WASHINGTON – Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Wyden today released Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s response to their questions about how new monitoring programs will impact legislative branch staff and federal whistleblowers.
The senators called Clapper’s pledge to maintain the constitutional separation of powers and refrain from monitoring legislative branch staff an encouraging development, but they promised to continue to closely watch this issue.
The senators said they appreciated the response from the Director of National Intelligence indicating new monitoring programs would not intentionally target whistleblowers, but they emphasized that meaningful whistleblower protections must include the option of a legitimate channel for confidential disclosures and procedures to protect whistleblower and congressional communications collected inadvertently. The Director’s response noted that some safeguards for whistleblowers making protected communications remain under development.
The letter from Grassley and Wyden to Clapper can be found here. The response to the senators’ letter can be found here.
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