Dear Representative:
On behalf of the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I urge you to vote "Yes" on H.R. 985, the long-overdue Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA).
The past several years have seen efforts on the part of dedicated lawmakers and citizen groups to push, pull, or otherwise struggle to enact a whistleblower protection bill such as H.R. 985 into law. All the while, taxpayers have been treated to a lamentable litany of fiscal scandals.
The Transportation Security Administration for example, has had one of the worst institutional upbringings in federal history, and has been surrounded by questions of rising labor overhead rates and excessively posh office accommodations. Moreover, as other agencies commenced clean-up operations in Iraq, evidence of inflated contracts and shady bookkeeping began to surface. Likewise, the wake of Hurricane Katrina left behind it reports of bungled payments from government entities.
Granted, both the Government Accountability Office and the Inspectors General have provided thorough and increasingly prompt assessments to better facilitate recovery of wasted taxpayer money. Still, even these dedicated agencies are not often able to report fiscal foul-ups as they are happening. Whistleblowers, who witness on a daily basis the malfunctioning machinery of government, are best suited to such a task.
Yet understandably, few of them wish to martyr their families in doing so. Despite the fact that whistleblower protection statutes were unanimously enacted in 1989 and 1994, a series of hostile court rulings has effectively gutted these laws and left employees fearful of coming forward.
The Administration has signaled its intention to veto H.R. 985, and NTU would respectfully disagree. While the White House has raised concerns over national security being compromised in certain instances of whistleblowing, these must be weighed against the damage done by placing too much emphasis on secrecy, by hindering the flow of cost- or life-saving information from reaching those who are able to take action. How many violations of law, how many defects of the bureaucracy, how many billions of squandered taxpayer funds, have gone undetected because of this problem? We will never know, but Congress can help now to abate the climate of trepidation in the future.
As an organization that was founded with the help of whistleblowers, NTU asks Members of both parties, especially self-identified fiscal conservatives, to remember the taxpayers' stake in WPEA and support the bill. A "Yes" vote on H.R. 985, one that offers the strongest reforms possible, will be included as a pro-taxpayer vote in NTU's annual Rating of Congress.
Sincerely,
Pete Sepp
Vice President for Communications