Senate legislation expands whistleblower protections

Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the Senate to provide greater protections and tools to federal government whistleblowers.

Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., introduced the Office of Special Counsel Reauthorization Act of 2017 and the Follow the Rules Act on March 8. 

The first bill reauthorizes and improves the investigative and adjudicative abilities of the independent agency charged with overseeing federal employees’ claims of whistleblower retaliation and directing agency action based on employees’ disclosures of waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement. Whistleblower protections will be modified in existing laws narrowed or altered by judicial interpretations, and protecting whistleblowers will be reinforced among managers by making them a criterion for performance appraisals.

The Follow the Rules Act extends protection to employees facing reprisal for refusing to obey an order that would violate a rule or regulation, not just a federal law.

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