Whistleblower Amendment Passes: Federal Workers Now Protected In House Stimulus Bill

Source: Web Wire

Whistleblower Amendment Passes: Federal Workers Now Protected In House Stimulus Bill
WEBWIRE – Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Contact Information
Lindsey M. Williams
Advocacy Director
National Whistleblowers Center
202 342-1903
lmw@whistleblowers.org



Washington, D.C., January 27, 2009. Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment to the stimulus bill to include whistleblower protection for federal employees. This amendment will strengthen efforts to detect and deter waste, fraud, and abuse.

Representatives Todd R. Platts (R-PA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) proposed the amendment to include the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (H.R. 985) from last session’s Congress in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1). On the floor of the House Speaker Pelosi personally endorsed this amendment quoting from the hundreds of organizations which have pushed for these reforms. The Speaker said, "With the adoption of the bipartisan Platts/Van Hollen Amenment... we have set a new standard of accountability and transparency by empowering federal employees to call attention to waste, fraud and abuse of tax dollars without fear of retaliation"


The Platts/Van Hollen amendment was passed with broad bi-partisan support by voice vote. Representative Todd R. Platts introduced the amendment stating that it is essential "to ensure effective oversight and accountability"

“The House scored a touchdown for whistleblowers,” said Stephen M. Kohn, the Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center.

Read more: http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=85783

Now let them speak. Let the justice system work for them.

track of runaway private contractors...

But does it really protect them from, you know, mysterious plane crashes or a bullet.

GLORY BE... TAKE THE BUMS DOWN AND PUT THEN IN JAIL.


:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:


CAN WE HAVE SMILIE FOR WHISTLE BLOWER, PLEASE

Living it and loving it!

why it didn't pass in the last 4 congresses?

did chimp threaten a veto?
so, then why not make him use it?
and which members would not override a veto?


why why why?
would the Congressional gentle persons please now
explain themselves.

Well, if you are of a conspiratorial bent(and sometimes there's justification for that)you might also consider that some of the whistleblowers might blow the whistle on those in the Quisling wings of our House and Senate caucuses.

to tell tales about their Bush-appointed superiors. This is just what we need to start an avalanche. When enough comes out, it will be impossible for the DOJ to ignore it.

And on a related topic, I seriously doubt that Holder made any untoward promises.

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YOU GOTTA READ THIS ARTICLE!

still better keep yer traps shut

The House passed it -- but will the Senate? That remains to be seen.

One step away from Fascism I think.

Let the whistleblowing begin.

bill! I was having a problem believing the Boner had that much control over the Pub conference, but I didn't know this whistle blower provision was in there! Obviously they couldn't SAY they were rejecting the bill for that reason, but I'm convinced that's the real reason!

She testified before congress. She would tear them a new one.
http://www.whistleblowers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=734&Itemid=142

Pardon me for not taking the time to look this up myself.. I'm fighting off a nasty cold now. But I recall earlier whistleblower protection bills making exceptions and NOT protecting this category of federal employees. With those exceptions, workers such as Russell Tice and Sibel Edmonds still wouldn't be protected. Those are the kind of workers we need MOST as whistleblowers to find out about the likely areas of severe wrongdoing in government, especially Bushco... If they pass this bill with this exception, it will be marketed as changing the rules, but fundamentally it will still ignore the real areas of importance to address for whistleblower protection.

Another good rider or bill to work with this act to help whistleblowers come forward (and file court cases) would be to put into law something (I believe Congressman Nadler has a bill for this now), which applies the same rules or variants of such for criminal cases that is in law now to civil cases, to avoid the heavy usage of State Secrets Privilege to dismiss civil cases before they can be even heard, the way Bushco has been doing at unprecedented rates. If this were in place, more security whistleblowers would know they could have their day in court (albeit with some security restrictions), if they need to file a lawsuit to get their story out.