Opinion Contributor
If Tim Williams had not spoken up, Kentucky residents might have never known that their state mismanaged dozens of child abuse cases. These children – including newborns testing positive for drugs, and young children locked out of their homes without food or shelter – endured this abuse while their cases languished, uninvestigated.
After he reported his concerns, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services retaliated against Mr. Williams instead of promptly addressing the mismanagement to protect these children. Earlier this year, a Boone County jury awarded Mr. Williams $2 million in damages for this retaliation. Justice prevailed because Kentucky state employees have the right to bring a whistleblower retaliation case to a jury trial. However, this is a right not afforded to federal whistleblowers.
Whistleblowers are the last line of defense against government corruption, waste, fraud and abuse. They take enormous risks by coming forward. Like Mr. Williams, federal workers who witness and expose government wrongdoing often face retaliation, when their employers attack them rather than the wrongdoing they’ve exposed. Unlike state employees though, federal workers facing this sort of retaliation are limited to a bureaucratic process with the government for relief, and rarely prevail. The time, cost and low chance of success of bringing retaliation claims through this process discourages would-be whistleblowers from coming forward, leaving federal...
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