Please ask U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), to put a “hold” on Carolyn Lerner’s nomination to a second five year term as Special Counsel, the head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC).

Stand in solidarity with Joseph P. Carson, PE about Carolyn Lerner!

Joseph Carson, PE, has been defending and upholding the merit principles of the federal civil service – the statutory foundation for federal agency employment – for a quarter of a century. Carson publicly claims, regardless of risk to his professional engineer (PE) license, federal job and benefits, that Carolyn Lerner lacks the moral courage to be Special Counsel. Mr. Carson’s opinion is that she should not be Special Counsel unless she will state, under oath, that she will publicly resign if OSC does not obtain the resources it needs to be a credible federal law enforcement agency – that it can adequately protect, on an objective basis, federal employees who risk their jobs to protect American’s health, safety, security and welfare.

Instead of doing this, Engineer Carson claims Ms. Lerner does everything she can to evade any objective review of how OSC interprets and applies about a dozen specific civil service laws – laws essential to protecting the integrity of the federal civil service. She apparently does so by reasoning that since she is an attorney employed by OSC, she must do everything she can to protect OSC from any finding that it has been breaking these laws. In this, Ms. Lerner seems to be like the Catholic bishops who did everything they could to prevent exposure of how pedophile priests preyed on innocent youth, “for the good of the Church.”

Before voting on Ms. Lerner’s confirmation, the HSGAC should, at a minimum, require Ms. Lerner obtain from the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice its opinions:

1) As to whether OSC has jurisdiction to receive, consider, and its discretion, refer to the involved agency head, per 5 U.S.C. section 1213(g)(1), whistleblower disclosures made to it by individuals such as federal agency contractor employees, local and State agency employees or officials, and/or concerned citizens (such as medical doctors or others in Flint, Michigan) about “any violation of any law, rule, or regulation” involving a federal agency or entities it regulates or about “a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety” involving a federal agency or entity it regulates. 

• NOTE:  Mr. Carson claims that Ms. Lerner is the only federal official, outside the President, who could have directed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy, to investigate the concerns of Flint, Michigan citizens, pursuant to Title 5 U.S.C. section 1213(g)(1). Ms. Lerner claims she has no such power. The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) stated the “plain reading of the law” is that she does have the power in its separate initial and final decisions for Carson v. Department of Energy, docket no. AT-1221-14-0520-W-1.

2) As to whether civilian employees in any or all of the federal agencies or agency components that comprise America’s “intelligence community” (IC) have a statutory right to make “protected” classified whistleblower disclosures to OSC, per 5 U.S.C. section 2302(b)(8)(B), because the definitions of prohibited personnel practices (PPPs) apply to them, regardless of whether OSC has jurisdiction to protect them from PPPs.

MESSAGE TO SENATOR JOHNSON:  I stand in solidarity with Joseph P. Carson, PE and request that the HSGAC not vote on Ms. Lerner’s confirmation until she cooperates in obtaining answers to the above two important questions about OSC’s duty to protect American health, safety, security and welfare.