Protecting Those Who Blow the Whistle on Government Wrongdoing

CHAIRMAN CONNOLLY'S OPENING STATEMENT

CHAIRWOMAN MALONEY'S OPENING STATEMENT

BACKGROUND

• Whistleblower disclosures promote an effective and efficient civil service and benefit the public interest by “assisting in the elimination of fraud, waste, abuse, and unnecessary Government expenditures.”
• Whistleblowers play a critical role in the government, promoting government accountability and reform while curtailing abuses.
• Numerous laws provide whistleblowers in the public and private sectors with important protections, including more than one-hundred federal laws that include either a whistleblower-related or retaliation-prohibition provision.  Among them are two key laws, the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 (WPA) and the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012 (WPEA), which specifically protect whistleblowers who are federal employees. Additional legislation has extended whistleblower protections to federal contractors and grantees.