after being approved by the House of Representatives in September<\/u><\/a>. The WPEA is now on its way to President Barack Obama’s desk, and he is expected to sign the bill.<\/p>\nPublic Citizen applauds its passage. The act provides federal employees with important protections. It:<\/p>\n
– Extends the current law\u2019s protection beyond the first person who discloses fraud and\/or abuse;<\/p>\n
– Overrides the U.S. Supreme Court Garcetti v. Ceballos<\/em> decision, which held that public employees have no First Amendment protection for speech communicated as part of their job duties; and<\/p>\n– Allows economic damages for whistleblowers after an administrative hearing.<\/p>\n
The bill also extends whistleblower rights to approximately 40,000 airport baggage screeners.<\/p>\n
Public Citizen thanks the tireless efforts of retiring U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), a long-time champion in the 13-year legislative campaign to pass the WPEA. Additionally we recognize the hard work and dedication of U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.).<\/p>\n
We also acknowledge U.S. Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Todd Platts (R-Pa.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and many others for tirelessly leading the charge for these commonsense reforms.<\/p>\n
Reforms such as these create a vehicle for workers to safely call out potential hazards in the workplace without retaliation from their employers. By giving federal workers more opportunity and resources to identify hazardous workplace situations, the government will become more efficient.<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-21463","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","tax_news-press"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Public Citizen Applauds Passage of Much-Needed Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act - Public Citizen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/public-citizen-applauds-passage-of-much-needed-whistleblower-protection-enhancement-act\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Public Citizen Applauds Passage of Much-Needed Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act - Public Citizen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Statement of Keith Wrightson, Worker Safety and Health Advocate for Public Citizen\u2019s Congress Watch Division\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/public-citizen-applauds-passage-of-much-needed-whistleblower-protection-enhancement-act\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Citizen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/publiccitizen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/public_citizen_shared_link.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Public_Citizen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/public-citizen-applauds-passage-of-much-needed-whistleblower-protection-enhancement-act\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/public-citizen-applauds-passage-of-much-needed-whistleblower-protection-enhancement-act\/\",\"name\":\"Public Citizen Applauds Passage of Much-Needed Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act - 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