Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act Of 2007

Floor Speech

WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - March 14, 2007)

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I applaud Chairman WAXMAN, Ranking Member DAVIS, and others for their work on this badly needed bill.

This bill extends whistleblower protections to Federal employees who work on national security, mainly in the intelligence area, workers in the Transportation Security Administration, especially screeners, and Federal contractors, amongst others.

As Chairman WAXMAN correctly identified, there is a tremendous need to protect Federal workers and contractors who are our best sources of identifying waste fraud, abuse or security problems.

This bill treats Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) the same as all other Department employees by giving them full whistleblower protections, which TSOs currently do not have.

Mr. Chairman, others will tell you that TSOs have adequate whistleblower rights. While this is debatably true on paper, it is not true in practice.

The truth is TSOs do not enjoy full whistleblower protections. They have extremely limited whistleblower protections granted by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was entered into when TSA was part of the Department of Transportation.

In fact, while reviewing a TSO whistleblower claim in 2004, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) ruled that the Homeland Security Act does not provide TSO whistleblowers with a right to MSPB review.

Compared to other Department employees who do enjoy the right to MSPB review, TSOs are treated differently.

Under the MOU, TSOs can only bring a claim to the Office of Special Counsel, but TSOs have no right of outside appeal to either the MSPB or any other independent agency or court, like all other the Department employees can.

This bill remedies this situation by giving the TSOs full whistleblower rights, including the right to independent outside review.

Besides independent outside review, this bill also allows a whistleblower to go to court if their claim has not been acted on within 6 months of filing.

This bill permits the whistleblower to bring an appeal on their case to any federal court of appeals having proper jurisdiction over the case.

I am also pleased that this bill provides the same rights to the Department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis employees as it does to intelligence employees in other agencies.

As we know, whistleblowers in the intelligence community must be careful when they disclose certain information.

This bill helps govern how these people can bring their claims, but it also adequately protects any sensitive or classified information that may be involved.

Mr. Chairman, I want to note that H.R. 1, which passed the House in January, has some similar effects as H.R. 985, mainly that it provides whistleblower protections to TSOs.

H.R. 1 also fixes the poor morale problems by allowing collective bargaining rights for TSOs, similar to other law enforcement officers and others within the Department, such as the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection Officers.

Nonetheless, I am happy to vote for H.R. 985 today as it not only makes America safer and more secure, but it also allows for all employees to report waste, fraud, or abuse of vital and limited government resources.

I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

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