WASHINGTON, D.C. | June 16, 2020 — Yesterday, a group of Democratic members of Congress introduced the COVID-19 Whistleblower Protection Act, the first COVID-19 whistleblower protection bill introduced since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. The COVID-19 Whistleblower Protection Act, introduced by Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Representatives Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), is designed to protect from retaliation those whistleblowers who raise concerns about the gross mismanagement, waste, or abuse of COVID-19-related funds. The bill, which aims to incentivize whistleblower reports and provide accountability in the spending of federal coronavirus funds, is being integrated into the larger Coronavirus Oversight and Recovery Ethics (CORE) Act.
With a massive surge of federal funding going towards COVID-19 relief, the likelihood of fraud is at an all-time high. Providing protected avenues for whistleblowers to safely report wrongdoing regarding misuse of funds provides a crucial accountability tool to ensure federal spending reaches those who need relief most.
John Kostyack, Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center, said in support of the bill: “We thank our whistleblower advocates in Congress for drafting a critically needed piece of whistleblower protection. Whistleblower protections have long been a bipartisan, American tradition, and we hope that congressional Republicans will endorse this next step in whistleblower protection reform. No whistleblower should have to suffer retaliation for coming forward in service of the public interest.”
For more information, please contact Nick Younger at nick.younger@whistleblowers.org.
