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December 14, 2010

I get emails

Okay, lazy title for a post, but I just wanted to put this out there:

Urgent: Tell your Rep. S. 372 is a good deal for whistleblowers and taxpayers

Project On Government Oversight

Dear Friend,

Last Friday, the Senate unanimously approved the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (S. 372), bringing us closer to achieving enhanced whistleblower protections than ever before. The House could vote on the bill as early as tomorrow.

It's absolutely imperative that this legislation, which reflects a true compromise between Senate and House versions of whistleblower reform, becomes law this year.

In order to ensure that this bill crosses the finish line, we need you to send a message to your Representative as soon as possible to urge their vote in favor of S. 372 without amendments. There simply isn’t any time for additional tinkering and this bill represents the best policy possible for federal whistleblowers for the foreseeable future.

This legislation offers essential reform measures to protect whistleblowers.

Under current law, the Merit Systems Protection Board has ruled against 99% of whistleblowers who file suit to defend themselves against retaliation. These odds only encourage those who witness waste, fraud, and abuse to remain silent. Clearly, this is a problem that needs to be fixed.

Over 90 groups have already signed on to an open letter to Members of the House of Representatives, urging them to take swift action on S. 372. Now we need you to add your voice by contacting your Rep. today. If we miss this chance, we're back to square one and the unacceptable status quo.

Our website makes it easy—in just under a minute, you can contact your Representative and make an impact.
This is a critical window of opportunity for enacting reform that has strong support across ideological lines. Please take a moment to act now.

Sincerely,

Danielle Brian
Executive Director

Senate Passes Bill That Destroys Existing Whistleblower Rights

National Whistleblowers Center

Take Action!

The Senate passed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (S. 372) on Friday, December, 10th, by unanimous consent. As the National Whistleblowers Center has repeatedly stated S. 372 is a bad deal for whistleblowers. There are two poison pills in the bill that fundamentally undermine the small advances in the bill. There is still time to fix the bill.

TAKE ACTION! Stop the repeal of existing whistleblower rights

For the first time ever, federal employees will not be protected for blowing the whistle on a violation of law. The excuse given to justify this dangerous rollback is that it only excludes minor violations of law. The fact is there is no such thing as a minor violation of law. Either it is violation of the law or it is not. Federal managers should not be allowed to decide what laws they can violate.

In fact, this provision overturns one of few Federal Court decisions in 30 years that ordered corrective action for a whistleblower. The provision also runs counter to every major study on how to detect fraud, including the most recent study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. These studies have found that the best way to detect fraud is to protect whistleblowers who report even suspicious activity because it is often the suspicious activity that leads to the discovery of major fraud.

TAKE ACTION! Demand that House fix the Senate bill before final passage

The second major rollback in the Senate bill is the increased power given to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). Instead of reforming the broken MSPB, for the first time in history the Senate has given the Board the ability to summarily dismiss a whistleblowers case without ever having a hearing. The House resisted efforts in 1978 to give the MSPB this tremendous authority and should continue to do so today.

These two dangerous rollbacks in existing whistleblower protections can be fixed in the House and sent back to the Senate. We cannot allow another generation of whistleblowers to suffer. Urge the House to continue to stand up for real whistleblower protections and fix the Senate bill before passing it.

Whistleblowers were promised enhanced protections. We will not stand by silently and watch Congress destroy existing whistleblowers rights so that they can say they passed something for whistleblowers. Please help us protect whistleblowers by taking action and then passing this alert on to your friends and family.

Posted by Mike at December 14, 2010 09:48 AM

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