Congress relies on whistleblowers
They help Congress and the public identify and understand
there's been a strong bipartisan consensus in Congress
And Congress has historically supported them,
POGO advises members of Congress on both sides of the aisle
Congress has made strides to pass whistleblower legislation,
We strongly urge Congress to continue its historic tradition
Is it a way for the government to hide from Congress?
In addition to that, what lessons from these oversight failures should guide Congress in approaching UAP oversight?
Generally speaking, we would advise this Congress to ensure that agencies adopt general policy in favor of disclosure instead of a knee-jerk needing to over-classify information and documents.
Can you speak to how whistleblowers have historically helped Congress uncover the truth in other areas and how that might apply here?
So, again, Congress has always relied on whistleblowers coming forward and making disclosures in a number of different issues across different agencies, anything from national security to airline safety, railway safety, environmental concerns, workplace health and safety, a lot of issues coming out of the COVID pandemic, for example.
People look at Congress, especially now, and they see a lack of unity.
How can Congress further increase whistleblower protections?
And has that information been withheld from Congress?
There are servers where there's a whole bank of these kind of videos that Congress has
In 1989, Congress passed the Whistleblower Protection Act and then broadened it again in 2012 to
What was told to me by an investigator from Congress, a guy named Richard D'Amato, who was sent after this story by Robert Byrd and Harry Reid, he came out to Nevada, tried to get into Area 51, did get in there, looked around, talked to people, trying to get to the bottom of it.
about UAPs. It's about government integrity, responsible use of taxpayer funds in Congress's
those who speak out, Congress has to keep pushing until the facts, whatever they are, wherever they lead,
Congress? Yes. Okay. Were you or your crew ever instructed formally or informally not to document or discuss the event? Ever? No. Good. Mr. Borland, you've talked about manipulation of your security clearance records. Can you identify which agencies or offices were responsible and whether they provided any written justification? I can do that in a SCIF, sir, 100 percent, because of being a part of a multi-agency special access
Thank you, Madam Chair. First question, Mr. Borland, earlier today you mentioned that under, in a SCIF, you would be able to discuss whether a member of Congress is actually legally able to access certain information. Under what authority would a member of Congress be restricted from accessing information on this topic even within a SCIF?
So you can, you know, Congress can file all kinds of requests.
Tim Burchett and the other members for sticking with it because, you know, it's come up in Congress before and they had hearings and then they dropped it for 50 years.
So, I mean, percentage wise of the documents that you submitted to Congress, what was public already and what was not newly released?