No one likes a preachy hypocrite, which may explain a certain distrust of the United Nations among the people it claims to support. Although the UN pressures the governments of its Member States to observe the body of conventions and governance standards that many regard as international law (using this term loosely), in fact, the [...]
Even in an administration that has seen controversy at almost every cabinet position, the problems at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are exceptional. Controversies at the EPA under Administrator Scott Pruitt exist on many levels: abuse of power, cronyism, undue influence, failures of accountability and leadership, and spending that is literally out of control (as [...]
Joel Clement, a former federal official who blew the whistle on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's arbitrary transfer of dozens of Senior Executive Service (SES) employees last summer, has joined the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs as a senior fellow with the Center's Arctic Initiative. In his role as top advisor for climate change [...]
Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom [...]
Mahmoud Mohieldin, an Egyptian national, is a Senior Vice President at World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He must be among the luckiest of the senior officials in the infamous regime of Hosni Mubarak, whose government in Cairo fell suddenly in January, 2011, when a popular anti-corruption uprising bloomed suddenly during the Arab spring. Mohieldin, [...]
The WPEA is a significant breakthrough to provide genuine anti-retaliation rights to federal employees and contractors. Since the consensus on Title 5 free speech rights was reached in 2006, however, several developments have created new technical obstacles/loopholes to protection that were not necessary to address at the time. Unless they are now, however, the legislation [...]
GAP and the Make It Safe Campaign continue to advocate for a final bill that resolves the following conceptual issues: 1. Court Access. Since 1989, the WPA has provided a favorable burden-shifting framework for whistleblowers. Under that framework, the employee demonstrates liability by proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the employee’s whistleblowing was a [...]
The following is a summary of rights of S. 372 (the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, or WPEA), according to the Make It Safe Coalition, which GAP spearheads. S. 372 is a solid downpayment on meaningful reform of government whistleblower law, in terms of rights, due process, remedies and resources. Many of the institutional changes it [...]
The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) provides millions of federal workers with the rights they need to report government corruption and wrongdoing safely. The law reflects an unequivocal bipartisan consensus, having received the vote of every member in the 112th Congress, passing both the Senate and House of Representatives by unanimous consent shortly before adjournment. The [...]
UPDATE: For the fifth anniversary of the BP oil disaster, GAP released new investigative findings in an addendum to its 2013 report, Deadly Dispersants in the Gulf: Are Public Health and Environmental Tragedies the New Norm for Oil Spill Cleanups? The latest evidence further demonstrates devastating long-term effects on human health and the Gulf of [...]