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Senate Committee Approves Grassley-Coons Officer Safety Act... Read More >>
Opening Statement at the Judiciary Committee Oversight Hearing with FBI Director Robert Mu... Read More >>
Update to Whistleblower Protection Law Clears Committee
Whistleblowers help unlock secrets deep within the federal bureaucracy. That’s why I’ve worked to make sure they have protection from retribution when they have the courage to come forward and reveal fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government.
Whistleblowers have been key to helping me uncover the secrets of Operation Fast and Furious, the illegal gunwalking strategy employed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF. Early in my investigation, I had to send a letter to the bureau to ensure one whistleblower, in particular, wasn’t retaliated against by his higher-ups. Retaliation is routine when whistleblowers expose malfeasance and so embarrass their supervisors and coworkers who prefer to go along to get along.
Legislation I helped author that would update the Whistleblower Protection Act unanimously cleared a key committee earlier this week. The update revises existing whistleblower protections for federal employees, establishes protections for employees in the intelligence community for the first time, and overturns negative court precedents that have limited protections for federal government whistleblowers. The legislation would clarify that “any” disclosure of gross waste or mismanagement, fraud, abuse, or illegal activity may be protected, but not disagreements over legitimate policy decisions. It would take a series of steps to streamline and clarify judicial processes for handling whistleblower complaints. And it would clarify that whistleblowers may disclose evidence of censorship of scientific or technical information under the same standards that apply to disclosures of other kinds of waste, fraud, and abuse, among other improvements.
Even with these positive steps, there are still more improvements to be made. For example, adding timelines for the Attorney General to address FBI whistleblower retaliation cases is necessary to make sure these cases don’t languish at the Justice Department, as two have for more than five years.
Those of us who support whistleblowers always have our work cut out for us. I co-authored changes made in 1986 to the President Lincoln-era federal False Claims Act to empower private sector whistleblowers to expose fraud against the government. Since the 1986 amendments were signed into law, the False Claims Act has brought back more than $27 billion to the federal treasury and deterred even more fraudulent activity. Yet in 2009, Congress had to pass legislation – signed into law -- to shore up whistleblower protections in the False Claims Act that had been eroded by the courts after years of litigation by defense and health care contractors. There will always be people willing to protect the status quo, even if it’s wrong. The good news is, there will always be whistleblowers to shake things up, as long as they have the protection they need and deserve.
October 21, 2011
Whistleblowers help unlock secrets deep within the federal bureaucracy. That’s why I’ve worked to make sure they have protection from retribution when they have the courage to come forward and reveal fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government.
Whistleblowers have been key to helping me uncover the secrets of Operation Fast and Furious, the illegal gunwalking strategy employed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF. Early in my investigation, I had to send a letter to the bureau to ensure one whistleblower, in particular, wasn’t retaliated against by his higher-ups. Retaliation is routine when whistleblowers expose malfeasance and so embarrass their supervisors and coworkers who prefer to go along to get along.
Legislation I helped author that would update the Whistleblower Protection Act unanimously cleared a key committee earlier this week. The update revises existing whistleblower protections for federal employees, establishes protections for employees in the intelligence community for the first time, and overturns negative court precedents that have limited protections for federal government whistleblowers. The legislation would clarify that “any” disclosure of gross waste or mismanagement, fraud, abuse, or illegal activity may be protected, but not disagreements over legitimate policy decisions. It would take a series of steps to streamline and clarify judicial processes for handling whistleblower complaints. And it would clarify that whistleblowers may disclose evidence of censorship of scientific or technical information under the same standards that apply to disclosures of other kinds of waste, fraud, and abuse, among other improvements.
Even with these positive steps, there are still more improvements to be made. For example, adding timelines for the Attorney General to address FBI whistleblower retaliation cases is necessary to make sure these cases don’t languish at the Justice Department, as two have for more than five years.
Those of us who support whistleblowers always have our work cut out for us. I co-authored changes made in 1986 to the President Lincoln-era federal False Claims Act to empower private sector whistleblowers to expose fraud against the government. Since the 1986 amendments were signed into law, the False Claims Act has brought back more than $27 billion to the federal treasury and deterred even more fraudulent activity. Yet in 2009, Congress had to pass legislation – signed into law -- to shore up whistleblower protections in the False Claims Act that had been eroded by the courts after years of litigation by defense and health care contractors. There will always be people willing to protect the status quo, even if it’s wrong. The good news is, there will always be whistleblowers to shake things up, as long as they have the protection they need and deserve.
October 21, 2011