BUTLER COUNTY, IOWA – At U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) urging, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) updated an internal memo that failed to include employees’ statutory right to disclose agency misconduct. Grassley had demanded corrective action from ATF and a review by the Justice Department watchdog upon learning of the document, which chilled lawful whistleblowing by warning employees against disclosing unclassified information without prior authorization.
“The ATF ought to encourage, not discourage, its employees to report potential waste, fraud and abuse. The federal government needs more sunshine to bring accountability – but ATF’s original memo was shady,” Grassley said. "We have whistleblower protection laws on the books for a reason, so I’m glad ATF corrected itself to at least be up to code. The importance of whistleblowers knowing their rights cannot be overstated.”
Read ATF’s initial memo HERE and its revisions HERE.
Background:
In his February outreach to ATF and DOJ OIG, Grassley expressed two primary concerns.
First, the agency unlawfully excluded from the memo an explicit reference to employees’ rights to make disclosures to Congress. It also omitted the “anti-gag” provision, which prohibits unlawful nondisclosure agreements that interfere with whistleblower disclosures. ATF threatened consequences including discipline, termination or, in certain cases, criminal charges if they shared information outside the ATF.
Second, the timing of the memo sounded alarms. ATF circulated it just two days after Grassley made public the agency’s neglect to fully investigate alleged criminal misconduct, including gun trafficking and drunken assault, among its own employees. Grassley had obtained that information through legally protected whistleblower disclosures.
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