The myriad of numbers in the recent proposed federal budget included a surprising change in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)—an increase of funds to investigate whistleblower claims. President Bush’s 2005 budget request for OSHA includes a $5 million increase in enforcement funding, with $2 million specifically earmarked to strengthen the agency’s whistleblower protection efforts. The increase in whistleblower funds is significant considering that while OSHA’s overall proposed budget approached half a billion dollars, the agency only received a total increase of $4.1 million. OSHA Administrator John Henshaw cited an increase of responsibilities and workload under whistleblower protections legislation. Henshaw specifically noted the Corporate and Criminal Fraud Act (Sarbanes-Oxley), which increased whistleblower provisions in an effort to avoid future Enron and Anderson Consulting scandals. Sarbanes-Oxley established an administrative remedy for corporate whistleblowers within the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The law also permits corporate whistleblowers to seek federal court relief if the DOL does not resolve their case within 180 days. The Sabanes-Oxley legislation modeled its protections after other legislation noted by the OSHA Administrator, the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21 Century. The law, signed by President Clinton in 2000, protects the rights of airline employees to report safety violations and other wrongdoing. This increase in whistleblower funding runs contrary to numerous previous actions under the Bush administration to reduce protections for whistleblowers and discourage federal employees from speaking out. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 made whistle blowing illegal for critical infrastructure information submitted by corporations. Any violation would be punishable by up to a year in jail and a huge fine. Recent legislative efforts to reinforce whistleblower protections have not received the support of the Bush administration. Additionally, Congress recently discovered that an Environmental Protection Agency headquarters’ official instructed regional staff not to cooperate with congressional staff investigating the status of contaminated sites around the country (see this week’s Watcher article.)