Federal food safety employees win whistleblower protection

[proverbialwisdom]

Source: William Reed Business Media SAS

Federal food safety employees win whistleblower protection

November 15, 2012
By Ron Addy

US Congress has finally passed what have been described as “the strongest federal whistleblower protections in history”, according to the Government Accountability Project’s Food Integrity Campaign (FIC).



Read more: http://www.foodqualitynews.com/Public-Concerns/Federal-food-safety-employees-win-whistleblower-protection

[proverbialwisdom]

1. WaPo: Congress approves federal whistleblower protections

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/congress-approves-federal-whistleblower-protections/2012/11/14/b175b010-2e8d-11e2-beb2-4b4cf5087636_story.html

Joe Davidson Columnist

Congress approves federal whistleblower protections

Published: November 14

It’s been a long time coming, but Congress has finally approved legislation to strengthen protections for federal whistleblowers.

With the Senate's bipartisan voice vote Tuesday, the measure, which advocates have been pushing for more than a decade, goes to President Obama for his signature. The legislation is designed to protect employees who expose government wrongdoing against retaliation by supervisors.

<>

With the Senate’s action, “free speech rights for government employees never have been stronger,” said Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project.

But Devine added that the legislation is not all that advocates wanted.

“It would be dishonest to say our work is done, however, or to deny that government whistleblower rights are still second class compared to those in the private sector,” he said. “House Republicans blocked two cornerstones of the legislation: jury trials to enforce newly-enacted protections, and extension of free speech rights to national security workers making disclosures within agency channels.”

After Congress did not include whistleblower protections for national security and intelligence employees, Obama issued a Presidential Policy Directive prohibiting retaliation against them for exposing waste, fraud and abuse.

<>

[Omaha Steve]

2. K&R!