Today, GAP and the Make It Safe Coalition (MISC) will hold a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) event to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA). This is your chance to pose questions about the WPA or general whistleblower protections to GAP Legal Director Tom Devine, who is nationally recognized as a leading expert on whistleblower law.
Click here to go directly to the AMA & to ask him a question!
If you’re unfamiliar with this type of online event, fear not! You can still easily join the conversation. Politicians, opinion leaders, celebrities and many others routinely hold Reddit AMAs to give the public a chance to pose direct questions. Creating a Reddit account is very easy – simply click on the Reddit front-page and then click on the link near the top right (“login or register in seconds”) and follow the instructions. The entire process only takes seconds for you to be ready to go!
Also, if you cannot attend the online session for any reason, but still want to pose a question, we’ll make that possible too (see details below).
MISC Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ with GAP Legal Director Tom Devine
Friday, June 27
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EDT
(Direct link to be sent out Friday around 12:00 p.m. EDT)
About the WPA
In 2012, GAP and MISC completed a marathon campaign to overhaul the gutted WPA through passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA). That law restored Congress’ original intent to protect federal employees against workplace retaliation when they disclose waste, fraud, abuse, gross mismanagement, and public health and safety threats. Unfortunately, a recent Federal News Radio survey found that a mere 16 percent of federal employees feel protected enough to blow the whistle on wrongdoing without fear of retaliation.
The WPEA is a significant advance in federal whistleblower rights. As is the case with all laws, however, it comes with limitations and shortcomings that leave federal employees unclear about their protections. Many questions remain: Does the WPA now protect intelligence community (IC) whistleblowers? To what extent does current law protect whistleblowers against criminal retaliation? Are federal contractors now covered under the WPA?
Ask Away!
The AMA on June 27 is an opportunity for you to explore these questions and much more. GAP’s Devine is prepared to answer queries about the breadth and boundaries of existing whistleblower rights, and will arm the public with tools to engage in whistleblower advocacy (by joining MISC legislative campaigns).
If you cannot participate in the upcoming AMA but would still like your relevant question to be posed, please respond to this email with your question, and we will post it to the AMA page when the MISC session begins. All questions may not be answered due to limited time, but we will post all relevant questions we receive. Please note that Reddit users vote on which questions they want answered, so the questions with the most votes have a greater chance of being addressed.Important tip: If you send in a question ahead of time in response to this email, please keep it under 50 words!
We hope to see you online today! A direct link to the AMA page will be sent out approximately one hour before the event starts. Start thinking about your questions now!
Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.