WP: Armor for the Whistle-Blowers

[DeepModem Mom]

Armor for the Whistle-Blowers
By Stephen Barr
Thursday, August 10, 2006; Page D04

Three House members who favor stronger protections for whistle-blowers are urging support for a Senate amendment that would reinforce the rights of federal employees who disclose waste, fraud and abuse in government.

"We believe there is now a real opportunity for Congress to accomplish a significant bipartisan victory for whistle blowers," Reps. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Todd R. Platts (R-Pa.) said in a letter released yesterday.

The Senate amendment would restore and clarify congressional intent as to what type of whistle-blowing is protected and where it may take place, according to sponsors. Amendment supporters claim that the Federal Circuit appeals court, which rules in employee cases, has created loopholes in whistle-blower law and eroded safeguards for federal workers.

The issue took on added significance in May when the Supreme Court ruled that public employees cannot seek First Amendment protection in sounding an alarm but must rely on federal and state laws to protect them from reprisals....

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"The (House Government Reform Committee's) experience has demonstrated repeatedly that whistle blowers can be America's first line of defense against threats from outside, as well as from bureaucratic breakdowns within the government that can be equally dangerous," the letter said. "Committee investigations and hearings repeatedly have confirmed this conclusion, whether the context was protection of nuclear weapons facilities, disregarded advance warnings about vulnerability to 9/11, failure to upgrade homeland security since that tragedy, or fraud and contracting abusers that have undermined the safety of our troops in Iraq and elsewhere."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[Kagemusha]

1. Look, whistleblowing's tolerated only because Congress wants it

Same with tolerating whistleblowing in the army by draftees and enlisted men in general. If Congress no longer feels it's important, there's no inherent protection.

[ShockediSay]

2. Congress is one of the first checks and balances against an imperial

if not fascist, executive branch.