Editorial: Whistleblowers need additional protection

Monday, July 14, 2003 | 8:40 a.m.

For at least 120 years, since it passed the Civil Service Reform Act of 1883, Congress has been affording protections to whistleblowers -- federal workers who expose wrongdoing. The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, with its subsequent amendments, is the present-day law protecting federal workers. Critics abound who say the law has failed to eliminate what workers fear the most -- reprisals against their careers, even when using the sanctioned complaint process.

Granted, the law is not perfect but nevertheless functions in the interests of both employees and the public. Without protection in the law, very few workers would report fraud, abuse, waste and violations of rules and regulations. And without whistleblowers, the public would more frequently be victimized by such wrongdoing.

That's why we support Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., who have introduced legislation to expand the Whistleblower Protection Act to cover all federal employees of the Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission. To date, they have been excluded, an omission that has cast a pall over whistleblowing at Yucca Mountain. At the Energy Department, employees of its contractors are covered by the law, but its direct employees are not. At the NRC, the law covers only those who are employed by the agency's licensees, such as workers at a nuclear power plant.

Also, the legislation would give everyone covered by the act the option of filing their complaints in federal court if the heavily criticized administrative complaint process fails to render timely decisions. The proposed reforms would allow the Whistleblower Protection Act to come closer to actually reflecting its name.

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