Our Top 5 of 2022
2022 was a record year! At Government Accountability Project, we were hard at work protecting whistleblowers and helping bring their disclosures to light. As one year ends and the next begins, we want to look back and reflect upon our best work and most important cases of 2022.
- Meltdown: Three Mile Island Netflix Documentary Shining Light on Nuclear Whistleblowers
In May, Netflix released a four-part documentary series called Meltdown: Three Mile Island, which traced how brazen nuclear safety violations in the Three Mile Island nuclear cleanup threatened a full meltdown that would’ve taken out the East Coast. It was prevented only because our client, Rick Parks, bravely spoke up about unsafe procedures at the facility and negligence at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission following the incident and throughout the multi-year cleanup operation.
After the infamous nuclear accident in March of 1979, cleanup began in August 1979. In 1983, the Bechtel Corporation was brought in to expedite the cleanup but was cutting corners to receive bonus payments for a speedy cleanup. Meltdown tells the story of how Government Accountability Project worked with Parks to, in just five days, successfully stop the unsafe cleanup and avert a nuclear disaster.
The Three Mile Island near-miss puts an exclamation point on why those with the courage to speak out deserve gold standard legal rights against retaliation. Since its release, Meltdown: Three Mile Island has received praise from the film community, including being nominated for an IDA Documentary Award for Best Multi-Part Documentary, and has also been praised by the nuclear community—both for Rick Parks’ courage and our continued support of nuclear accountability.
Even though this incident happened over 40 years ago, the safety concerns of nuclear power are still painfully relevant. Government Accountability Project has continued to represent nuclear whistleblowers in corporations and within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission itself. As recently as 2012, Government Accountability Project clients have warned that nearly a quarter of the nation’s nuclear plants could not withstand flooding, a risk that escalates as climate change exacerbates the threat of extreme weather. The more whistleblowers who speak out about corporate negligence and government oversight failures, the safer the nuclear industry will be.
- Standing Up to Toxic Workplace Culture at OSTP
In February, Politico reported that the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), Dr. Eric Lander, resigned after whistleblower disclosures spurred a White House internal investigation which found that he “bullied and demeaned his subordinates and violated the White House’s workplace policy.” Rachel Wallace, our client and one of several employees who repeatedly raised concerns about Director Lander’s misconduct, is a career civil servant who has worked as an attorney through both the Obama and Trump administrations and served as general counsel until she was removed from that position after raising legal and ethical concerns about Lander.
OSTP plays a critical role in setting policy and funding priorities for all federal science and technology initiatives and responds to global threats such as the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. Since these whistleblower disclosures, Lander has been replaced by Dr. Arati Prabhakar and OSTP is working towards restoring their integrity as misinformation and ethics remain major concerns in today’s world.
Rachel Wallace made every effort to timely address Director Lander’s toxic, chronic hostility toward career staff and its grave implications for the integrity of OSTP and for all of federal science. That it took her speaking on the record with the press to prompt attention to Lander’s behavior is deeply concerning, but her bravery and sacrifice brought about real change.
- Nurse Dawn Wooten, Two Years Later
Exactly two years after her initial disclosure of medical neglect and nonconsensual hysterectomies being performed in ICE detention, nurse Dawn Wooten was honored with the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award. This award “spotlights individuals who have made significant contributions to protecting and enhancing First Amendment rights for all Americans.” Government Accountability Project is proud to represent her and continue telling her story.
Ms. Dawn Wooten, LPN, was a nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) where she witnessed critical failures on behalf of the ICE facility to protect immigrants in detention and workers from COVID-19. Ms. Wooten also disclosed that detained women were undergoing hysterectomies and other gynecological procedures without informed consent. These explosive revelations eventually spread throughout the media, inciting passionate calls for reform from immigration justice organizations, medical professionals, and members of Congress.
The impact of Ms. Wooten’s disclosures was profound: 57 victims of medical mistreatment at ICDC came forward and are currently seeking justice through a class-action lawsuit, and multiple investigations were launched by Congress, including the recent bipartisan Senate hearing that validated her disclosures and included the admittance by the ICE Health Director that his office had virtually no oversight systems in place to prevent this from happening and no knowledge of these events if not for Ms. Wooten’s whistleblower disclosure.
Even though Dawn has continued to experience retaliation from her heroic whistleblowing, she is proud of the justice that has come through her truth-telling. “In my story,” she said, “Cinderella gets retribution. She gets her RN degree, and then she gets to teach other nurses about ethics. Cinderella gets justice too—she gets to make the standards of practice so high at these facilities that nothing like this ever happens again.”
- Preventing the Spread of Monkeypox in New York City
In August, Government Accountability Project testified on behalf of and submitted for the record the written testimony of our client, Dr. Don Weiss, in front of the New York City Council Health Committee Oversight Hearing on Monkeypox. Dr. Weiss is the NYC Department of Health’s most senior epidemiologist who, until August 1, was leading the City’s fight against Monkeypox. He was stripped of his duties and transferred to a remote office after raising concerns about the danger to public health and safety due to the Department’s erroneous public messaging on how to prevent the spread of Monkeypox.
The Health Department publicly disclosed the first suspected Monkeypox case on May 19, 2022. Over the next two months, it provided appropriate advice to the public, such as “do not engage in sex or other close physical contact … if you or your partners are sick and especially if you or they have a new or unexpected rash or sores.” On July 15, 2022, the Department changed its advice to, “[f]or those who choose to have sex while sick… sores should be covered with clothing or sealed bandages.”
The changed messaging alarmed Dr. Weiss. He wrote, the new messaging was “Unbelievable” and should be changed to: “If you wish to avoid monkeypox, DON’T HAVE SEX, most importantly, not anonymous/multiple partner sex.”
Though Dr. Weiss was reassigned just four days after his whistleblowing went public, his outspoken expertise in preventing the spread of Monkeypox educated the public on correct information and case numbers have decreased rapidly since.
- The Whistleblower Protection Improvement Act Passed the House
In September, the House of Representatives passed the Whistleblower Protection Improvement Act (WPIA), which has now moved to the Senate for action. The legislation would establish parity for federal government whistleblowers with 16 laws passed since the millennium for private sector employees in different industries. Most significantly, it would give them access to jury trials in federal court if they do not receive a timely administrative ruling.
This piece of legislation was created in 2019 to expand the already patchwork laws that protect whistleblowers. At Government Accountability Project, we are constantly working with lawmakers, other non-governmental organizations, and community partners to bring the WPIA to the Congressional floor. These types of protections cannot wait as every day more whistleblowers come forward to protect their community and country.
If we care about the information provided by whistleblowers, we need to care about the whistleblowers too. Whistleblowers are often the only defense against abuses of power that would otherwise go unchecked. Fraud, waste, and abuse aren’t the province of a single party, and Congress, no matter which party is in power, depends on whistleblowers to do its job of oversight.
Congress this term could—and should—renew its historically bipartisan support for whistleblower protection legislation. Our whistleblowers, and all of us, deserve nothing less.
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As we look ahead towards 2023, Government Accountability Project is excited to continue our hard work and dedication towards supporting whistleblowers—both their fights and their rights. However, we could not have such a successful year and years to come if it wasn’t for our generous donors supporting our essential work. If you would like to support today and tomorrow’s truth-tellers and contribute to strengthening the rights of whistleblowers worldwide, please consider donating to Government Accountability Project.
Thank you for an excellent year, and we will see you in 2023!