Dear Mr. President:
I’m writing to encourage your efforts to achieve a more accountable and transparent government. You and I share this goal, and based on my efforts over many years, I appreciated what you said about openness and accountability on the campaign trail so many times and during your first month in office. Elected officials hold a public trust and have an obligation to take every step possible to rid government bureaucracy of waste, fraud and abuse, and to have the public’s business be public.
One thing I’ve asked every president since Ronald Reagan to do is to hold a Rose Garden ceremony honoring whistleblowers. No one has done so yet, but I hope that you will based on your strong statements about accountability in government. I’m writing this letter to urge you to do so.
A Rose Garden ceremony honoring whistleblowers, with the President of the United States lauding the sacrifice of those who shoulder great personal risk for the greater public good,
would exemplify the accountability and responsibility you’ve challenged the nation to embrace.
It would send a loud and clear signal from the very top of government to the very lowest levels of government that waste, fraud and abuse won’t be tolerated. It would rally private citizens,
including those employed by government contractors, and government employees alike that blowing the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse is not only the right thing to do, it’s also each individual’s civic responsibility.
In the Senate I’ve worked to champion the noble efforts of the whistleblowers with legislation and advocacy in individual cases. The whistleblowers I’ve gotten to know stood up when it was risky, when it was hard and when it wasn’t popular. In exchange for risking their livelihoods to do what’s right for the good of the country, most of these whistleblowers were treated like skunks at a Sunday afternoon picnic and far worse. Ernie Fitzgerald, one of the first federal government whistleblowers I ever met, described it well when he said whistleblowers were guilty of nothing more than “committing truth."
Mr. President, you could help to change this culture with a Rose Garden ceremony and,
in turn, uproot wrongdoing and strengthen transparency, good government and accountability through the federal bureaucracy, as you’ve said you want to do. Again, it’s my hope that you will act at this moment to honor whistleblowers with a Rose Garden ceremony. I look forward to working with you to achieve greater transparency in government.
Sincerely,
Chuck Grassley of Iowa United States Senator
