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The annual National Whistleblower Day celebration commenced on Capitol Hill on July 30th to honor the achievements of past and present whistleblowers. Produced and organized by the National Whistleblower Center (NWC), the event provided a much-needed platform to celebrate whistleblowers and learn about the trends and emerging risks impacting the landscape.
In this Sunday Read, we will discuss how the range of speakers and topics resonated with the audience in the Russell Senate Office Building’s Kennedy Caucus Room and the efforts being made by advocates in the public and private sectors to protect whistleblowers.
Renowned Federal Whistleblower Toni Savage Offers Insight and Practical Solutions
Dr. Tommie “Toni” Savage is a whistleblower from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who exposed contracting fraud within the agency’s “Ranges Program.” She was introduced by NWC Founder, President and Director Michael Kohn, whose passion and admiration for his former client was unmistakable. While at the podium, Savage expressed the same sentiments about Kohn, underscoring the strong bond between a whistleblower and her lawyer; their 13-year collaboration resulted in the favorable resolution of her retaliation claim against the federal government prior to her retirement in 2023.
Savage was a highly respected contracting officer in the Huntsville, Alabama Contracting Division. She uncovered millions of dollars in fraudulent contracts and later endured relentless, career-ending retaliation for reporting the misconduct — even after multiple internal and external audits confirmed her claims.
Her story resonated deeply, particularly against the backdrop of continuous layoffs of thousands of federal employees by the Trump administration in 2025.
“The process for federal whistleblowers is all too often an arduous road toward justice, with many twists, turns, detours and stoppages along the way,” said Savage, who serves on the NWC’s Board of Directors and served as an advisory member on NWC’s National Whistleblower Day committee.
She noted that her own case was ridden with hurdles and challenges, including the bureaucracy that frequently lead to disproportionate and unfair dismissals of cases. Consequently, she said, “employees often feel as though they are left with no other recourse and don’t have financial means to continue the legal battle and stand against the injustices they face in the workplace.” This makes having a fair and impartial grievance structure in place to secure federal whistleblowers rights, even more crucial, she added.
Toni achieved a pivotal legal victory when the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) ruled in her favor, establishing the precedent that federal whistleblowers can bring hostile work environment claims.
Her insight warned that the current lack of quorum at the MSPB, which was first experienced during President Trump’s first administration, is happening again during his current presidency. This will lead to a backlog of cases for more claimants, she warned, and signal another long and arduous journey for those who allege to have faced discrimination.
“A better solution,” she said, “would be to simply implement an outside independent review board that could objectively investigate federal workers claims of wrongdoing.”
Senator Grassley Continues to Lead Bipartisan Protection Efforts to Protect ‘Patriots’
National Whistleblower Day attendees can always depend on Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) to have a presence at the annual event, as he has been one of the federal government’s most prominent advocates for whistleblowers since the 1980s. His track record in fighting for the rights of whistleblowers harkens back to co-authoring amendments to the False Claims Act in 1986, known as “Lincoln’s Law,” which incentivized whistleblowers to report fraud against the government by offering them a portion of the recovered funds. The Act has reportedly recovered $78 billion and prevented much more in further wasteful and corrupt practices.
“Whistleblowers ought to be recognized for what they are – patriots and the government’s most powerful tool to root out waste fraud and abuse,” said Grassley, who is also Chair of the Senate Whistleblower Caucus.
Harkening back to Savage’s address, Grassley reminded the audience of his advocacy on behalf of federal workers, including FBI agents who had lost clearances and faced disciplinary action but had their jobs reinstated and were even promoted. Grassley also announced that he recently sent a letter to President Trump, urging him to protect federal whistleblowers from retaliatory practices following the thousands of federal layoffs in 2025.
Grassley also introduced the SEC Whistleblower Reform Act of 2025 and, in recognizing how artificial intelligence is perhaps the top technology impacting the public and private sectors, introduced the AI Whistleblower Protection Act in May.
The Act grants AI employees anti-retaliation protections and outlines clear reporting guidelines to the Department of Labor for disclosing AI security vulnerabilities and other AI violations. Under the Act, AI whistleblowers are permitted access to jury trials to pursue their cases and are entitled to relief including reinstatement, double back-pay, compensatory damages, and other remedies.
“This bipartisan legislation would safeguard employees in the AI sector who speak out against wrongdoing and abuse,” Grassley said.
OpenAI Whistleblower Daniel Kokotajlo Warns of ‘Super Intelligence’ Risks
AI was a recurring theme for the Day, demonstrating its influence on government, business, law and culture, which is why Daniel Kokotajlo’s debut appearance was particularly noteworthy.
Kokotajlo entered the public arena in 2024 after he resigned from OpenAI and refused to sign the company’s non-disparagement clause, which forbade employees from criticizing the company. Upon leaving OpenAI, he called for greater transparency of top AI companies. Along with other OpenAI and Google DeepMind employees, he signed and publicly released a letter calling for the “right to warn” about the dangers of AI without fear of reprisal.
Now the executive director of the AI Futures Project, a nonprofit research group that forecasts the future of AI, Kokotajlo addressed the audience and warned of global unknowns surrounding this emerging technology.
“Super intelligence is an AI system that is better than the best humans at everything, while also being faster and cheaper,” said Kokotajlo, who was listed on the Time100 Most Influential People in AI in 2024 for co-authoring the “right to warn” letter.
Kokotajlo warned of the top risks related to super intelligence: “Concentration of Power” and “Loss of Control.”
“Once we have these extremely powerful AI systems and they’re starting to be deployed through the economy and automating all these jobs – which are being integrated into the military, and the government,” he said, “…whoever controls these AI systems will plausibly just be in control of the world, or at least the U.S. or whoever is [leading] the integration.”
The responsible use or management of super intelligence is hotly debated among tech industry insiders, Kokotajlo said, which leads to the loss of control.
“It’s an open secret in the industry right now that we don’t actually know how to control these systems, because we don’t actually understand how they work,” he said.
A sentient AI system that makes decisions for itself will further loosen humanity’s control on the technology, which could have disastrous consequences. The conflicting interests of the tech’s owners and the scientists who study it are only exacerbating the challenge.
“It’s sort of like a race between the AI companies trying to build this as fast as possible and the alignment researchers and the scientists trying to understand how it works as fast as possible, so that we can figure out how to control it,” Kokotajlo said. “It seems to me like the companies are going to win that race. It’s easier to figure out how to train one of these systems to be really smart than to do that and understand enough about how it works that you can control it.”
National Whistleblower Day Deserves Federal Recognition
Establishing a permanent National Whistleblower Day is one of the NWC’s seven campaigns. An official act would mandate that all federal agencies honor the day, provide whistleblower training to their employees, and celebrate the contributions that whistleblowers have made to democracy and society.
Plans are already under way for National Whistleblower Day 2026. Visit here to learn more and save the date.
Additional Resources
The decision to come forward is not one to be taken lightly, nor should selecting a whistleblower lawyer. NWC provides resources that can connect you with the right legal professional prior to taking any action.
Support NWC
NWC works tirelessly to strengthen whistleblower programs and educate the public about their value. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, our work relies on donors like you.
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This story was written by Justin Smulison, a professional writer, podcaster, and event host based in New York.
