Last week Sens. Leahy (D-VT), Levin (D-MI), and Akaka (D-HI) introduced an important bill to reinforce traditional whistleblower protections. The Whistleblower Protection Act Amendments (S. 1229) are the product of three years of research and staff review, as well as in-depth hearings. Various court decisions have eroded the protections for whistleblowers established by Congress in 1989 with the unanimously supported Whistleblower Protection Act, which was later strengthened, again with a unanimous vote, in 1994. The proposed amendments would restore policy choices that have already been made by Congress but have not been respected by the Federal circuit courts. The bill would codify prior Governmental Affairs Committee report guidance or restore explicit statutory language including:

• Banning non-statutory loopholes in the scope of protected speech;
• Removing a judicially-created test requiring an employee to irrefutably prove misconduct, rather than establish a reasonable belief;
• Prohibiting gag orders from canceling speech protected by the WPA;
• Establishing independent review of security clearance decisions as a check against using clearance actions to harass whistleblowers;
• Clarifying the settings when a whistleblower responsibly can disclose classified information to Congress.

This legislation would give employees who disclose important information about fraud, mismanagement, or misconduct a fair chance to survive professionally. These are federal government employees who choose to act on their duties under the Code of Ethics and work within governmental channels to challenge betrayals of the public trust. Our country needs advance warning from whistleblowers more than ever to address security breakdowns. The bill is scheduled to be marked-up on June 17 by the full Government Affairs Committee.