American Civil Liberties Union Citizen ? American Federation of Government Employees ? Government Accountability Project (GAP) ? Liberty Coalition ? National Employment Lawyers Association ? National Treasury Employees Union ? National Whistleblower Center ? OpenTheGovernment.org ? Project on Government Oversight ? Public Citizen ? Union of Concerned Scientists ? U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation

April, 2009

Groups Seek Whistleblower Rights Clarification from Obama Administration

Advocates Call for Action on the President’s Promise to Support Strengthening Whistleblower Protections

(Washington, D.C) – Today advocacy groups representing hundreds of thousands of Americans wrote to President Obama, asking him to fulfill his campaign and transition policy commitments to strengthen whistleblower rights to effectively fight waste, fraud and abuse in unprecedented government spending.

In their letter, Members of the Make it Safe Coalition, a bipartisan coalition comprised of good government, consumer protection, civil liberties, transparency, labor, scientific, and taxpayer rights groups asked the President to make good on his campaign promises regarding federal whistleblower protections.

The letter asks the President to strongly endorse congressional legislation that would protect all federal employees from retaliation and give them access to jury trials, and to direct agency heads to institute “no-retaliation” policies at federal agencies for federal employees who expose waste, fraud, abuse, suppression of federal research, threats to public health and safety.

The Obama Administration has taken steps to improve transparency and accountability in the federal government, including the creation the Open Government Directive, and the recent memorandum to agency heads directing them to adopt appropriate whistleblower protections to ensure scientific integrity.

On March 11th, by contrast, the president issued a signing statement attached to H.R. 1105, the omnibus spending bill, which could have a chilling affect on lawful whistleblowing disclosures. The signing statement qualified a small but critical provision that would deny a salary to a federal manager who “interferes with or prohibits certain communications between federal employees and Members of Congress.” In its letter, the groups recognized that the signing statement is open to varying interpretation, but expressed concern that this statement could be interpreted as a warning to federal workers against publicly communicating unclassified information, contrary to their long-standing rights under the law.

The groups urged President Obama to make his position clear and take three concrete steps to fulfill his commitment to transparency and accountability through strengthened federal employee whistleblower rights:

Commitment: Reaffirm his strong endorsement of reforms for federal whistleblower rights made in his campaign statements and transition policy; reforms providing best-practice free speech rights, including full court access for all whistleblowers funded by taxpayers and coverage of government contractors, and the appointment of a liaison responsible for interacting with whistleblower advocates as set forth in your response to the survey of presidential candidates signed by the Obama campaign on May 8, 2007.

Change: Actively support the swift enactment of strong whistleblower protections, such as those in the bipartisan H.R. 1507, sponsored by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA), in advance of congressional hearings this year, and communicate that message specifically to Attorney General Holder. The president’s help will ensure that Congress enacts strong, comprehensive federal whistleblower protection legislation that gives all federal employees a functional administrative process, and access to jury trials.

Leadership: Issue and enforce a directive to all agency managers that they must not tolerate any retaliation against federal employees who expose waste, fraud, abuse, suppression of federal research, threats to public health and safety, and illegality. While this directive alone will not resolve the need for improvements to the law, it will help to send a strong message of support for federal employees and help to end the culture of secrecy.

Click here to read a copy of the letter:

Contacts

Mike German, American Civil Liberties Union, (202)

Charity Wilson, American Federation of Government Employees, (202) 639-6440

Tom Devine, GAP, tomd@whistleblower.org

Michael Ostrolenk, Liberty Coalition, (301) 717-0599

Lindsey M. Williams, National Whistleblower Center, (202) 342-1903

Donna Lenhoff, National Employment Lawyers Association, (202) 898-2880

Dina Long, National Treasury Employees Union, (202) 572-5500, ext. 7058

Patrice McDermott, OpenTheGovernment.org, (202) 332-6736

Marthena Cowart, Project on Government Oversight, (202) 347-3958

Angela Canterbury, Public Citizen, (202) 454-5188, acanterbury@citizen.org

Celia Wexler, Union of Concerned Scientists, (202) 390-5481

Dane vonBreichenruchard, U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation, (202) 546-7079