On Tuesday, August 12, 2014, Senators Charles Grassley and Ron Wyden sent a letter to President Obama pressing him to release a report on effectiveness of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regulations for protecting whistleblowers. President Obama requested the report from the Attorney General almost two years ago. The report “Protecting Whistleblowers with Access to Classified Information,” is 14-months overdue. The Senators learned that the report was delivered to the President on June 2, 2014. Their letter stresses the importance of the Attorney General’s findings to Congress as they consider “any legislation related to this topic.”
“The FBI has a history of whistleblower retaliation, often shunning whistleblowers to basement offices without cause and giving them little or no work,” Grassley said in a press release Tuesday. “It’s disturbing to see the trend continue in the most recent allegations of a new retaliation method called Loss of Effectiveness orders being used against whistleblowers at the agency. The mentality at the FBI has to change if waste, fraud and abuse are ever to be rooted out of the agency.”
“Whistleblowers play a critical role in holding the government and its employees accountable,” Wyden added. “The FBI has had special rules for its own employees for decades that desperately need to be updated. It’s important for the Justice Department to explain whether they will fix this on their own, or if Congress needs to step in.”
