The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday unanimously advanced two bills expanding protections for whistleblowers who work for federal contractors and to fix a longstanding benefits inequity impacting around 1,350 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.
The 2025 Expanding Whistleblower Protections for Contractors Act (S. 874), would extend whistleblower protections to federal contractors who refuse to follow illegal order remove an exception that allows executive branch officials to order reprisal against a whistleblower under some circumstances, and invalidate any predispute arbitration agreement that waives a contractor’s rights as a whistleblower.
The measure, introduced by Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the committee’s top Democrat, and sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, previously advanced out of the panel unanimously last year, but the bill was not called up for a vote on the Senate floor.
In a statement Wednesday, Maya Efrati, director of legislation and congressional affairs for the Government Accountability Project, which previously endorsed the bill, applauded the panel’s unanimous vote.
“This bipartisan legislation fixes the glaring loopholes that have left federal contractors vulnerable for too long,” she said. “With trillions of taxpayer dollars going to contractors, honest employees deserve the security to speak up when they witness waste, fraud or abuse.”
The committee also voted to advance a bill aimed at fixing a...
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