by Molly Peterson

This is part three of a four-part series. Click here to go to the homepage of the series.

We continue a story today about hurricane protection equipment, pumps installed in New Orleans after Katrina. A Los Angeles-based Corps engineer says they won’t protect the city in a major storm. To this day no public records indicate that these pumps will work as designed. KPCC’s Molly Peterson reports on how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies have listened to this whistleblower’s concerns.

by Peter Eisler

Huge flood-control pumps installed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina don't protect the city adequately and the Army Corps of Engineers could have saved $430 million in replacement costs by buying proven equipment, a federal investigation finds.

by Tom LoBianco

White House attorneys have backed away from an effort to weaken legal protections for FBI whistleblowers in a bill now before Congress, according to advocacy groups in negotiations with the Obama administration.

Officials from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Government Accountability Project (GAP) and Project on Government Oversight (POGO) said this week that they were given guarantees that protections for FBI whistleblowers - federal employees who uncover fraud and waste - would be restored in a Senate bill when Congress returns in September.

by Noel Brinkerhoff

Whistleblowers did not fare well during the Bush administration. Government employees disciplined or fired for calling attention to illegal or unethical practices can appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, but the board, led by Bush-appointee Neil McPhie, ruled against whistleblowers in 44 out of 45 cases, according to an analysis by the non-profit Government Accountability Project.

by Nick Schwellenbach

One of two whistleblowers to win even a temporary victory before a government whistleblower review board under a Bush administration appointee lost last week after the board’s February reversal was upheld by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

The decision underscored the difficulties whistleblowers faced under the Bush administration. Under Neil McPhie, the Bush-appointed chairman of the three-person Merit Systems Protection Board, whistleblowers had a 1-44 win-loss track record, according to a tally by the non-profit Government Accountability Project (before the February reversal, the track record was 2-43). In the original ruling on the whistleblower Kenneth M. Pedeleose’s case, McPhie dissented from the decision that favored Pedeleose and voted against him in the second decision as well.

In late July, President Obama nominated a new chair and vice chair for the board, who have won praise from whistleblower protection advocates. The nomination for chair is Susan Grundmann, formerly the general counsel for the National Federation of Federal Employees. Anne Wagner is the nominee for vice chair, and has spent time as a lawyer with the American Federation of Government Employees and more recently with the Government Accountability Office. Bush appointee Mary D. Rose will continue on the board as its third member until March 2011.

With Thursday’s loss, whistleblowers have won only three cases out of 202 at the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, where they can appeal board rulings, since October 1994, when Congress last strengthened the Whistleblower Protection Act. Both chambers of Congress have been moving forward on legislation to improve whistleblower protections. House and Senate versions of the legislation end the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals monopoly on appellate review. The House version gives all government whistleblowers access to trial courts, whereas the Senate version restricts the access national security whistleblowers have to those courts.

This Op/Ed was written by Jesselyn Radack, Homeland Security director of the Government Accountability Project. It appeared in several media outlets throughout the country, including: Aurora Sentinel (CO), New Britain Herald News (CT), Litchfield Register Citizen (CT), Burlington Hawk Eye (IA), Bemidji Pioneer (MN), Bristol Press (CT), Aberdeen Daily World (WA), Fall River Herald News (MA), and Huntingdon Daily News (PA).

The Obama administration is proceeding with a Bush administration-devised plan to use the National Security Agency in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T slated to be the test site. This classified pilot program, “Einstein 3,” takes the two worst offenders from Bush’s secret surveillance program and puts them in charge of scrutinizing all Internet traffic going to or from federal government agencies.

Supposedly, Einstein 3 is meant to protect government networks from hackers. But if Einstein 3 is only meant to be an intrusion detection system, then why will it monitor outgoing communications?

This Op-Ed was written by Jesselyn Radack, GAP Homeland Security Director. It has appeared in several news outlets throughout the country, including: Detroit News, Austin American Statesman, Arizona Daily Star, and the Wilmington News Journal (DE).

Cyber security is a real issue, as evidenced by the virus behind July 4 cyber attacks that hobbled government and business websites in the United States and South Korea. It originated from Internet provider addresses in 16 countries and targeted, among others, the White House and the New York Stock Exchange.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration has chosen to combat it in a move that runs counter to its pledge to be transparent. The administration reportedly is proceeding with a Bush-era plan to use the National Security Agency to screen government computer traffic on private-sector networks. AT&T is slated to be the likely test site. This classified pilot program, dubbed "Einstein 3," is developed but not yet rolled out. It takes two offenders from President Bush's contentious secret surveillance program and puts them in charge of scrutinizing all Internet traffic going to or from federal government agencies.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, (Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security) is holding a hearing today entitled: Aviation Safety: FAA’s Role in the Oversight of Air Carriers. Surprisingly, the subcommittee, according to its witness list, has failed to include any FAA whistleblowers to testify. This is indicative of a perpetual problem for the federal government – the continual failure to address the role that whistleblowers can play in safeguarding the flying public.

Last week, the newly formed FAA Whistleblower Alliance – a strong coalition partner of GAP – sent a letter to the Committee highlighting several “likely preventable tragedies” where members of the Alliance made safety disclosures well before the accidents occurred. The letters further details problems with the current structure and status quo of the FAA, along with remedies of how to address the historical lack of FAA oversight and accountability.

Click here to read the letter

GAP has submitted and is posting comments on the President’s scientific integrity policy. On March 9, the White House announced the draft policy and specified that it should include agency by agency whistleblower policies, for which it requested guidance. GAP’s comments analyze seven core recommendations to:

1. Comply with the current Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) and Anti-Gag Statute by eliminating loopholes in its policies that require prior approval to communicate unclassified information that falls into new hybrid secrecy categories such as “Unclassified But Sensitive”
2. Adopt internal whistleblower policies that implement dormant, decade-old recommendations of the Commission on Research Integrity
3. Voluntarily adopt additional free speech protections in pending legislation to strengthen the WPA
4. Exercise visible leadership by agency chiefs to end the environment of fear
5. Eliminate prior restraint for media communications
6. Eliminate authority to make changes in the text of published material without the author’s knowledge and approval, and
7. Train managers to accept scientific freedom and openness as the operating premise for the workplace environments they supervise.

Op-ed written by GAP President Louis Clark

There is a great deal of talk recently about “shovel-ready” projects. These are state, local and federal construction programs that will be the first to spend hundreds of billions of dollars as part of the recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), better known as the Stimulus Bill, in the hopes of lifting the economic condition of our nation.

There is a serious problem, however. Other than in the heavily regulated nuclear industry, there are few government contractors in the country with any experience in dealing with whistleblower protection provisions, required of all those receiving stimulus funds.