Whistleblower Organizations Urge the House Chairman against S.494
By Sibel
Edmonds
http://www.opednews.com
The Senate has incorporated a whistleblower protection provision (S.494) into
the fiscal year 2007 defense authorization act. The Senate proposal does not
properly protect national security. It excludes key government workers fighting
the "war on terror" from any whistleblower protection whatsoever.
Additionally, the protections it does offer are weak and have been
incompetently administered by a lack-luster merit systems process which has
often rewarded inefficiency. The provision appears to be another cosmetic add-on
marketed falsely as whistleblower protection.
The House Government Reform Committee has conducted extensive hearings on the
appropriate standards necessary to protect those patriotic civil servants
willing to expose bureaucrats or politicians who are "weak" or
incompetent on national-security issues. The Committee has taken leadership on
drafting and passing real whistleblower protections intended to defend national
security; H.R. 1317.
It is not too dramatic to say that if the provisions in the Senate bill pass,
rather than the genuine protections contemplated in the house bill, Congress
will have sentenced as-yet unknown Americans to death and injury by failing to
protect proven measures – reporting of government malfeasance and negligence –
that gird our national security.
The Coalition requested Chairman Hunter's personal intervention to ensure that
the protections offered under HR. 1317 are adopted in conference, not the weak
and completely ineffective Senate provision, S. 494, during the final
conference on the 2007 Defense Authorization Act.
National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, founded in August 2004, is an
independent and nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who have come forward to
address our nation's security weaknesses; to inform authorities of security
vulnerabilities in our intelligence agencies, at nuclear power plants and
weapon facilities, in airports, and at our nation's borders and ports; to
uncover government waste, fraud, abuse, and in some cases criminal conduct. The
NSWBC is dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers through a variety
of methods, including advocacy of governmental and legal reform, educating the
public concerning whistleblowing activity, provision
of comfort and fellowship to national security whistleblowers suffering
retaliation and other harms, and working with other public interest
organizations to affect goals defined in the NSWBC mission statement. For more
on NSWBC visit www.nswbc.org
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