Does the Agency Protecting Federal Whistleblowers Need to be Reauthorized? (H.R. 69)

What is H.R. 69?

(Updated September 11, 2019)

This bill would reauthorize the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) — which is responsible for protecting current, former, and prospective federal employees from retaliation for whistleblowing — through fiscal year 2020. Whistleblowers report abuse, illegal activity, mismanagement of funds, or other prohibited practices within the government and have at times faced retaliation for their efforts, with some being forced out of their jobs.

The OSC’s process for investigating whistleblower complaints would be reformed to make it easier for it to collect evidence from agencies that are withholding information and documents from investigations. Rather than only having 15 days to review a complaint, the OSC could spend 45 days in review and require an agency being investigated to explain why it hadn’t taken action to address a problem reported by the OSC.

To ensure that the OSC isn’t bogged down by repeated complaints, the agency could end an investigation if it has previously been informed of an allegation by the same person, if it doesn’t have jurisdiction, or if the person should have known more than three years before the OSC was alerted.

Argument in favor

Waste and abuse will always plague the federal government unless whistleblowers are empowered to speak up and protected when they do, so this bill to reauthorize the entity that protects them must pass.

Argument opposed

There is no doubt that whistleblowers should be protected from retaliation, but this bill creates additional burdens for agencies being investigated for improper actions against whistleblowers by the Office of Special Counsel.

Impact

Whistleblowers, whether they’re current, former, or prospective federal employees; federal agencies being investigated by the OSC; and the OSC.

Cost of H.R. 69

The CBO estimated during the previous Congress that implementing this bill would cost $106 million over the 2017-2021 period.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Rod Blum (R-IA) introduced this bill to ensure that the OSC can continue to protect whistleblowers who report misconduct within the federal government:

“The [OSC] plays a key role in protecting federal employees who have the courage to blow the whistle on abuse and mismanagement in our government. As those employees who called attention to the mistreatment of veterans the the Veterans’ Affairs hospitals know first hand, the OSC is critically important to protect whistleblowers like them from potential retaliation from federal agencies.”

This legislation was passed unanimously by the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform and has the support of three cosponsors — including two Democrats and a Republican.

Of Note: The Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently settled with a whistleblower who faced serious retaliation as a result of his reporting that the VA was violating its own policy of assigning one employee to every suicidal veteran. The worker, Brandon Coleman, had created a successful suicide prevention program that was then eliminated by the VA after he disclosed the VA’s misconduct.

Media:

• Sponsoring Rep. Rod Blum (R-IA) Press Release (Previous Version)
• CBO Cost Estimate (Previous Version)
• Government Accountability Project