May, 09 2012, 02:08pm EDT
NWC Issues Statement on Passage of Senate Whistleblower Bill
WASHINGTON
Yesterday, the Senate passed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2011 (WPEA), S. 743, by unanimous consent.
NWC Executive Director, Stephen M. Kohn issued the following statement about S. 743:
All federal employees badly need strong whistleblower protections consistent with the protections enjoyed by private sector workers. The Senate version of the WPEA contains some improvements, but falls far short of the comprehensive whistleblower law reforms promised in the 2008 political campaign.
Federal employees need to be fully protected and encouraged to report waste, fraud and abuse. While the Senate version of the WPEA is a step in the right direction, federal employees will still lack important protections when they report fraud against the taxpayers if the Senate version of the bill becomes law.
We are deeply concerned that the WPEA bill will be watered down further once the House takes up the measure.
We urge the House to enact a WPEA bill that is consistent with the stronger version of the law the House passed in 2007 with overwhelming bi-partisan support.
The National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) assists some of America's leading whistleblowers including FBI whistleblower Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, Army Corps of Engineer whistleblower Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse and six employees at the Food and Drug Administration reporting illegal surveillance of federal employee whistleblowers. Officers of the NWC have testified at Senate and House hearings on the WPEA.
Since 1988, the NWC and attorneys associated with it have supported whistleblowers in the courts and before Congress and achieved victories for environmental protection, government contract fraud, nuclear safety and government and corporate accountability.
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CPC Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said following the passage of the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2025 (H.R. 5009) that "it should alarm every American taxpayer that we are nearing a trillion-dollar annual budget for an agency rampant with waste, fraud, and abuse."
Jayapal, who was one of 140 lawmakers to oppose the package, emphasized that the Pentagon has failed seven consecutive annual audits.
Despite being the only federal agency to never have passed a federal audit, said Jayapal, the Department of Defense "continues to receive huge boosts to funding every year. Our constituents deserve better."
As Common Dreams reported last month, more than half of the department's annual budget now goes to military contractors that consistently overcharge the government, contributing to the Pentagon's inability to fully account for trillions of taxpayer dollars.
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As the report notes:
A fragment of the munition found at the site of the attack was analyzed by an Amnesty International weapons expert and based upon its size, shape, and the scalloped edges of the heavy metal casing, identified as most likely a MK-80 series aerial bomb, which would mean it was at least a 500-pound bomb. The United States is the primary supplier of these types of munitions to Israel.
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