The Honorable Nancy Pelosi The Honorable Steny Hoyer Speaker of the House of Representatives House Majority Leader 1236 Longworth House Office Building 1705 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Elijah Cummings The Honorable Jim Jordan Chairman Ranking Member House Committee on Oversight and Reform House Committee on Oversight and Reform 2157 Rayburn House Office Building 2105 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Zoe Lofgren The Honorable Rodney Davis Chairperson Ranking Member Committee on House Administration Committee on House Administration 1316 Longworth House Office Building 1309 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20515

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Chairman Cummings, Ranking Member Jordan, Chairperson Lofgren, and Ranking Member Davis:

We are writing to enthusiastically recommend Ms. Shanna Devine, an independent, effective whistleblower advocate, to lead the House Office of the Whistleblower Ombudsman (Office).

We are individuals and organizations with diverse missions and ideologies who all believe that whistleblower-Congressional partnerships play a vital role in our checks-and-balances system of government. We also know that for these partnerships to succeed, whistleblowers must be protected from retaliation for exposing abuses of power that betray the public trust. Congressional training is essential to improving those protections and the partnerships they enable. As such, we were excited to see the establishment of this office in the House rules package for the 116th Congress.

As you know, the Office is required to develop best practices for whistleblower intake for House offices and provide trainings to House offices on how to safely receive information from whistleblowers. The Ombudsman position is to be filled by the Speaker of the House, in consultation with the chairs and ranking members of the Committee on House Administration and the Committee on Oversight and Reform.

We recognize the great importance and potential of the Ombudsman position. The nature of the role necessitates that it be filled by a leader who understands the complexities of whistleblower disclosures, the reality of retaliation, and the benefits that come from whistleblowers and Congress working together. Given these unique needs, we suggest Ms. Devine to lead the Office. We believe she would provide the subject matter expertise, vision, and integrity needed to ensure that the Office is as effective as its mandate demands.

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Ms. Devine is unusually qualified for the role given her subject-matter expertise, experience in training Congressional offices and individual whistleblowers on how they can best work together, and her leadership experience in developing strategic partnerships.

Ms. Devine has a decade of experience advocating for whistleblower rights and working with whistleblowers. For the majority of her career, she led federal whistleblower-policy campaigns for the Government Accountability Project, a prominent whistleblower protection and advocacy organization. She also served as an investigator, conducting intakes to assess whistleblowers’ claims and building their record of evidence to facilitate robust oversight and policy reforms. In the fall of 2016, Ms. Devine joined the public interest organization Public Citizen, and currently manages its policy and advocacy on whistleblower rights and occupational health and safety. Throughout her career, Ms. Devine has developed a unique understanding of the indispensable role that whistleblowers play as a source of information for Congress on betrayals of the public trust, and of the legal gauntlet that whistleblowers must navigate in order to protect themselves while protecting the public.

In addition to her unique subject-matter expertise, Ms. Devine is adept at the different facets of working with Congress—from preparing educational materials and legislative proposals to organizing stakeholders and conducting Congressional briefings. She has extensive experience organizing trainings on best practices for working with whistleblowers and has coached dozens of whistleblowers on Congressional outreach and collaboration. Through her role as an investigator and advocate, she has gained broad experience working with whistleblowers from the public and private sectors across a range of public-interest matters, including worker health- and-safety threats, financial fraud, civil-liberties violations, national-defense breakdowns, and environmental abuses.

As a benefit of her extensive experience advocating for whistleblower protections, Ms. Devine understands the importance of strategic partnerships. She has developed close working relationships with Congressional offices on both sides of the aisle, as demonstrated by her leadership in helping to establish the bipartisan Whistleblower Protection Caucuses. She has also fostered unlikely partnerships among stakeholder organizations: as coordinator of the Make It Safe Coalition (MISC), a national whistleblower coalition of more than 75 trans-ideological groups, she led the charge in resolving coalition disputes while forming consensus around MISC’s legislative strategy. Working in partnership with Congress, MISC has led campaigns for successful passage of numerous federal whistleblower laws, including Congress’s unanimous passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act in 2012. Additionally, Ms. Devine also serves as an advisor for the whistleblower community’s annual Congressional whistleblower conference, an event that draws consistent bipartisan support.

Ms. Devine’s professional experience and formal training provide a robust set of qualifications for the Ombudsman role. She holds a Master of Public Management degree, which has armed her with practical skills from budgeting to strategic planning. Most notably, she is guided by a strong sense of personal accountability, which guides her independent responsibilities and team leadership. As the Ombudsman, she would have occasion to assimilate her subject-matter expertise, relationships on and off the Hill, and leadership experience to help Congress develop a mutually beneficial relationship with whistleblowers.

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We understand the immense potential value when Congress and whistleblowers work together to combat waste of taxpayer dollars, violations of public health and safety, mismanagement, abuse, and illegal acts. However, it is essential that Congressional offices receive comprehensive training on working with whistleblowers to protect their identities and priorities while making the best use of their disclosures. The Ombudsman will be charged with ensuring that Congress is prepared to uphold its half of the equation. With that vision in mind, we highly recommend Ms. Shanna Devine to lead the Office’s initiatives as Ombudsman.

Sincerely,

Marcel Reid, President Acorn 8

Sue Udry, Executive Director Defending Rights and Dissent

Daniel Schuman, Policy Director Demand Progress Education Fund

Gabe Bruno FAA Whistleblower Alliance

Michael McCray Federal Employed Women Legal Education Fund (FEW-LEF)

Gary Kalman, Executive Director Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition

Conrad Martin, Executive Director Fund for Constitutional Government

Louis Clark, Executive Director Government Accountability Project

Patrice McDermott, Director Government Information Watch

Jordan A. Thomas, Partner Labaton Sucharow

Kel McClanahan, Executive Director National Security Counselors

Pete Sepp, President National Taxpayers Union

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Danielle Brian, Executive Director Project On Government Oversight

Jason Briefel, Executive Director Senior Executives Association

Ryan Alexander, President Taxpayers for Common Sense

David Williams, President Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Jesselyn Radack, Director Whistleblower and Source Protection Program (WHISPeR) at ExposeFacts

Jason Zuckerman Zuckerman Law

Individuals:

Eric Ben-Artzi Whistleblower

Mark Cohen, Board Member Government Accountability Project

Thomas Drake NSA Whistleblower

Bogdan Dzakovic National Security Whistleblower

Cathy Harris U.S. Customs Service Whistleblower

Robert J. MacLean Federal Law Enforcement, Counter-Terrorism, and Aviation Whistleblower

Det. Frank Serpico Ret. NYPD Lamplighter

J. Kirk Wiebe Retired NSA Senior Analyst and NSA Whistleblower

Enclosures: Shanna Devine’s resume and list of particularly relevant work.

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