Courtesy of Flickr user nmfbihopIn last Thursday's Republican presidential debate, it was refreshing to see a candidate use the term "whistleblower" as the standard for accountability and conflicts of interest. Stated former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, in referencing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's previous role as an advisor to Freddie Mac:

We should have had a whistleblower, not a horn tooter.

Presidential hopeful Romney might be interested in knowing that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae employees now have access to, arguably, the strongest whistleblower disclosure unit in the books under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act's SEC whistleblower program. Of course, Romney has stated his desire to repeal Dodd-Frank, noting (however) "some revisions make sense."

While those Fannie and Freddie employees can now shout from the rooftops about financial misconduct, however, federal employees likely would be thrown from the rooftops – risking professional suicide if they disclose wasteful government spending or cover-ups. The Whistleblower Protection Act, the primary federal whistleblower statute, remains a would-be whistleblower's best reason to turn a blind eye to government abuse. Since the law's last strengthening (1994), federal whistleblowers have endured years of bad case law and hostile judicial review.

Last Congress the WPA was on the verge of being overhauled through the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA), until a procedural loophole allowed one senator to place a "secret hold" on the legislation just hours before adjournment.

GAP today praised the unanimous action of a 35-0 vote by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to approve HR 3289, the Platts-Van Hollen Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2011.

This legislation – the companion bill to the Senate's Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) legislation, passed last month – is a long-overdue overhaul of the ineffective Whistleblower Protection Act, the primary statute to protect federal whistleblowers who report waste, fraud and abuse.

The Committee introduced the legislation this past Tuesday. The WPEA was blocked from passage last Congress by an anonymous hold placed hours before adjournment, after the reform had passed, in some form, both the Senate and House of Representatives unanimously.

GAP Legal Director Tom Devine commented, "In the last month, nearly identical overhauls to give federal whistleblowers their strongest rights in history have passed both House and Senate committees unanimously. Congress should complete enactment of this long-overdue taxpayer reform before Christmas. No plan to cut federal waste and misspending will be credible without these protections."

Devine continued, "Fine tuning to the language is still needed before the law is ready, but the moment of truth will be whether the final House bill includes protections for intelligence community workers. Chairman Issa is courageously defending those whistleblowers despite threats from the House Intelligence committee to kill the entire reform if it includes modest protections for those workers – which were negotiated over seven months by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Whistleblowers from intelligence agencies have shown that the notion of secrecy is used to bilk taxpayers, enact hidden agendas that hurt national security, and threaten Americans' privacy. Credible whistleblower protections also are essential to stopping anonymous leaks by providing a safe alternative."

GAP, in conjunction with a bipartisan group of coalition partners, sent the following support letter to Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, regarding introduction of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2011 (HR. 3289)

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November 2, 2011

Chairman Darrell E. Issa
Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Issa and Ranking Member Cummings:

Our undersigned organizations applaud your leadership in earning bipartisan support for the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2011 (WPEA), H.R 3289, as well as immediate action to consider the legislation this Thursday in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Chairman Issa, we appreciate your introduction of this whistleblower reform legislation with Ranking Member Cummings and longtime whistleblower champions Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) joining as original cosponsors. As you well know, federal workers are best positioned to disclose wrongdoing in order to protect taxpayer dollars and the public trust. But the law to protect federal whistleblowers is broken -- and the WPEA will go a long way toward fixing that failed system.

GAP today praised unanimous action by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) approving S. 743, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA). This long-overdue legislation would overhaul the ineffective Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA).

The Senate re-introduced this legislation in April. The WPEA was blocked from passage last Congress by an anonymous hold placed hours before adjournment, after the reform unanimously had passed both the Senate and House of Representatives.

GAP Legal Director Tom Devine commented, “This landmark action is thanks to a marathon commitment and hard work since 1999 by Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hi) and his staff. Despite new membership on the Committee, the reform retains unanimous bipartisan support. Legislators know that their promises to cut federal misspending will not be credible, if they do not deliver genuine rights to whistleblowers who risk their careers to expose waste and fraud.”

Devine added, however, “Before final passage the bill must be updated to address recent developments. The highest priority is to protect whistleblowers whose disclosures have been marked as newly-created pseudo-secrecy categories, known as ‘Controlled Unclassified Information.’”

The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2011, S. 743, is scheduled for a mark-up tomorrow by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Today, GAP and several leading groups within the Make It Safe Coalition sent a letter to Chairman Lieberman and Ranking Member Collins of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, supporting passage of S. 743, when it is considered during tomorrow's committee meeting.

Passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2011 now is an opportunity for you to prove your commitment to tackling waste and increasing accountability to American taxpayers. Federal workers serving our country deserve these protections and enforceable remedies when they disclose wrongdoing.

The Senate introduced this legislation in April 2011, after being blocked from passage last Congress by one anonymous hold.

The mark-up takes place tomorrow, October 19, at 10:00 am in SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Shanna Devine is Legislative Campaign Coordinator for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.

Congressman Issa has pledged to pass the WPEA.During last week's Congressional Transparency Caucus, I questioned Representative Darrell Issa (R-Ca), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, about the prospects of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) being passed this year. The Chairman made three important announcements in responding:

• He is committed to moving legislation forward by the end of this year
• He announced that such legislation should include rights for national security employees that are "identical or compatible" with the agreement that came out of the Senate Intelligence Committee and is included in the Senate bill, S. 743. This is important because it creates a responsible channel for Intelligence Community employees to work within the system, while breaking ground for a beachhead of more modest national security reforms.
• He will exercise leadership within his own party to see that the WPEA is enacted

The full transcript of the question and answer appear below, after the video:

GAP today praises Tuesday’s White House release of the U.S. National Action Plan that emphasizes intensified support for protection of federal employee whistleblowers. The plan is part of a new global transparency initiative by the Obama administration.

GAP Legal Director Tom Devine commented, “We welcome President Obama’s much-needed, renewed support for government whistleblower rights. The last election was supposed to be a voter protest against government fraud, waste and abuse. But the newly-elected House majority has not even introduced a bill to provide rights for whistleblowers who risk their careers for those goals.”

The White House commitment was as follows (italicized):

Strengthen and Expand Whistleblower Protection for Government Personnel

Employees with the courage to report wrongdoing are a government’s best defense against waste, fraud and abuse. Federal law clearly prohibits retaliation against most government employees who blow the whistle, but some employees have diminished protections, and judicially-created loopholes have left others without an adequate remedy. To address these problems, we will: