An Open Letter to President Donald Trump and Members of Congress
The undersigned organizations and corporations write to support the completion of the landmark, 13 year legislative effort to restore credible whistleblower rights for government employees that resulted in unanimous passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) of 2012. While the law was the fourth unanimous congressional mandate since 1978 for whistleblower rights in principle, the most serious work remains to be finished. That is because the WPEA left the highest stakes issues incomplete, pending further study.
We seek your leadership now to expeditiously finish what Congress started in the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. That means further developing legal rights so they include the critical reforms listed below. Whistleblower protection is a foundation for government accountability, from draining bureaucratic swamps to achieving changes in which the public can believe. It does not matter whether the issue is economic recovery, prescription drug safety, environmental protection, infrastructure spending, national health insurance, or foreign policy. We need conscientious public servants willing and able to call attention to waste, fraud and abuse on behalf of the taxpayers.
Unfortunately, every month that passes has very tangible consequences for federal government whistleblowers, because none have due process for a credible day in court to enforce their free speech rights. They are limited to administrative hearings at the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which does not have judicial independence, is under bipartisan congressional attack, and currently the full Board does not even have a sufficient quorum to issue rulings. Since FY 2014, the full Board only has ruled three times out of 37 final decisions that an employee’s Whistleblower Protection Act rights were violated, including only one case in 2014 and 2015 combined for illegal whistleblower retaliation in the entire federal government.
The bottom line is clear. The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act will continue to be a source of false hopes and cynicism until it has the following additional teeth to enforce its mandate:
•Grant employees the right to a jury trial in federal court;
•Give whistleblowers the right to challenge retaliatory investigations;
•Extend employment anti-retaliation rights to shield against all criminal and civil liability;
•Extend temporary relief to whistleblowers whenever they prove a prima faciecase of retaliation;
•Make permanent normal access to appeals court for whistleblowers to challenge MSPB decisions;
•Make permanent the WPEA pilot program for each Office of Inspector General (OIG) to have a whistleblower ombudsman;
•Make sensitive job designations a personnel action to lock in protection against retaliation;
•Require accountability through discipline to prevent unjust retaliation on whistleblowers;
•Fully protect whistleblower disclosures even before an application for federal employment;
•Grant the Office of Special Counsel the authority to issue a stay, without MSPB Board approval
These suggestions are the necessary infrastructure so that those who defend the public have a fair chance to defend themselves.
Sincerely,
Joseph P. Carson, President
Affiliation of Christian Engineers
Rochelle Becker, Executive Director
Alliance For Nuclear Responsibility
Thomas Day, President
Alliance for Whistleblowers, Inc.
Michael W. Macleod Ball, President
American Civil Liberties Union
Stephen A. Sanders, Director
Appalachian Citizens' Law Center
Prue Adler, Associate Executive Director
Association of Research Libraries
Jay Keller, Executive Director
Beyond Pesticides
Terry Francke, Founder
Californians Aware
Jane Williams, Executive Director
California Communities Against Toxics
Robert S. Lawrence, MD, MACP, Founding Director
Center for a Livable Future
Yogin Kothari, Washington Representative
Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists
Barbara Warren, Executive Director
Citizens’ Environmental Coalition
Donna Schmitz, President
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
Judith Robinson, Executive Director
Coming Clean
Greg Smith, Co-Founder
Community Research
Denny Larson, Executive Director
Community Science Institute
Dave Werntz, Conservation Director
Conservation Northwest
Linda Sherry, Director of National Priorities
Consumer Action
Bob Shavelson, Director
Cook Inletkeeper
Pratap Chatterjee, Founder
CorpWatch
Sue Udry, Executive Director
Defending Rights and Dissent
Daniel Schuman, Policy Director
Demand Progress
Marvell D Lavy, Retired Fed Employee
Dept. of Veteran Affairs
Ben Smilowitz, Executive Director
Disaster Accountability Project
Thea Harvey-Barratt, Executive Director
Economists for Peace and Security
Eric Shaeffer, Executive Director
Environmental Integrity Project
Bruce Goldstein, Executive Director
Farmworker Justice
David Brian Nolan, Director
Federal Ethics Center
Andy Stahl, Executive Director
Forest Service Employees For Environmental Ethics
Daniel Parshley, Project Manager
Glynn Environmental Coalition
Tom Devine, Legal Director
Government Accountability Project
Bill Hedden, Executive Director
Grand Canyon Trust
Kit Wood, Director
Green Plate Catering
Tom Carpenter, Executive Director
Hanford Challenge
Gerry Pollet, Executive Director
Heart of American Northwest
Scott Armstrong, Director
Information Trust
Alex Matthews, National Chair
International Association of Whistleblowers
David J. Marshall, Partner
Katz, Marshall, & Banks LLP
Tom FitzGerald, Director
Kentucky Resources Council
Michael Ostrolenk, President
Liberty Coalition
Christopher Finan, Executive Director
National Coalition Against Censorship
Christine L. Owens, Executive Director
National Employment Law Project
Deirdre Gilbert, National Director
National Medical Malpractice Advocacy Association
Pete Sepp, President
National Taxpayers Union
Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director
National Whistleblower Center
Lewis Maltby, President
National Workrights Institute
Douglas Meiklejohn, Executive Director
New Mexico Environmental Law Center
Nina Bell, Executive Director
Northwest Environmental Advocates
Mark Riskedahl, Executive Director
Northwest Environmental Defense Center
Jay Coghlan, Executive Director
Nuclear Watch New Mexico
Lisa Rosenberg, Executive Director OpenTheGovernment
Paul Loney, President
Oregon Wildlife Federation
Deborah C. Peel MD, Founder and President
Patient Privacy Rights
Gabe Rottman,Washington Director
PEN America
Liz Hempowicz, Policy Counsel
Project on Government Oversight
Evan Hendricks, Editor
Privacy Times
Jeff Ruch, Executive Director
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Susan Harley, Deputy Director
Public Citizen
Robert FitzPatrick, President
Pyramid Scheme Alert
Alex Marthews, National Chair
Restore the Fourth
Normal Solomon, Coordinator
RootsAction.org
Scott Groene, Executive Director
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
Daphne Wysham, Director
Sustainable Energy and Economy Project
Ryan Alexander, President
Taxpayers for Common Sense
James Landrith, Founder
The Multiracial Activist
John W. Whitehead, President
The Rutherford Institute
Ellen Miller, Executive Director
The Sunlight Foundation
Marylia Kelley, Executive Director
Tri-Valley CARE’s
Paul Taylor, Attorney
Truckers Justice Center
Toby Nixon, President
Washington Coalition for Open Government
Nada Khader, Executive Director
WESPAC Foundation
Kim Witczak, Co-Founder
Woodymatters
Paula Brantner, Senior Advisor
Workplace Fairness
David Swanson, Founder
World Beyond War