Trump Signs Whistleblower Law That Honors Tomah Doctor

President Donald Trump has signed a bill that protects federal employees who expose wrongdoing, while honoring a V-A doctor at Tomah who did just that. Senate Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin authored the new Chris Kirkpatrick Whistleblower Protection Act — and Johnson tried for two straight years to pass it after Democrats shot down his initial effort to give unanimous consent in 2016. The new law has tougher penalities to those who retaliate against federal employees who blow the whistle on wrongdoing. Kirkpatrick was a psychologist at the Tomah V-A Medical Center who killed himself after he was fired for exposing his bosses for giving too many opioid painkillers to patients. His concerns broke wide open after a national media report that the overprescribing directly led to a patient’s death at Tomah.