favorable actions in whistleblower retaliation complaints than in any prior two-year period in agency history.... In FY 2016, for the second straight year, OSC received upwards of 6,000 new matters, a 25 percent increase over the prior two-year period."
Sen. Charles E. Grassle
owa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee. "Her leadership should be a road map for future leaders of this
office."
The Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus, founded by Grassley and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), had urged the Trump administration to retain Lerner.
"I am disappointed the president chose not to take Sen. Grassley's and my recommendation to renominate Carolyn Lerner, who is an experienced leader with bipartisan support," said Wyden.
It's also bicameral. Before Trump's decision, Rep. Rod Blum (Iowa), Republican chairman of the House Whistleblower Protection Caucus, led a bipartisan House letter saying Lerner deserved another term. Among those who signed was Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Lerner turned the Office ui Special Counsel "into a model agency and set the bar as the head of that office," Cummings said by email Monday. "She
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served with independence and tenacity to hold agency officials accountable when they retaliated against whistleblowers."
Read more:
[Trump's new VA office to help fire feds faster also could hurt, not protect, whistleblowers!
[Energy Department whistleblower finally gets justice, despite agency neglect]
(Trump withdraws reappointment nomination of popular whistleblower advocate]
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