<p>For Immediate Release Contact: Dina Long October 19, 2011 (202) 572-5500, ext. 7058</p><p>NTEU Leader Hails Senate Committee Passage of Improvements to Whistleblower Protection for Federal Employees</p><p>Washington, D.C. — The leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) hailed the passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2011 by a Senate committee today as an important step toward meaningful and much needed reform of the government whistleblower law. “The public needs and expects federal employees to alert them of waste, abuse and threats to public health and safety,” NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said. “The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act is a strong step in the right direction to provide federal workers with the protections they need in order to best serve and protect the American people.” The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee amended and passed the whistleblower legislation (S. 743), which will ensure legitimate disclosures of wrongdoing will be protected, reduce unauthorized leaks, increase accountability to taxpayers, and save taxpayer dollars by helping expose fraud, waste and abuse. Additionally, the bill will restore and expand free speech rights for several groups of federal employees, close loopholes, and provide limited access to a jury trial for the first time. Prior to the hearing, NTEU joined a diverse coalition of federal employee organizations and other groups in a letter to committee members asking them to support the whistleblower legislation. “Federal workers are best positioned to disclose wrongdoing in order to protect taxpayer dollars and the public trust,” the coalition wrote. “But the law to protect federal whistleblowers is broken—the WPEA will go a long way toward fixing that system. The existing whistleblower law is supposed to encourage federal workers to come forward when they witness waste, fraud and abuse, but court decisions over the years and a flawed administrative process have eroded the law. Thus, the law now undermines instead of encourages good government practices.” NTEU represents more than 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.</p>