WASHINGTON - July 28 - 315 citizen organizations and corporations have signed an open letter to congressional leadership and President Obama supporting prompt passage of legislation to restore a credible Whistleblower Protection Act for federal employees. Many of the groups are members of the Make It Safe Coalition, which was created to support whistleblower rights. The organizational petition is particularly timely for a mark-up this Wednesday of the Senate's bill, S. 372, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2009.

A copy of the letter is available on GAP's Web site here:

http://www.whistleblower.org/doc/2009/SignOn315.pdf

The open letter signed by 315 organizations stresses: “Whistleblower protection is a foundation for any change in which the public can believe. It does not matter whether the issue is economic recovery, prescription drug safety, environmental protection, infrastructure spending, national health insurance, or foreign policy. We need conscientious public servants willing and able to call attention to bureaucratic corruption on behalf of the taxpayers.” The first two crucial reforms endorsed in the letter are to 1) grant employees the right to a jury trial in federal court, and 2) extend meaningful protections to FBI and intelligence agency whistleblowers. 

Individual citizen support was also recently demonstrated in the Obama administration's “Open Government Initiative.” This directive sought independent ideas from the public about methods the administration could employ to increase overall government transparency, public participation, and public collaboration. At the end of this unique program, a MISC recommendation suggesting the institution of strong whistleblower protections for federal employees overwhelmed the competition. The recommendation received twice as many endorsements as any other idea put forth by the public during the program – a total amount of 304 different ideas, divided among 16 categories.

Tom Devine, Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project, commented, "From every ideology and party, the demand for genuine whistleblower rights is intensifying. Last year at this time, 112 organizations joined the call. This year it is 315. While our message to restore the WPA has remained the same over the past decade, the need for genuine whistleblower rights is now unsurpassed when it comes to the public's right to know. We face unprecedented threats of waste from record stimulus spending, and daily headlines on breaches of basic civil liberties and illegal sanctions of torture, often shocking surprises to Congress and the public alike."

This Wednesday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is expected to vote on its version of bill.