WASHINGTON – A bipartisan and bicameral
group of lawmakers is seeking a new review of the FBI’s whistleblower
protection rules as well as reports of retaliation against whistleblowers
from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) after the bureau’s
and the Justice Department’s failure to implement new regulations
to comply with more stringent protections enacted by Congress in
2016.
“These extensive issues with the FBI’s current
whistleblower program make the bureau one of the most difficult places in the
federal government to report malfeasance. One [FBI] attorney…even reportedly
told a prospective whistleblower that the FBI’s rules ‘do not guarantee that
you will not be retaliated against…,” the lawmakers
wrote.
The new statutory protections enacted in
2016 followed a previous, damning
report on the weakness of FBI whistleblower protections and
retaliation from GAO in 2015.
The request is signed by Senate Judiciary Committee
Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Rep.
Jackie Speier (D-Calif.-14), Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Ranking
Member Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairwoman
Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.-12).
The group is seeking information on a broad
set of questions ranging from the relative weakness of protections extended to
FBI employees compared to counterparts across government to the use of security
clearance revocation as retaliation to the appeals process for those who face
retaliation.
Full text of the letter to GAO can be found
HERE.
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