MUST WATCH: Dems & GOP in Lockstep Against Sexual Assault on Women FireF...

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I have an important hearing today examining sexual harassment and gender discrimination of the united states department of agriculture earlier this year that committee held two hearings about sexual harassment throughout the National Park Service and that these hearings whistleblowers told the committee their stories of harassment discrimination and retaliation they feared in coming forward while many changes are still needed the Park Service has begun the process of dealing with their cultural problems and remove some bad managers from their positions of leadership.
Unfortunately this problem is not contained to the park service and I would also say that the EPA where we've had a number of hearings but after the committee's Park Service hearings numerous Department of Agriculture employees who were subject to sexual assault harassment and discrimination also came forward to the committee number of examples and despicable acts were quite horrifying some of these women had even been raped by co-workers but refused to testify to the threat of retaliation having their careers destroyed.
I don't even begin to comprehend or understand how one instance of this behavior is not considered an immediate crisis that has just beyond me this isn't the first time the issue has been raised at the Department of Agriculture and that's this hearing because this is the the deep concern 2008 the committee held a hearing regarding sexual harassment and discrimination at the united states department of agriculture Lisa Donnelly was with us today also testified at that hearing back then she played for us for help for the employees the Forest Service were sexually assaulted and then retaliated against even worse when these concerns were raised to the department level they were just dismissed as isolated incidents after eight years of the current in the current situation we need to review what has changed and what still needs to be fixed and based on what we've been reading the leading up to this hearing it doesn't look good not in the least.
Last year the Office of Special Counsel the osc sent letters to the president about the failings of the office of civil rights of the Department of Agriculture I we we leaned heavily on the Office of Special Counsel it is unusual that they have to go to this length to actually send a letter to the president about the failings but the Office of Special Counsel found that the office failed to process complaints in a timely manner and that the office of civil rights leadership had an unusual high number of complaints against their own personnel how can employees trust the office of civil rights when its own leadership is alleged to be discriminating even worse when the ranking member mr. Cummings try to investigate this problem the department failed to produce documents and generally dismissed SAFF concerns why the right the ranking member and I sent another letter just last week requesting the documents the Department refused to provide it is frowned upon the best it is unacceptable and very frustrating to have this happen in addition to miss Donnelly i'd like to acknowledge we are joined today by a forest service employee testifying in a whistleblower capacity she should be applauded for agreeing to come forward despite the fear of possible retaliation it is difficult to do this it is not her first choice in life i'm sure this is not something that she ever thought that she would be doing but we appreciate the brave approach and willingness to represent which is what is unfortunately a significant number of women however the committee staff spoke with numerous other employees who were so scared of retaliation they wouldn't come forward publicly but we do a plate appreciate his rice and her willingness to be with here today I want to be absolutely clear absolutely clear that any retaliation against any witness before this committee or a victim of sexual harassment is totally completely unacceptable and grave lead concerns the committee and I can promise you and assure you that mr. Cummings and I as well as members on both sides of this I'll will fight and push and defend these people who are whistleblowers who are trying to do what is right for the country trying to do what's right for them personally and trying to do what's right for their fellow employees so I want to thank the ranking member and his staff for their work on this issue i know it takes a threat of retaliation against whistleblowers as seriously as we do we are united locked in arm on this and look forward to a good hearty hearing.
But with that I want to think again the witnesses for being here today and now recognize the ranking member mr. cummings of maryland chairman very much and I want to start off where you end it without question.
German i agree with you that we stand hand in hand with regard to making sure that whistleblowers are not victims of retaliation and we said it many times and sometimes i wonder whether folk in the various departments really hear us but I want to make it real real clear that i will fight for whistleblower and fight to protect them because i do is i agree with the chairman for whistleblowers to come forward to provide testimony and after already being in many instances of victim and then to have to go through a process of worrying about whether they keep their job or whether harm comes to them I we are simply a better country than that back in September when our committee convened to hear testimony for whistleblowers in the National Park Service began by expressing the very simple principles that have guided my work on civil rights in the federal workplace over the past two decades i will receive them today no employing should ever be afraid to come to work.
Let me say that again no employee should ever be afraid to come to work real simple sentence but that's the way it should be they shouldn't be afraid to to come to work and no employees never fear retaliation if she steps forward to be for conduct that makes her feel afraid I think Lisa Donnelly and denise rice for their willingness to come forward today Donnelly who worked for the forest service from 1978 until her retirement in 2002 now assist others who have experienced sexual harassment and retaliation.
So I want to thank you Miss not only for your work you have taken your pain turned out to a passion to do your purpose pain passion purpose this rice is a fire prevention technician was work for the forest service for more than a decade and I like to chairman know that it has been very difficult for you to come forward today to speak about your experiences and I deeply appreciate your courage I say after told us about how difficult this is for you and I promise you we will be as gentle as we can be but just know that the people up here are friends and we want to make life better for you and for the people that you have come to represent for more than 40 years the forest service's repeatedly faced litigation alleging discrimination against female employees a lawsuit evolved in early in the early nineteen seventies let me say that again early nineteen seventies.
And another loss involved in the mid-nineteen ninety's each resulted in long-term consent decrees despite the changes required by those this consent decrees we can just continue to receive disturbing allegations of discrimination and retaliation 40 years after the first lawsuit 40 years 40 years of harassment 40 years of pain 40 years of lost opportunity 40 years of fear is along it's long past time for the forest service to finally break its toxic cycle of Sue settle and backslide sooo settling backslide to settle and backslide.
While many steps must be taken to ensure that all force employees work in an environment free from discrimination and harassment when critical step must be ensuring that the process of handling EEO complaints is effective and efficient in both the agency and the departmental levels today we're joined by the Department of Agriculture's assistant secretary for civil rights dr. Joe limit I've known dr. limit for many years I appreciate his commitment to protecting civil rights and I thank him for being here today is dr. knows i was deeply troubled my letter that the Office of Special Counsel said to the president back in may have 2015 which the Chairman reference this letter was unprecedented and it was extremely deserving than that i haven't seen a letter like that since I've been here and I'm in 20 or 20 years it one President Obama said USDA's civil rights program and i quote has been seriously mismanaged thereby compromising the civil rights of us VA employees and the quote is stated that the civil rights office quote.
Has an unusually high number of complaints found against it its own leadership and the quote is stated that corrective actions did not quote provide sufficient redress for affected individuals and recommended that USDA review their faces a game quote to assess how affected employees could be made whole and the quote the follow up on this troubling letter I I as a follow-up i sent a request of my own to usda a year ago seeking information about its management of the EEO complaints implants were making their employees whole unfortunately I've been extremely frustrated and disappointed by the response i received from the Department officials they provided some information.
No that's true but they did not treat my request with the seriousness i believe it deserved this is extremely important to me and it's really important to this committee and this unprecedented letter to the President of the United States should have spurred the department to make an overwhelming effort to fully cooperate with my request and try to get this right.
Unfortunately that is not what happened for these reasons i was pleased that the Chairman join me this month and a new request to usda from this Community for data on EEO complaints filed against senior USDA managers as well as for internal and external reports that assessing yesterday's helling of the EEO complaints as i close mr. Chairman I just want to say something to the department.
I'm you know I don't want you to come in here and rope-a-dope just come here and tell us the nice things that have happened and not tell us how you address these issues and how you plan to address them things have been going on for 40 years that's a long time and so on again I emphasize this is not a Republican issue it's not a democratic issue this is an American issue with that mr. Chairman I you been thank the gentleman where you are now recognized please bring that bring that microphone up their ego thank you good morning chairman Chaffetz and ranking member Cummings and members of the committee thank you and it's an honor to be here.
My name is denise rice and i have been in structure is determined could I ask that the witness please speak into the microphone directly we can hear my name is denise rice and I have worked both in structured in wildland fire for over 20 years i truly love my job and the people i work with in 2011.
I reported to my supervisor that I was being sexually harassed by my second line supervisor women are often disregarded not taken seriously and passed over i have personally experienced this the agency provides protections for its offenders often promoting them while the victims are shattered left behind and nowhere to turn.
Women are treated differently in regards to training assignments and promotion women who report sexual harassment are repeatedly retaliate retaliate against it is your word against theirs the moment you speak up.
You're committing career suicide zero tolerance is baloney.
The system is rigged against women for reporting sexual harassment and assault that the agency protects the offender from 2009-2011 my second line supervisor repeatedly sexually harassed me and assaulted me.
I filed a complaint and the the instant my life changed management remove me of all my supervisor over responsibilities move me from my location isolated me to the office of where the perpetrators friends were and where his wife worked i never have seen received a poor evaluation notice and numerous investigations were held there was an OG investigation with multiple interviews with multiple enter investigators I had to relieve relive these incidences over and over and over again one of the end one of the investigators provided graphic details to my peers of what my second line supervisor had done to me including the assault.
I had lost my reputation my dignity when they made my situation public my family was destroyed my husband felt helpless because he wasn't allowed to protect me my life was a living hell another example is when the district Ranger called and all hands fire meeting with all my peers and fire to discuss what happened to me and what was happening to the perpetrator and investigations.
I begged him not to make me tend I was directed to go as soon as the district Ranger started discussing what happened to me and people turn to look at me i was on display these are my peers people I've known for years I felt responsible degraded and I was humiliated my perception was I was being blamed for the destruction destruction of the fire organization quickly left the meeting shaking and tears there was talk of putting me on a wall for leaving I was being attacked by the ones who are supposed to protect me the agency protected my perpetrator and while he was under investigation for sexual assault he continued to supervise women and was allowed to take agency paid developmental training to promote his career and act as an act as district Ranger this message meant heat that nothing was wrong and I was the problem I kept hearing he's entitled to due process and this blasted four months after the investigations were done they were given to all distant all the district Rangers who read all the details and once again violating my confidentiality they discussed it and they determined that he needed to be removed but before that we're going to remove him the for supervisor to come out for coffee and advised him the notice he retired the next day and then he was directly hired on a California incident management team which meant he would be a sight if we could both be sorry assigned to the same fire incident allowing him to and allowing him to continually work with women and just this year they brought him back fire management brought him back to give a motivational speech to the Eldorado hotshots on my forest i have since then filed additional reprisal reprisal complaints from working with the coalition to my already will employees and being a class-action agent for the female firefighter class action I know what happened to me happens to women all over the region and Forest Service I don't know of any women who had been able to recover and lead successful careers after filing a sexual harassment claims people need to be held accountable for their actions management needs to protect employees and remove the offenders.
Thank you i'll be glad to answer your questions thank you appreciate sure will now recognize the gentleman from South Carolina mr. Gowdy Thank You mr. chairman this rice only thing i want to thank you for being here this rice and I wanna tell you I doubt any of the members of this committee that i'm looking at now have any idea what you just described but we do realize and recognize courage when we see it and we want to thank you for what we can imagine is impossibly difficult task i want to change gears for just a second you testified earlier on that you loved your job want you to tell the members of the committee what you love most about your job as a firefighter but you're very microphone.
Being in the woods protecting the forest fighting fire that you've done for how long.
Over 20 years all right to the extent you feel comfortable I can you tell the members of the committee what harassment / abused you experience from the perpetrator or just in general from the perpetrator who's constantly making comments he removed me from my office where I had a counterpart to an office back and out of the way where he could come in the office and and make comments and approached me he has a the reason i filed was because i was in his office and we were having an argument and he had taken a letter opener and open my breasts both breasts with a smile on his face and arrogant way like he could get away with it and I just stood there in shock he has cornered being the bathroom he has lifted my shirt up he stopped me I would wait till everybody would leave so I could pull in because i work in the field and he would be waiting for me he called me constantly he interfered with everything he's stopped me this miss lago of this rice testified that the details of her complaint were made public.
Why would that possibly happen well it is not permitted.
It's the first time that I've heard the details were made public / our protocol only people involved in the indent listen I don't want to be rude but I really don't give a damn about protocol do you doubt what miss rice just testified to that the details of her accusations and allegations were made well I'm just saying.
I never heard that before now i'm just so so did you dance do you doubt it is my question now whether or not you've heard it do you doubt it no I don't get it okay well if it's against protocol as you say that you don't doubt that it happened what have you done about it i just heard it i just heard of what are you going to do about it i'm going to ask what happened following her investigation who knew about it and why well if memory serves her perpetrator was allowed to retire that corrected you heard that before today yes ok why why was he allowed to retire when someone is proposed for removal they have a right to either retire or resign so what consequences would there be for his misconduct if he was allowed to retire on there could be legal action such as he could be soon he could be privately by her.
Yeah but we'll get what we want to jordu you were the employer what did you do no you didn't fire and he retired we just established that retired in little being removed from his job but then what if there's no difference between retiring being fired what in firing there must be some benefit to retiring what does that benefit you don't have removal on your record so you did confer a benefit to him despite the fact that you don't out the allegations that you just made we don't have an alternative to fire someone and not offer them retirement well I just heard the most glowing account of all of the improvements that have been made over the past eight years that you mean to tell me that someone can engage in the conduct of this rice just described and avoid all consequence whatsoever / the federal regulations yes someone can retire or resign in lieu of being removed.
Mr. is how long was the investigation ongoing at least six months you testified that you were forced to give multiple armed accounts of your harassment / abuse correct on that would be the antithesis to best practices for sex assault victims so mr. hago y wud victims of sexual harassment or assault be forced to give multiple testimonies are accounts at first the issue was referred to law enforcement lie enforcement referred it to the IG because of the nature of the offense i'm not sure how far the IG investigation went so to answer your question a reason someone might have to give an account more than once is they might have to speak to an oid investigator because of their investigation they might have to speak to law enforcement and if either of those investigations aren't conclusive than we do a misconduct investigation.
Do you agree with what the work this rice described as a crime yes I do alright so she would talk to law enforcement first she spoke to her supervisor ok referred the issue was the first statement made to I don't know alright well let me encourage you to do this in the past when y'all are describing the glowing progress that you've made making victims give multiple accounts tell what happened to them multiple times runs a file of everything every expert and sex assault and sexual harassment cases teach it runs afoul of all of it.
So if you can find a way to limit victims are just having to relive it one time i would encourage you to do so and if you can share the regulations that allow someone to commit the conduct that she just described to be conferred the benefit of retirement as opposed to removal if you could share those regulations with the Chairman and the ranking member i would be most grateful to you I will do that thank you thank the gentleman now recognize the ranking member thank the gentleman i'm going to recognize myself would normally go to Democratic side and we've you she'd miss spear but per the rules of the committee go through members who are on the committee first before we go to those that have been you see Don I want to follow up here is lago what about you said you quote hold people accountable end quote how long you been in this your current position since august of 2011 and how many people since that time have been fired in the last so last year 200 people were fired the year before that a hundred fifteen and how many for sexual harassment in the last three years but having on thermal 70 people have been disciplined for sexual misconduct 30 have been fired or removed with that in when you say or removed when you say remove does that include those that would just retire or quit retire or resign yes.
So then we're all like following up with us.
I don't expect you to memorize all the soft top of your head I need you to detail that for us with specificity don't break it into you can't say fired or just retired I want to see the difference between the two because the the concern is that you don't actually fire somebody they get their full benefits they get everything else.
Now this person is Rice's case why was he hired to come in and provide a motivational speech so I was very disturbed to learn that as well I found out about that last week what I understand is he encountered the eggs the existing hotshot superintendent at an off forest event for retirees are going away party or something like that the current superintendent invited him to a gathering.
It's not clear that that superintendent knew the history.
I'm not sure when the forest supervisor found.
Out after the event where mr. Beckett appeared he sat down all of his staff and said we can't ever have this guy anywhere at any of our functions and that's why the consequences of not having a disciplinary action right just allowing and pat him on the back seen that you know.
Good job how much did you pay them how much the taxpayers pay this guy he wasn't paid to appear they're still the motivational speeches just did it out of the goodness of his heart was just free that's correct there's no paid compensation.
Yes sir nope a Miss rice can you shine and illuminate any based on what you just said what's your perspective of this the superintendent didn't know Beckett you have worked for him for many years you of the incident it it will get them we give me some more details of this heat you worked form and he knew about the incident why would he have known of the incident because the entire Force knew they had haha all hands meeting with all the people from fire he was one of the attendees the one that was detailed in the article The Miz lago says she never read that article the that the current super Intendant for the hotshots used to work for Beckett and was there when I was being harassed he was there not and then he was also there during the investigations he's very aware of what happened to me as long as you do dispute with mr. Rice's saying no i don't so what are you doing about so what we're doing is the forest supervisor instructed his staff never to let that happen again this is going to get a bonus he whom the person who brought in the the person who would do it committed this atrocity against mrs. rice for somebody who had actually approve this and set it up right that person what are you going to do whatwhat's the repercussion to him or her who is that person I'll undertake a misconduct investigation on the actions of that person and you'll get back to us on what what the ramifications are yes I well um explain to me why it takes so long to go through these harassment issues for years said the was the average time that it took and that's been improved to 18 months that's the problem as the program if it was a form complaint that that the that would be the farm sign the program side i'd like to learn more about this I my time is very short i want to go that this is um we have had a lot of interaction with that Carolyn learner she is the the office of this of the Special Counsel she issued this report on a letter to the President on my eighteenth of 2015 ms Lago and mr. Leonard I'd like you to respond to that.
Do you dispute anything in her findings I do and what do you dispute in her findings up for the the the Office of Special Counsel as you know has so much power could have it could have had an order of relief demanding my office take action right away it could have even had a recommendation but it had exactly what it said it said make them whole it didn't provide the direction when I provided the information to okay well I mean I provided the information yesterday he the majority of its important to say alleged discrimination here and there the alleged the information when people lie i would I do this all the time it's not what it says sir it's not what it suggests it doesn't have no radio.
I'll read it to you i'll read it to okay the proposed corrective actions do not provide sufficient redress for affected individuals it doesn't say anything in that sentence about.
Alleged or anything else let me read the paragraph right before because it's it's a it's section for a form with the indulgence of the committee here i'm going to read this i have reviewed the original disclosure the agency reports The Whistleblower comments i have determined that the reports contain all the information required by statute however the agency's finding our part are partially unreasonable as the whistleblowers noted the office of of of the one that you oversee is tasked with providing protecting civil rights of all us a USDA employees as such this office should set the standard not only for processing claims but also for creating environment free of discrimination rather than leading this effort the report confirms that your office mr. Leonard has had an unusual high number of complaints filed against its own leadership in addition almost half of these complaints were not act on in a timely matter and even when they were addressed within the legally mandated period they were processed in a manner that violated agency regulations while the report did not reveal any intentional wrongdoing it demonstrated that OAS see our has been seriously miss manage their fight therefore compromising the civil rights of the USDA employees given the seriousness of these concerns the corrective actions appear to only partially resolved the identified wrongdoing while the adequately address the management and conduct of La scr going forward the proposed corrective actions do not individuals we also have the number of EEO complaints filed against USD a senior manager headquarters going from roughly one in 2011 224 and 2014 with zero findings of discrimination fact / 2011 2015 42 file complaints filed 0 findings of discrimination against senior management via USDA so going back to this special councils letter detail for us where they're wrong but firstly that's just not my office that's all of USDA and understood understood in the context of it but.
My officer was 12 45 year period and we have a hundred forty employees that's a lot that's a lot ten percent the majority of complaints that are on senior leaders in my staff or a chain of command complaint you don't think that's a lot sir.
The majority of the the majority of the complaints or chain of command complaints so they're coming six down so if you don't get a QSI and you want your q SI you put it on the person top of you to plug the window i'm five people remove that but i'm still I'm still in that number.
Ok so I'm just trying to explain the numbers to have an independent person the Office of Special Counsel who sends just a handful letters to the president and she sends one and comes to the finding I want you to explain to us why you think she's wrong she came with the finding yes I just write it to you up in my world is a finding or non finding a finding would have an order of relief attached to it.
You mean in order in order if there's a finding on the Forest Service i'm ordering them to put civil rights placards up i'm ordering people to go to civil rights training i'm ordering imagine you're ordering and that there is i'll try to lessen my time here I'm trying to ask you in this multi page letter where you think she's wrong tell me what you dispute i can i will tell you this.
Our office of in uh inspector general did the investigation of that I and they're going to be a few people who will come to you and say I agree one hundred percent with the Office of Inspector General report I'm not tie agree with it whatsoever put the OS mr. Lambert resistor runner do not owe IGS termination mr. Leonard stop it you always see about mr. Leonard I want you to stop i'm not talking about the inspector general i'm talking about the Office of Special Counsel who sent a letter to the President of the United States.
That is not a common occurrence it happened more than a year ago i'm asking you giving you the opportunity for you to tell me where you think she's wrong I agree with the inspector general report that did the investigation I have concerns with the interpretation of said report.
Okay well we'll revisit this I've gone way past my bedtime.
Um I believe it's mr. hice of Georgian era recognized for five minutes Thank You mr. chairman this longer let me let me get a few these numbers right in my mind again I know you've stated it so forgive me for repeating this but how many for service employees have been terminated the past year for sexual harassment in the last year 1717 for sexual misconduct to be clear it isn't always sexual harassment they may not have harassed someone else but they conducted themselves how many have been terminated for sexual harassment I'll have to come back to you with that number.
Ok and you have mentioned a couple of times as per federal law a person has a choice between being removed from office or retiring.
Yes sir ok so why would they have a choice we're dealing with sexual harassment.
Why would you put permit them to have a choice for retirement with full benefits as opposed to removing them from office why did they get the choice well sir i'm not sure how to explain it but per federal law the procedures for removing a federal employee provide them the opportunity is there any behavior that an individual could commit whereby they are not allowed a choice as per federal law is there any behavior whereby you would remove them from office and they would not even have a choice of retirement.
I'm not totally sure about that I'd like to get back to you so you are saying then is this your testimony that based on federal all that an employee can commit any crime or do any kind of behavior they want to and find protection under federal law to keep their job or to keep their benefits when they retire i'm aware that we have removed people while they were incarcerated awaiting trial that kind of thing and I don't believe we gave those people the option but i'm not sure the statute or the regulation under which we were able to do that don't you think it'd be kind of wise for you to know the boundaries within your which you were able to walk it as it relates to people who are committing crimes they're committing sexual harassment and you don't even know the law you don't even know the boundaries whereby you have authorization to remove them from office don't you think that's kind of important for you to know yes that's important well then why don't you this is not new you're not just finding out about these cases now you've known about these cases for a long time by your own testimony and yet here you sit before us today and say that you still don't even know the law as to what your rights are to remove people from office i'm not sure the specific authority by which we can remove people without providing them the option to reduce stated that my my comeback is that is inexcusable for you to be in a position such as you're in and not even know the thought you are allowing people to commit crimes and not removing them from office allowing them to retire and get full benefit and you can't even describe for this committee what possible behavior a person would have to commit in order for them to be removed from office i found that inexcusable.
Now what about discipline you mentioned there how many have been disciplined this year in total I.
6 600 people in 2016 what kind of disciplinary action has been taken we've removed people we've suspended people we've demoted people there have been letting removed on you just reassigned them is that what you mean we've removed as in they don't work here anymore 200 people thought you just said you couldn't remove them no I didn't say that you did say that alright let's go back to disciplinary action.
What does disciplinary action look like these people getting a slap on the wrist as i mentioned 200 were removed some number get suspensions some number get emotions.
Some people get letters of reprimand and warning it depends on the offense and some people get promotions we've already seen that today too.
Is that considered additional disciplinary action for people to receive promotions for their criminal behavior people don't get promotions for their criminal being here well it's it's happened as is even been described here today mr. Chairman I find this absolutely offensive to to sit through this whole thing into here the in competence that's occurring in high-level positions and with that so I yield back then you think the general will never recognize the Massachusetts mr. Lynch 45 minutes.
Thank You mr. chairman i do want to say there's some inconsistency is Lego what your answers to mr. Isis questions he was asking why people were given the option to retire instead of being fired and you said well we don't know how to get rid of them so we have to retire them then later on you said we fired about 200 people so i'm just curious why why if you have the ability to remove them.
What did you remove them and explain that i will explain that if we have the ability to remove them and don't have to offer them the opportunity to retire or resign we would do that some people don't exercise their option to retire or resign and we remove them but on the title 5 you can remove people for for this type of contact you know that right.
Maybe give you and have you explored your legal rights in terms of of of terminating their retirement for sexual I haven't personally know well it would seem that someone in your situation with what's going on in this department that you should have a long time ago if you're really interested in and in serious discipline you would know you would know to the letter what your rights were if you want to remove someone so i don't think you've given a serious thought not that i believe that you've gone back to your legal counsel and got you know got a solid foundation in terms of what your options are and I suggest you need to do that with the limited when the offices i want to go back to the Chairman's line of questioning when the Office of Special Counsel wrote its warning letter to President Obama which is a serious an unusual occurrence it said this about the about your office the office of the assistant secretary for civil rights and i quote here a large number of EEO complaints had not been acted on in a timely manner the investigation revealed that from november 2009 through September 2014 Oscar received 231 complaints filed against senior USDA managers including 13 filed against miss Scott are other Alaska officials overall a hundred and twelve of these complaints including at least five filed against miss Scott or another.
Oh asker official we're not investigating reported on with a hundred neat within the 180-day time limit established by law.
So we have a hundred and twelve complaints close quote so so on and 12 complaints that were not investigated 108 any date time period is ok that's correct alright how many of those 112 complaints have been closed since the time of this letter that went to president obama i believe I since the time the letter the accident that the actual number grew to 120 i believe there are only three open at present.
We've all been closed except for three except for three ok and what was to all those are what does close mean was there a decision on the merits in those cases in there were 34 of them that were settled there were decisions on the merits on on everything else either EEOC or of final agency decision that we did so every single case except for three except for three is except for three ok it's important it's important to realize that in the i remove three managers gs-15 from the positions that weren't getting the job done I'm uh move three managers I removed the vendor that we utilizing because there seemed to be gaps in cases since 2014 we've been a hundred percent accurate for fiscal year 14 fiscal year 15 fiscal year 16 we've been a hundred percent accurate once we made these changes in personnel and vendors we win the last three years we've been hundreds inaccurate and we're hundred-person actor in the beginning of 2017 okay what what steps as the department made are taken to to make individuals whole by improper delays in their cases lingering for such a long time if it was married it we settled 34 of those cases ok if many of them didn't have strong merit because the alleged discrimination that wasn't strong merit it went the usual route of either having a finding or going to EEOC but if we had merit of the hundred and twenty cases 34 of them we took it upon ourselves to encourage the agency's this those hundred twenty cases all all the 18 departments and 17 staffs of USD.
So we took it upon ourselves that we said that these have married your individual agency and our staff office needs to attempt to settle okay i'm going over my time is closing I just want to say that the number of cases the volume of cases here in this this one department indicates a culture and I just hope you doing everything possible to to eradicate that culture so that that other employees on on similarly aggrieved Thank You mr. Chairman I yield back thank the gentleman.


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