(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and a broad coalition of good government, watchdog, labor, and national security organizations are calling attention to behind-the-scenes efforts by the White House to defy a broad, bipartisan consensus in Congress to strengthen whistleblower rights for federal employees.
As President Bush and Vice President Cheney lobbied Capitol Hill Republicans yesterday to shore up support on contentious defense issues, White House staff were working to kill a whistleblower rights amendment on the FY2007 defense authorization bill.
The whistleblower rights amendment was added unanimously by the Senate in June to its version of the defense authorization bill. It has the support of five Republican Committee Chairman in both chambers and has been approved unanimously a total of five times by the relevant House and Senate oversight committees. Yet, its status remains uncertain as congressional advocates in the House and Senate work to overcome White House demands that the legislation be removed entirely from the defense bill.
“This is one concrete step to make America safer that everyone seems to agree on except for the White House,” stated GAP Legal Director Tom Devine. He added that a unanimously passed Senate amendment should be reinforced with provisions approved by the House Government Reform Committee, extending the reforms to include employees at the FBI, CIA, baggage screeners and government contractors.
In a letter sent yesterday to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, who leads the House delegation to a conference committee that is working to produce a final version of the defense bill, the whistleblower rights coalition attempted to underscore the significance of the whistleblower amendment: “Whistleblowers are America’s first line of defense against threats to America’s safety, whether the danger comes from terrorists, natural disasters, or unsafe food and drugs. But under current law they can’t defend themselves.”
“This reform would restore a sound foundation for whistleblower rights that are worth the paper they’re written on,” Devine emphasized. “Our work will not be done, however, until all government workers and contractors paid by the taxpayers have access to jury trials, the same as available to corporate workers under the Sarbanes Oxley reforms.” The latter reforms are in legislation sponsored by Representatives Tom Davis (R.-Va.), Henry Waxman (D.-Ca.) and Todd Platts (R-Pa.), and have been approved by the House Government Reform Committee.
Devine explained further: “Government whistleblowers are America’s human failsafe against terrorism and other threats when the bureaucracy lets us down. It’s inexcusable for the president to trumpet his efforts to strengthen national security on the one hand, while his office is actively trying to silence government employees on the other.”