Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, last week, I introduced an amendment to the American Energy Innovation Act. My amendment addresses a critical shortcoming with whistleblower protections currently available to power sector employees and those who are responsible for maintaining and securing our Nation's electric grid.

For those who are unfamiliar, the electric grid is managed by a patchwork of public and private entities. Unfortunately, that means patchy coverage for energy sector employees under our current whistleblower protection laws. Federal workers are covered under the Whistleblower Protection Act, but other workers have to rely on State and local laws for protection if they exist.

For many on the frontlines, these whistleblower protection laws don't exist. Just last year, according to a news report, power company employees raised concerns about equipment introduced to improve efficiency that they believed posed a threat to starting wildfires. I hope we all remember the fires in California--I think 1 and 2 years ago or 2 and 3 years ago--with terrible destruction, terrible loss of life. Eighty-five people in California, I think, lost their lives because of that type of fire.

One of these employees raised his concern about the threat of this equipment starting wildfires. It was reported that he was fired for simply blowing the whistle. If it turns out the employee was fired for blowing the whistle in the interest of public safety, that should be unacceptable to all of us.

As a country, we should be encouraging whistleblowers who know of threats to the security of our electric grid to come forward and report what they know. We owe it to them to ensure that when they do, they will be protected--in other words, not lose their job. Isn't that common sense?

That is exactly what my amendment does. My amendment makes it clear that power sector employees who report threats to our electric grid are protected from retaliation; if they are fired, they can file a complaint with the U.S. Secretary of Labor. In that regard, this amendment brings whistleblower protections for energy sector employees in line with more than a dozen other whistleblower laws established by the Congress in recent years. I have been involved in a lot of those whistleblower protection laws.

Next week is Sunshine Week--a time when we celebrate the importance of transparency and accountability in government. With transparency, you get accountability, and the public's business ought to be public. The protection of our citizens from forest fires that are a result of bad equipment that electric companies are using--if you report unsafe conditions, you shouldn't be fired for it.

When we think about securing our electric grid, sunlight and transparency bring accountability, but they also bring attention to potential risks to our public safety and to our national security. They can potentially save lives. That is something I am certain we can all get behind and should be behind.

I am very thankful to Senator Markey for cosponsoring the amendment and for his support of this amendment. I strongly encourage all of my colleagues to support this amendment as well.

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