60 Trans-partisan Groups Urge Congress to Pass Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act

As the 111th Congress draws to a close, the Make It Safe Coalition sent a unifying message to President Obama and congressional leaders that the American public cannot afford to delay passage of enhanced federal employee whistleblower protections. In a letter addressed to President Obama and congressional leadership, over 60 groups across the ideological spectrum banded together under one common goal: Pass the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) without further delay!

In the letter, the groups write:

We have heard that you all agree on at least one issue: This country must address our growing federal debt and cannot afford to tolerate waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. With this crisis looming, you must fulfill your commitments to taxpayers and enact strong legislation protecting federal whistleblowers in this lame duck session of Congress.

Federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse are essential to safeguarding taxpayers. Now pending in Congress, the WPEA would provide enhanced rights for federal whistleblowers to defend themselves against workplace retaliation. This legislation overhauls the gutted Whistleblower Protection Act, which due to years of hostile judicial activism, has become a trap that rubberstamps retaliation against those who risk their own well-being to protect the public.

The letter concludes, “If you are serious about responding to American voters, reducing the debt, and ensuring the integrity of government, you will do all you can to make ‘best-practices’ whistleblower reform a reality this year.”

The letter can be viewed here.

An equivalent citizens’ petition can be found here.

The Make It Safe Coalition is a nonpartisan, trans-partisan network of 50 good government, taxpayer, scientific, labor, civil liberties, and law enforcement organizations dedicated to strengthening protections for whistleblowers in private and public sector who protect the public by exposing waste, fraud and abuse in government.