Dear GAP Supporters:
As you know, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) was killed by an anonymous "secret hold" by a lone senator on the final day of the last session of Congress.
Over the weekend, GAP and On The Media launched a campaign to identify the senator who sabotaged this crucial legislation that would stem government corruption, fraud, and wrongdoing. On The Media is asking its listeners, and GAP is asking our supporters to contact their respective senator's offices and ask them if they were the party who wrongfully killed this paramount legislation.
So far, 25 senators have been contacted. Seven senators (or their staffers) have come forward to explicitly deny being the culprit.
Read more »
 Dear GAP Supporters:
As you know, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) -- a critical reform that would have provided real, solid protections to federal employees who wish to speak out about wrongdoing, corruption, and fraud that they witness -- was killed by an anonymous "secret hold" by a lone senator on the final day of the last session of Congress. This action came just a few weeks after the Senate passed a stronger version of the legislation by unanimous consent -- making this action particularly underhanded.
Senators are in the middle of debating rule changes to specifically end this type of cowardly action. In the meantime, however, GAP is working in conjunction with the NPR show On The Media to identify which senator placed this hold. This will bring needed public attention to the issue -- with the hopes of passing this crucial legislation as soon as possible.
Click here to help GAP and On The Media identify the culpable senator!
On The Media is asking its listeners, and GAP is asking our supporters to contact their respective senator's offices and ask them if they were the party who wrongfully killed this paramount legislation. Then, however senators may answer, you can report your correspondence to On The Media at blowthewhistle@wnyc.org and their site will post the information. With your help, we can blow the whistle on the senator that refused protections to government whistleblowers.
Click here to help GAP and On The Media identify the culpable senator!
Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower advocacy organization.
Read more »
The following statement regarding the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act can be attributed to GAP Legal Director Tom Devine:
“This holiday season, a Republican senator gave taxpayers a secret Scrooge. After unanimous House approval today, and unanimous Senate approval last month of a stronger bill, this evening an anonymous Republican senator killed the reform through a secret hold. The senator who sabotaged this bill should come out of the closet. Good government groups want to give him the 2010 Friend of Fraud, Waste and Abuse Award.
"There will be a relentless search to find the politician who is a cowardly enemy of taxpayers.”
GAP added that the group will not interrupt its efforts for passage of a reform that has earned unanimous support of every politician except the one who secretly opposes it.
Tom Devine is Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.
Read more »
Conservative, Oversight Groups Plead Representative Not to Delay Crucial Reform
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and over 60 other groups, including the National Taxpayers Union and Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, sent a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Ca), urging him to reconsider his newly changed position of wishing to delay a House of Representatives vote on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) until next Congress. The WPEA would greatly strengthen whistleblower protections for federal workers.
“In one afternoon, 63 groups from all views joined to demand House passage of rights for whistleblowers,” commented GAP Legal Director Tom Devine. “That is only an opening taste of how strongly the public feels about protecting those who risk their careers to fight fraud, waste and abuse. Isn’t that what the last election was supposed to be about?”
The full letter is available here
In a news report this morning, a spokesman for the Representative stated that there were "new areas of concern that have been raised by the WikiLeaks" disclosures.
Read more »
We’re at the crossroads of a breakthrough for free speech rights; however, there has been a divergent campaign in the 11 th hour. Today, Ms. Julia Davis wrote an article titled “Kill the Bill” – referring to S. 372, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. Curiously, days earlier this same author joined a letter by whistleblowers that supports S. 372. In the Examiner, Davis writes, “Proponents of the corrections for the bill argue that unless the bill is fixed before it’s signed into law, whistleblowers rights will be catapulted backwards into the dark ages.”
The aforementioned statement, unaddressed, is dangerously misleading for anybody unfamiliar with the current state of federal whistleblower protections, because whistleblowers do not have viable rights under current law.
A few examples of how the Whistleblower Protection Act has been gutted over the years through judicial activism may help put Davis’ statement into context. Currently, you are not eligible for federal whistleblower protection if:
- you are not the first person who discloses given misconduct;
- you make a disclosure to your co-worker;
- you make a disclosure to your supervisor;
- you disclose the consequences of a policy decision;
- and the kicker: if you blow the whistle while carrying out your job duties.
The media support keeps coming for S. 372, Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA). The Orange County Register just put out a story outlining how GAP client and former Federal Air Marshal Robert MacLean would have benefitted from the protections outlined in S. 372.
To remind, in 2003 MacLean revealed a cost-cutting plan to cancel FAM coverage from long distance flights on the eve of a confirmed al-Qaeda suicidal hijacking plan. The plan never went into effect after Congress protested – based solely on his whistleblowing disclosure. Three years later, however, TSA fired him with a single charge of “Unauthorized Disclosure of Sensitive Security Information” (SSI) - an unclassified “hybrid secrecy” label the TSA retroactively applied to the information that he disclosed.
MacLean’s case is ongoing. But it should be noted that the attempted 2009 Christmas bombing by an Al-Qaeda agent is the exact same type of flight the MacLean blew the whistle on – a flight that did not have a FAM on it. Weeks after the attack, an anonymous TSA official shared with the media that FAMs were not on the NW253 because of “budget issues.”
Read more »
|
|
