On Feb. 14, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee marked up and unanimously approved the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (H.R. 985), a bill that would extend whistleblower protections to more federal employees and require officials to more vigorously investigate retaliation. Whistleblower protection legislation has also been introduced in the Senate. The bill, introduced by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Todd Platts (R-PA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Thomas Davis (R-VA) is similar to legislation considered during the last session of Congress, which stalled after passing in the Government Reform Committee. During the markup of H.R. 985, the committee passed amendments to expand the court venues in which whistleblower cases may be heard and to expand the damages that a whistleblower can receive if successful in a lawsuit against the government. Many believe that allowing more courts to hear whistleblower cases will result in more suits being decided in favor of whistleblowers; currently, the judicial playing field is slanted heavily in the government's favor. The bill must now be reviewed and approved by the House Armed Services Committee because of a provision to extend whistleblower protections to employees of military contractors. The House Armed Services Committee has not yet scheduled a markup of H.R. 985. On the Senate side, a whistleblower bill, the Federal Employee Protection of Disclosures Act (S. 274), has been introduced but has yet to be marked up by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) introduced the bill with ten cosponsors: Sens. Thomas Carper (D-DE), Susan Collins (R-ME), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Carl Levin (D-MI), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Mark Pryor (D-AR), and George Voinovich (R-OH). Another Senate bill, the Honest Leadership and Accountability in Contracting Act (S. 606), also includes whistleblower protections. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) introduced S. 606 with provisions similar to those in S. 274 but that allow for classified disclosures to any member of Congress. On the heels of the House movement on expanding whistleblower protections, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner released poll results that showed that 79 percent of 1,014 "likely voters" support passage of a strong federal whistleblower law to protect government employees from retribution if they report waste or corruption. The poll also found that 41 percent of those surveyed would be "much more likely" to vote for a candidate that passed such whistleblower legislation.