A report released today by Senator Charles Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reveals that most of the fifteen executive branch departments’ nondisclosure agreement policies violate the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. The law requires such agreements to contain an explicit statement notifying employees the agreements do not trump an employee’s rights and obligations
Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act
Federal Employee Whistleblowers Win Rare Victory
This is a major victory for all federal employee whistleblowers whose cases were pending at the time the WEPA was passed.
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MSPB Urged to Retroactively Apply WEPA
Today the National Whistleblower Center filed an Amicus Curiae brief with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), in the case of Day v. Department of Homeland Security. At issue is whether the new definition of a protected disclosure set forth in the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act will apply to cases pending and/or which arose before that law was passed.
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Why Summary Judgment Must be Removed from the WPEA
The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) may move through Congress in the coming days, or even hours, and contains many important reforms that will help federal employees. However, both the House (H.R. 3289) and Senate (S. 743) versions still have one provision that, if enacted into law, will significantly harm whistleblowers.
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House Flip Flops on Jury Trials in Whistleblower Protection Act
On Thursday the House Oversight Committee marked up the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. Similar bills have been passed during the past few sessions of Congress but never signed into law. Each new session of Congress brings a new start to the process.
Important language from past versions of the bill has been removed during…
Senate Whistleblower Bill called “Bride of Frankenstein”
Julia Davis, a notable whistleblower who prevailed in her struggle against the Department of Homeland Security, recently released an article concerning the reintroduction of the Senate version of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (S. 743). Ms. Davis notes that one of the main supporters and architects of the current law to protect federal employees…
Whistleblower Protection for Federal Employee — Let’s Get it Right
TAKE ACTION!
The new Congress gives whistleblower advocates an opportunity to make a new start on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (“WPEA”). The National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) today calls on legislators and advocates to get it right this time. Legal protections for federal employees should be enhanced without any provisions that would take away presently existing rights. If any poison pills are included in new legislation, federal employees will continue to suffer when they raise concerns about waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.
The obituaries over the defeat of the WPEA in the last Congress (S. 372), have taken on an air of nostalgia over how the forces of “good” were defeated by one lone anonymous Senate “hold,” that somehow caused a major landmark whistleblower rights bill for federal employees to be defeated. It is a great political story — if only it was half-true. In reality, the final, compromised version of S. 372 was the worst and weakest whistleblower protection law approved by the Senate or the House over the past 30 years. It was fatally flawed and divisive legislation.
On May 14, 2009 over 290 public interest organizations, including all of the members of the Make if Safe Coalition, wrote an open letter to President Obama and Congress calling for the enactment of nine significant reforms in the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. Unfortunately, S. 372 failed to include seven of these nine requirements. Worse, it contained two major cutbacks in current rights.
The May 14th letter stated:
It is crucial that Congress restore and modernize the Whistleblower Protection Act by passing all of the following reforms:
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NWC Responds to Letter from Whistleblowers
Please take the time to read the two response letters. The first letter is from Dr. Frederic Whitehurst and Jane Turner, two FBI whistleblowers and members of the NWC’s Board of Directors. The second letter is from NWC Executive Director Stephen M. Kohn.
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NWC Board Members Respond to Letter from Whistleblowers
Please take the time to read the two response letters. The first letter is from Dr. Frederic Whitehurst and Jane Turner, two FBI whistleblowers and members of the NWC’s Board of Directors. The second letter is from NWC Executive Director Stephen M. Kohn.
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NWC Calls for Correction of Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act
The NWC is urging citizens to TAKE ACTION and demand that the House fix the problems in S. 372 before they pass it.
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