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[Page S2382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION ACT
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, 30 years ago today, the Whistleblower
Protection Act was signed into law. To call it a triumph doesn't do
justice to the sheer number of years and people it took on both sides
of the aisle to overcome numerous obstacles and enact Federal
protections for Federal Government employees who step forward and do
what we all should do: expose wrongdoings in order to hold government
officials and agencies accountable.
Congressional efforts to protect whistleblowers date back to at least
1912 with the enactment of the Lloyd-La Follette Act. This act
guaranteed the right of Federal employees to communicate with Members
of Congress without the oversight of their employer and prohibited
compensation to managers who retaliated against employees attempting to
disclose whistleblower matters.
However, empowering Federal employees to speak up and speak the truth
was and continues to be an ongoing struggle, one that has often pitted
Congress against the executive branch. When President George H.W. Bush
signed the Whistleblower Protection Act into law that April morning in
1989, it came after his predecessor President Ronald Reagan had vetoed
a similar bill despite the fact that it had been unanimously adopted by
both the Senate and the House.
The Whistleblower Protection Act, itself, was first introduced by
Representative Pat Schroeder of Colorado as an amendment to the Civil
Service Reform Act of 1978 and then as a stand-alone bill in 1982. The
principal purpose of the bill was to block retaliation against
employees who came forward, a never-ending problem. The bill would have
allowed ``a person claiming to be aggrieved by a prohibited personnel
practice to: (1) bring a civil action in a U.S. district court against
the employee or agency involved (respondent); or (2) seek corrective
action through the (Merit Systems Protection) Board.''
While that particular bill ultimately died after receiving
unfavorable comments from the U.S. Government Accountability Office--
GAO--and the Merit Systems Protection Board, which adjudicates
whistleblower complaints, its failure didn't deter our colleagues.
By the time 1989 rolled around, Members of both the House and the
Senate, including Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, who spearheaded
efforts in the Senate, had worked together for years to find a
compromise and pass legislation that protected those employees whose
disclosures revealed waste, fraud, or abuse. Between May of 1982 and
September of 1989, 28 bills and resolutions with whistleblower
protections built into them were introduced, many of them with dozens
and dozens of cosponsors.
Since the passage of the Whistleblower Protection Act 30 years ago,
Congress has continued to improve protections for whistleblowers,
notably with the passage of the Intelligence Community Whistleblower
Protection Act of 1998; the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of
2012; the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and
Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017; and more recently the Dr. Chris
Kirkpatrick Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017.
Unfortunately, despite all of these efforts, becoming a whistleblower
is still a perilous path. In its latest budget justification, the
Office of Special Counsel, the agency that investigates retaliation
against Federal whistleblowers, reported that, in fiscal year 2018,
that agency received over 4,100 complaints of retaliation, otherwise
known as prohibited personnel practices. This, according to OSC, is a
new agency record. That is not a record that anyone should be proud of.
As much as today is a celebration of the Whistleblower Protection Act
and the work of the many people it took to make those protections law,
it is a greater celebration of the courage whistleblowers embody when
they step forward to shine a light on waste, fraud, abuse, and
mismanagement in the government. Their bravery and sacrifice is
invaluable, and for that, we thank them. Unfortunately, coming forward
to do what is right still requires too much of both.
Consequently, Congress still has more work to do to protect
whistleblowers, and I call on my colleagues to remember the value of
citizens being able to blow the whistle. As Representative Schroeder
said early on in her efforts to help whistleblowers: ``If we in
Congress are going to act as effective checks on excesses in the
executive branch, we have to hear about such matters.''
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