By GottaLaff
Recently, I angrily posted about Susan Collins killing whistleblower protection in the recovery bill. Fortunately, things have changed somewhat:
Turns out the final language included in the agreed-upon stimulus bill does indeed include protections for employees of government contractors — like KBR, Halliburton, etc. — who report fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer money, even if they report within their own company rather than to an outside government agency. [...]Let's hope so.
An amendment by Senator Claire McCaskill fixed that problem. The final language is here.
Still, federal employees, despite almost a decade of internal congressional wrangling about the problem, remain wholly unprotected. Although Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Todd Platts (R-Pa.) had proposed a bi-partisan provision on this that the House had adopted, the Senate conferees rejected it, apparently over concerns that providing protections for intelligence employees could somehow end up revealing classified information if they brought retaliation claims. [...]“It is not too late for accountability,” [Tom Devine, legal director for the non-profit Government Accountability Project] said in a statement released today. “After nearly ten years of hearings and votes, there is no excuse to spend nearly a trillion dollars without safe passage for federal employees who risk their careers to keep it honest.”
Congress could still lock in federal whistleblowers protections before the money starts getting spent in 120 days, he said, adding: “The politicians owe it to the taxpayers.”
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