GAP Hails New D.C. Whistleblower Protection Law

The Government Accountability Project
(GAP) praised D.C. City Councilmember Mary Cheh for her leadership regarding
the unanimous approval of the D.C. Whistleblower Protection Amendment Act of
2009. The significant good government reform went into effect today after
congressional review.

"Thanks to Councilmember
Cheh, Washington, D.C.
again has the nation's strongest whistleblower protection law,"
concluded GAP Legal Director Tom Devine. GAP led outside efforts for the
law's passage, in partnership with leading whistleblower rights attorney
Jason Zuckerman.

In 1998, Washington,
D.C. passed the nation's
best whistleblower law in response to sustained corruption scandals. Over the last
five years, however, these protections deteriorated quickly. The erosion came
from hostile judicial activism that gutted statutory rights. These local
rulings reflect similar deterioration of the Federal Whistleblower Protection
Act.

"Congress has been trying to revive federal
whistleblower law for the last decade. Thanks to Councilmember Cheh, Washington
D.C. did it in a year,"
added Devine.

The new law adds the following protections for Washington, D.C.
government employee and contractor whistleblowers:

• Protection
  for Job-Related Speech: Many government workers' jobs require
  them to expose wrongdoing as part of their positions (such as auditors,
  investigators and inspectors). These workers are targets for retaliation when
  the catch criminal activity, or force a major political donor to comply
  with public health and safety standards. That is why their jobs may be the
  government's most significant. Recently, courts have ruled that
  whistleblower rights do not apply to such speech. The new law restores
  government workers' rights to act as public servants, rather than
  bureaucratic "yes men" whose free speech rights are limited to
  parroting the government's party line.
• Anti-gag
  Provision:
  The legislation protects the City Council's "right to know"
  by banning agencies from spending taxpayer money to restrict employees
  from communicating with the Council. Safe channels for the free flow of
  information are a prerequisite for effective oversight. The anti-gag
  provision is quite strong, with supervisors who censor their employees
  personally liable to repay the Treasury for their illegal spending.
• Retaliatory
  Investigations:
  Witch hunts are the oldest, ugliest form of harassment against
  whistleblowers, and nearly always the foundation for further retaliation
  to finish off the target's career.
• Statute
  of Limitations:
  The new law extends the current one year limit to three years, conforming
  to best practices on the issue.
• Right
  not to violate the Law: Whistleblowers now cannot be retaliated against
  for refusing to obey an illegal order.
• Training: A major impediment to the impact
  of whistleblower laws is that employees are not aware of their rights. The
  law now will require supervisors to brief employees on hiring of their
  whistleblower rights.
• Accountability: Under current law, supervisors or
  those ordered to retaliate have not had anything significant to lose by
  doing the dirty work of retaliation. The law increases the penalties for
  illegal retaliation from $1,000 to $10,000.
• Protection
  for contractors:
  Under current law, workers at D.C. government contractors are protected
  from retaliation by their employer. But there is no protection for the
  contractor itself against D.C. government retaliation if the firm blows
  the whistle on associated corruption. For years this has been a serious
  problem, as contractors could not do business without providing kickbacks
  demanded by corrupt bureaucrats. Under the new law, those companies can
  blow the whistle and have the same anti-retaliation rights as an employee.
  This is a good government breakthrough, not found in any other federal,
  state or local whistleblower law.