The House Plans to Take Up Whistleblower Protections Legislation
This article features Government Accountability Project and was originally published here.
On the to-do list for the House, which came back in session on Monday, is legislation that would bolster whistleblower protections for federal employees who expose wrongdoing.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., wrote in a “dear colleague” letter on Friday that the House will take up a slew of bills “to promote transparency and accountability in government,” as part of its agenda for the next three weeks. Congress is facing a government funding deadline and fast-approaching midterms. One of them is the Whistleblower Protection Improvement Act.
“Federal whistleblowers are an integral part of our constitutional system of checks and balances,” said a report on the bill from the House Oversight and Reform Committee. “However, whistleblowers act at great personal risk and often face retaliation. Being a whistleblower often means risking one’s career.”
Specifically this bill “would create new federal whistleblower protections, including strengthened protections against retaliatory investigations and protections for disclosures to Congress; expand and clarify existing protections, including protections against the disclosure of a whistleblower’s identity; [and] establish new procedures to ensure that employees receive timely relief for their retaliation claims,” according to the report. “It would also “extend...
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