{"id":6669,"date":"2017-07-26T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/multiracial.com\/?p=6669"},"modified":"2017-09-05T00:36:32","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T00:36:32","slug":"open-letter-to-trump-and-congress-on-whistleblowing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2017\/07\/26\/open-letter-to-trump-and-congress-on-whistleblowing\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Letter to Trump and Congress on Whistleblowing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>An Open Letter to President Donald Trump and Members of Congress<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>July 26, 2017<\/p>\n<p>The undersigned organizations and corporations write to support the completion of the landmark, 13<br \/>\nyear legislative effort to restore credible whistleblower rights for government employees that resulted<br \/>\nin unanimous passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) of 2012. While the<br \/>\nlaw was the fourth unanimous congressional mandate since 1978 for whistleblower rights in principle,<br \/>\nthe most serious work remains to be finished. That is because the WPEA left the highest stakes issues<br \/>\nincomplete, pending further study.<\/p>\n<p>We seek your leadership now to expeditiously finish what Congress started in the Whistleblower<br \/>\nProtection Enhancement Act. That means further developing legal rights so they include the critical<br \/>\nreforms listed below. Whistleblower protection is a foundation for government accountability, from<br \/>\ndraining bureaucratic swamps to achieving changes in which the public can believe. It does not matter<br \/>\nwhether the issue is economic recovery, prescription drug safety, environmental protection,<br \/>\ninfrastructure spending, national health insurance, or foreign policy. We need conscientious public<br \/>\nservants willing and able to call attention to waste, fraud and abuse on behalf of the taxpayers.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, every month that passes has very tangible consequences for federal government<br \/>\nwhistleblowers, because none have due process for a credible day in court to enforce their free speech<br \/>\nrights. They are limited to administrative hearings at the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board<br \/>\n(MSPB), which does not have judicial independence, is under bipartisan congressional attack, and<br \/>\ncurrently the full Board does not even have a sufficient quorum to issue rulings. Since FY 2014, the<br \/>\nfull Board only has ruled three times out of 37 final decisions that an employee\u2019s Whistleblower<br \/>\nProtection Act rights were violated, including only one case in 2014 and 2015 combined for illegal<br \/>\nwhistleblower retaliation in the entire federal government.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line is clear. The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act will continue to be a source<br \/>\nof false hopes and cynicism until it has the following additional teeth to enforce its mandate:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Grant employees the right to a jury trial in federal court;<\/li>\n<li>Give whistleblowers the right to challenge retaliatory investigations;<\/li>\n<li>Extend employment anti-retaliation rights to shield against all criminal and civil liability;<\/li>\n<li>Extend temporary relief to whistleblowers whenever they prove a prima facie case of retaliation;<\/li>\n<li>Make permanent normal access to appeals court for whistleblowers to challenge MSPB decisions;<\/li>\n<li>Make permanent the WPEA pilot program for each Office of Inspector General (OIG) to have a<br \/>\nwhistleblower ombudsman;<\/li>\n<li>Make sensitive job designations a personnel action to lock in protection against retaliation;<\/li>\n<li>Require accountability through discipline to prevent unjust retaliation on whistleblowers;<\/li>\n<li>Fully protect whistleblower disclosures even before an application for federal employment;<\/li>\n<li>Grant the Office of Special Counsel the authority to issue a stay, without MSPB Board approval<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These suggestions are the necessary infrastructure so that those who defend the public have a fair<br \/>\nchance to defend themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Day, President<br \/>\n<strong>Alliance for Whistleblowers, Inc.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Stephen A. Sanders, Director<br \/>\n<strong>Appalachian Citizens&#8217; Law Center<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yogin Kothari, Washington Representative<br \/>\n<strong>Center for Science and Democracy at the<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Union of Concerned Scientists<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Linda Sherry, Director of National Priorities<br \/>\n<strong>Consumer Action<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Daniel Schuman, Policy Director<br \/>\n<strong>Demand Progress<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>David Brian Nolan, Director<br \/>\n<strong>Federal Ethics Center<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tom Devine, Legal Director<br \/>\n<strong>Government Accountability Project<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Alex Matthews, National Chair<br \/>\n<strong>International Association of Whistleblowers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>David J. Marshall, Partner<br \/>\n<strong>Katz, Marshall, &amp; Banks LLP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Michael Ostrolenk, President<br \/>\n<strong>Liberty Coalition<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Deirdre Gilbert, National Director<br \/>\n<strong>National Medical Malpractice Advocacy<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Association<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Christopher Finan, Executive Director<br \/>\n<strong>National Coalition Against Censorship<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pete Sepp, President<br \/>\n<strong>National Taxpayers Union<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ryan Alexander, President<br \/>\n<strong>Taxpayers for Common Sense<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director<br \/>\n<strong>National Whistleblower Center<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lewis Maltby, President<br \/>\n<strong>National Workrights Institute<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lisa Rosenberg, Executive Director<br \/>\n<strong>OpenTheGovernment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Deborah C. Peel MD, Founder and President<br \/>\n<strong>Patient Privacy Rights<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gabe Rottman,Washington Director<br \/>\n<strong>PEN America<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Alex Marthews, National Chair<br \/>\n<strong>Restore the Fourth<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>James Landrith, Founder<br \/>\n<strong>The Multiracial Activist<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>John W. Whitehead, President<br \/>\n<strong>The Rutherford Institute<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kim Witczak, Co-Founder<br \/>\n<strong>Woodymatters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kit Wood, Director<br \/>\n<strong>Green Plate Catering<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Susan Harley, Worker Health &amp; Safety\u00a0Advocate<br \/>\n<strong>Public Citizen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>David Swanson, Founder<br \/>\n<strong>War is a Crime<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Marvell D Lavy, Retired Fed Employee<br \/>\n<strong>Dept of Veteran Affairs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Liz Hempowicz, Policy Counsel<br \/>\n<strong>Project on Government Oversight<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Michael W. Macleod Ball, President<br \/>\n<strong>American Civil Liberties Union<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>PDF Copy Available: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whistleblower.org\/sites\/default\/files\/An%20Open%20Letter%20to%20President%20Donald%20Trump%20and%20Members%20of%20Congress_Final.pdf\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Open Letter to President Donald Trump and Members of Congress July 26, 2017 The undersigned organizations and corporations write to support the completion of the landmark, 13 year legislative effort to restore credible&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[60,9],"tags":[142,215],"class_list":["post-6669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-government-agencies-signed-by-tma","category-advocacy-and-letters","tag-advocacy-letters","tag-whistleblowers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-1Jz","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Advocacy-Work.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6670,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6669\/revisions\/6670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}