NJ Today: Groups demand whistleblower protections
Groups demand whistleblower protections
This article features our Legal Director Tom Devine and was originally published here.
Over 200 groups called on President Joe Biden and congressional leadership on Thursday to enact stronger whistleblower protection laws, especially to ensure that the government is fairly spending trillions of dollars in pandemic relief funding.
A diverse group of 264 organizations, led by the Government Accountability Project, sent the letter to leaders to emphasize the important role whistleblowers play in holding the government accountable.
They argued that current whistleblower laws––such as the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act, 1989 Whistleblower Protection Act and 2012 Whistleblower Enhancement Act––are outdated and insufficient to protect “courageous” individuals who disclose wronging.
More than 260 organizations urged President Biden
The Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit that works with whistleblowers and on whistleblowing legislation, led a letter on Thursday with other groups calling for Biden and congressional leaders to strengthen U.S. whistleblower laws to match or exceed those of other democratic nations.
“Truth shared by whistleblowers fuels oversight mechanisms by shining a light on existing weaknesses, inefficiencies, and injustices. We must protect those who courageously speak out about abuses of public trust that undermine our nation’s safety and security and threaten our democracy,” they wrote.
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They called for America’s whistleblower rights to include giving whistleblowers the right to challenge retaliatory investigations, extending whistleblower rights beyond protection from workplace retaliation and giving whistleblowers a legal defense against civil or criminal liability, among other provisions.
Bishop, a North Carolina Republican, has filed the
Do Your Job Act, which would stop union officials from being paid while conducting union business.
The National Right to Work Committee said federal workers unions used more than 2.6 million hours of official time for union activity in 2019, costing taxpayers more than $163 million in payroll and other costs. The abusive practice of allowing union work to occur on official time wastes millions of taxpayer dollars every year, as federal employees use paid time off to perform official union duties, Bishop said.
The policy was established in 1978 through the Civil Service Reform Act. It allows federal workers unions to use paid hours for lobbying for more benefits or higher pay or to perform other union functions.
Wed, 03/17/2021 - 1:25pm tim
Vermont Business Magazine Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) along with Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on Wednesday introduced the
Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act to take on corporate greed by raising taxes on companies that pay their top executives at least 50 times more than the pay of a median worker.
Americans across the political spectrum are outraged by the extreme gaps between CEO and worker pay. According to a nationwide survey, the typical American would limit CEO pay to no more than 6 times that of the average worker. About 62% of all Americans – 52% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats – favor capping CEO pay relative to worker pay.