Protect Scientist Whistleblowers
Whistleblower Protections for Federal Employees
Federal employees who expose lax oversight of drugs at the Food and Drug Administration, cozy relationships between FAA inspectors and certain airlines, hundreds of billions of dollars in knowing "underestimates" for the cost of prescription drug coverage, and billions of dollars wasted in no-bid defense contracts are critical to our health, safety, fiscal accountability, and our democracy.
Unfortunately, time after time, federal workers who come forward and stand up for taxpayers and American families face intimidation and retaliation, and are often fired or demoted. And their efforts to go through the chain of command or seek relief from retaliation by agency managers nearly always fail. Unfortunately, the whistleblower rights that look strong on paper when passed by Congress have failed to provide federal workers with any real protections. Since 1994, when Congress last strengthened whistleblower protections for federal workers, whistleblowers have won only two out of 204 cases filed in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. That's a success rate of about one-half of one percent. This depressing track record reflects a legacy of court decisions that have narrowed whistleblower rights.
Without protections, federal employees will continue to feel intimidated at work, unable to voice legitimate concerns in the workplace.
Congress has begun efforts to give federal employees real whistleblower rights
In 2007, the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed bipartisan whistleblower protection legislation, H.R. 985 in the House and S. 274 in the Senate. But efforts to resolve the two versions of the House and Senate bills have languished for many months, and time is running out. As Congress heads to adjournment, whistleblower protections must not be a casualty of congressional gridlock.
Protections for Scientists
The House bill includes a clear stipulation that federal scientists who report efforts to alter or suppress federal research or technical data are protected under the whistleblower law. This protection is particularly relevant at a time when efforts to censor federal research on the impact of climate change, risks to endangered species and the health effects of toxic chemicals have never been greater.
More than 1,400 of the nearly 3,400 federal scientists at nine agencies who responded to questionnaires from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) over the past three years said that they fear retaliation for raising concerns about the work and mission of their agencies.
Their fears are warranted. Consider these emblematic anecdotes:
- In 2006, Rosemary Johann-Liang, a high-ranking Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientist, recommended that the label for the diabetes drug Avandia include a strong warning that the drug could cause heart problems. She was reprimanded by FDA managers, who transferred the Avandia safety review supervisor job to her boss. Johann-Liang was vindicated in May 2007, when the New England Journal of Medicine raised similar concerns about Avandia, and the FDA finally requested the warning label. Johann-Liang, however, ended up leaving the agency.
- In 2001, Mike Kelly, a biologist at the National Marine Fisheries Service, developed a plan to lessen the impacts from a Klamath River irrigation project to endangered CoHo Salmon from His plan was significantly weakened after going through an unprecedented, and according to Kelly, illegal review process. "I never suspected that I would be asked to support the conclusion that 1 + 1 = 3, but I was," Kelly wrote. Kelly filed a complaint under the Whistleblower Protection Act but the case was not heard because the administrative court considered it just a case of "conflicting science." After his efforts to protect the Choho salmon were thwarted and suppressed, Kelly asked to be dismissed from the project and eventually left the agency.
Federal employees should not have to choose between their integrity and their jobs. For the good of the American public, Congress must act this year to provide federal workers with these strong, comprehensive whistleblower protections they deserve.
