May 14-18 was “Whistleblower Week†in DC. The following week, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the Defense spending bill enhancing whistleblower protections for employees of military contractors.
A coalition of 40-50 groups, including the Government Accountability Project (GAP), ACLU, Union of Concerned Scientists, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), and Taxpayers Against Fraud, held a series of events for hundreds of whistleblowers.
A veritable Hall of Fame of corporate and government whistleblowers was honored there for their “contributions to society.†They included Jeffrey Wigand, whose battle against the tobacco industry was the subject of the movie “The Insiderâ€; TIME Co-person of the Year and FBI 9/11 whistleblower Colleen Rowley; the FDA’s Susan Wood, who blew the whistle on FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford’s delaying approval of the Plan B pill; and Republican Senator Charles Grassley, who was given a lifetime achievement award for his fight against waste, fraud and corruption in government.
I just love imagining what the energy must have been like with so many dedicated troublemakers in one place. Woo hoo! They had a tribunal wherein they presented their personal stories about how their actions served to protect tens or millions of their fellow citizens. They had themselves some workshops on plying their trade and strategizing on passing related legislation, as well as legal education programs for whistleblowers and employment attorneys.
Whistleblowing is usually lonely business, but not here. Eve Fairbanks in The New Republic noted how “this end of loneliness and newfound sense of community is the convention’s grand theme, and the lower-profile whistle-blowers, along with the stars, emit the grateful sense of being inducted into a fellowship. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, they’re me, and I’m them,’” gushes a Tennessee nurse.â€
The House passed a strong bill on this issue recently, and GAP Legal Director Tom Devine says that “if the Senate follows suit, this reform will be the strongest government employee whistleblower law ever passed by Congress.â€
If you’re a real geek like me, you can find video from the opening event at http://www.c-span.org.
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