It is being reported by NPR that Carolyn Lerner has been nominated by President Obama to head the Office of Special Counsel, the federal office charged with investigating whistleblower complaints. A nomination for this crucial position has been needed for some time. GAP released the following statement regarding this development:
“With this choice, the White House completes selection of the strongest team of presidential appointees in history to protect whistleblower rights. Every appointee at the Department of Labor Administrative Review Board for corporate employees, Merit Systems Protection Board for government workers, and now the Special Counsel has a life long record of commitment to transparency and expertise in employment law. President Obama is doing his share to fight fraud, waste and abuse.
“The public is about to find out early if new House Republican leadership is serious as well. This week there is a credibility test of new Republican House leaders before they even take office. Those politicians campaigned on a mantra of fighting fraud, waste and abuse. This week we will find out whether they meant it. The test is whether they will try to block House approval of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act after unanimous Senate approval. Republican campaign speeches will be exposed as hot air, if their first act after the election is to abandon the whistleblower who risk their careers to actually live those values in the belly of the bureaucratic beast.”
The House could vote as early as tomorrow on these critical reforms to strengthen federal whistleblower protections. Legislation passed the Senate by unanimous consent last Friday. The groups are urging the House to pass S. 372 without delay (although the bill does not contain every reform sought by the coalition, there is no time for additional tinkering).
One holdout group that had dropped out of the free speech campaign this year has returned to spearhead a disinformation attack aimed at killing the bill. However, the attack sparked a significant increase in nonprofit support for the consensus reform (going from 60 groups to 90) and a spontaneous protest by the nation’s leading whistleblowers, ranging from Frank Serpico and Ambassador Joseph Wilson to national security professionals, who said the critics do not speak for them.
These measures reaffirm support for the consensus compromise between the original versions of the House and Senate legislation. Supporters include Representatives Towns (D-NY), Issa (R-CA), and Van Hollen (D-MD), the original sponsor of the House bill. The White House has fought hard for the reform, and indicated President Obama will sign the bill.
Today a letter was released by 30 whistleblowers that support passage of S. 372, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. Signed by star whistleblowers including Frank Serpico and Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to intelligence community and FAA whistleblowers, the letter concludes:
“In short, we can’t wait any longer. Even if you could get us a three quarters loaf two years from now at the end of the next Congress instead of two thirds now, we can’t wait. We need stronger rights now. Many of us have been hanging on for years already, waiting for a new law that would give us a fighting chance. We’re running out of time, money and hope. Our cases are getting stale, with witnesses moving on. We need to file in January 2011. We can’t wait until January 2013. Now, we urge you to stand with us or stand aside.”
Click here to view the letter, which was organized by Federal Air Marshal whistleblower Robert MacLean and Pentagon whistleblower Franz Gayl.
GAP praised the Senate last week for its passage of S. 372, and we're strongly urging the House to pass this key legislation as soon as possible. Please sign GAP's petition here to urge the House to protect federal whistleblowers!
Shanna Devine is Legislative Coordinator for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower advocacy organization.
Summary: The Senate has passed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA), much-needed legislation that strengthens the rights of federal employees to safely expose fraud, wrongdoing and corruption. GAP has actively fought for this crucial reform for a decade.
The bill now moves to the House of Representatives, which has passed similar legislation in recent years. The article quotes the Make It Safe Coalition, which GAP spearheads.
Last night, the Senate unanimously approved comprehensive bipartisan whistleblower protection legislation for federal employees. This action is the result of a decade-long effort to protect the federal employees who risk their careers to protect the rest of us. The Make It Safe Coalition (MISC) urges the House to quickly pass the bill to make it law this year.
The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (S. 372) makes significant progress in affording millions of federal workers the rights they need to protect all Americans. It restores 'best practice' free speech rights by overturning years of flawed judicial and administrative decisions that had left current whistleblower law in tatters and federal workers unprotected. For the first time in history, the law will have structural reforms including normal access to appeals courts for whistleblowers, and the right to a trial. The legislation has the strong support of dozens of groups from the across the ideological spectrum.
GAP Homeland Security & Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack discusses WikiLeaks and overclassification, as well as the cases of whistleblowers Thomas Drake and Valerie Plame.
A recently unsealed whistleblower complaint against Rolls Royce has revealed that the company cut quality controls to increase profits, and then concealed defects at an aircraft engine plant in Indianapolis. The whistleblower and former senior quality control official was fired in 2007 for reporting the engine problems, which are now known to have caused the failures of at least nine planes in Iraq, resulting in the loss of U.S. lives.
A report released by the U.S. Interior Department details the copious problems within the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement -- the agency responsible for regulating offshore oil drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf.
The report provides specific examples of the challenges faced by federal inspectors, including that they are “overwhelmed, insufficiently trained, work without official procedures for some of their most crucial decisions and sometimes have insufficient support from their supervisors for resisting industry influence.”
Senator Richard Lugar released a statement on Tuesday in which he urged all multinational development banks to refer companies and consultants suspected of fraudulent or corrupt practices to relevant national authorities. The development banks -- including the World Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) -- previously reported their practices in this area of anti-corruption work to Sen. Lugar at his request.
Lugar, who as Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has long been a strong supporter of protections for whistleblowers at the development banks, noted that referring cases of corruption for potential prosecution is a strong deterrent.
Recently, investigators from the World Bank, IDB and ADB appeared together on a panel during the meetings of the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Bangkok to discuss their new cross-debarment agreement. Under the agreement, which took years to negotiate, a firm or consultant found guilty of fraud at one bank, and subsequently debarred, will, in many cases, be debarred by the others. But Lugar made it clear that expulsion from the club of development bank contractors is not sufficient to curb fraud and corruption in many cases. Referral for prosecution should also be more frequently considered and used. From his statement:
It is being 
