Two whistleblowers are scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill this morning. Both hearings begin at 10 a.m.and will be broadcast live.
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Kimberly Young-McLear will testify about retaliation she faced after complaining about bullying and harassment at the Coast Guard Academy. In 2018, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general confirmed her complaints. From the New London Day. (The academy is based in the Connecticut city.)
Young-McLear says she endured four years of abuse at the academy, including her supervisor making belittling comments toward her, using her as a scapegoat and undermining her work. She said she exhausted the complaint process, making reports to her Coast Guard chain of command, including senior leadership at the academy and the commandant, and through the Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights reporting processes.
“They all failed me. The reporting systems that we have in place failed, and I was retaliated against,” said Young-McLear, who left the academy this summer for a cybersecurity fellowship under the Department of Homeland Security.
Coast Guard officials say they have addressed Young-McLear’s concerns but problems at the Coast Guard persist.
The majority members of the Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Committee on Homeland Security released a report concluding:
Coast Guard military leadership has failed to:
1. Conduct prompt, thorough, and impartial investigations of allegations of harassment and bullying;
2. Hold officials accountable for deficient and incomplete investigations; and
3. Take corrective action to address retaliation against individuals who report harassment and bullying.
Former Boeing factory manager Edward Pierson is scheduled testify before the House Transportation Committee about pressure to speed up production of the company’s 737 Max jet. The plane was grounded after two crashes within five months that killed 346 people in 2018 and earlier this year. This hearing will also be broadcast live. In addition, The Washington Post has published a portion of what Pierson plans to say.
Employees were working seven days. Overtime had more than doubled and in some cases, Pierson said, employees were doing jobs for which they had no training.
“The factory did not have enough skilled employees, specifically mechanics, electricians and technicians to keep up with the backlog of work,” Pierson said … “I witnessed numerous instances where manufacturing employees failed to communicate effectively between shifts, often leaving crews to wonder what work was properly completed.”
Find Pierson’s full written testimony here.
A Boeing spokesman told the Post that company officials were aware of Pierson’s concerns and took “steps to assess them.”
