New Media Rights is not a stranger to working with whistleblowers. Many times the greatest revelations and insights into our government and corporations come from these brave individuals, who are willing to sacrifice to let the truth be told.
New Media Rights would like to draw your attention to two pieces of legislation that our friends at the Government Accountability Project are working on, and encourage you to support it. We support the legislation, and we encourage you to get involved to support it as well.
Below is a summary of the attached two documents written by the Government Accountability Project and supporting organizations. These include is a letter to Congress about H.R. 4047- Private Sector Whistleblower Rights and an open letter to President Obama and Members of Congress on the importance of comprehensive whistleblower rights.
Federal Whistleblower Protection Letter
Attached is a sign-on from 387 organizations and corporations that support reform of the government Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA), outlining why Congress needs to finally finish a decade long process and restore this badly gutted law. As a preview, when the WPA earned unanimous mandates in 1978, 1989 and 1994, it became the strongest free speech law in history on paper. In practice, due to hostile judicial activism it has become a trap that perpetuates abuses of power and sustained secrecy, through rubber-stamping retaliation against nearly all those who exercise free speech rights. (The track record for final appeals since the 1994 amendments is 3-208 against whistleblowers for decisions on the merits.) The WPA has been revised at length to eliminate previous loopholes and offer “best practice” whistleblower rights. The House passed a version last year that would extend whistleblower protection to all federal employees, as well as access to jury trials, whereas the Senate developed a more modest bill. With elections coming up, Congress knows that we must act now to provide employees on the front lines witnessing waste, fraud and abuse the protections they need to come forward. Increasing public pressure through the WPA sign-on letter will help that message penetrate.
Corporate Whistleblower Protection Letter
The corporate whistleblower letter supports legislation that would establish an effective, uniform, and coherent system of legal protections for all private sector and other non-federal employees who are retaliated against for disclosing threats to public safety or violations of such critical areas of Federal law as -- health and health care; environmental protection; food and drug safety; transportation safety; building and construction-related requirements, including safety requirements and structural and engineering standards; energy, homeland, and community security, including facility safety; and financial transactions or reporting requirements, including banking, insurance, and securities laws.
For additional information please contact Shanna Devine:
Shanna Devine
Legislative Campaign Coordinator
Government Accountability Project
1612 K St NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 457-0034 ext. 132 (voice)
(202) 457-0059 (fax)
Email: shannad@whistleblower.org
Website: www.whistleblower.org
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Corp Bill Support Letter(2).pdf | 27.42 KB |
| WPA Sign-On Letter(2).pdf | 100.18 KB |
