Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I want to thank Representative Steve Russell for introducing this bill, along with Oversight and Government Reform…”

“I want to thank Representative Steve Russell for introducing this bill, along with Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, and Representative Stephen Lynch. This bill would provide important protections to whistleblowers who handle classified information and want to report waste, fraud, and abuse. Under this bill, an employee who is covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act could disclose to any supervisor in his or her direct chain of command classified information the employee reasonably believes shows wrongdoing. Under current law, if a whistleblower discloses classified information, the whistleblower is protected only if he or she makes those disclosures to the Office of Special Counsel, an inspector general, the head of the whistleblower's agency, or an employee designated by the head of the agency. This bill would encourage employees who handle classified information to use proper channels to blow the whistle on waste, fraud, and abuse. Allowing employees to go to a supervisor with evidence of wrongdoing may be less intimidating than going to the agency head or an inspector general. This bill is modeled on language in the Presidential Policy Directive issued in 2012. That directive, PPD 19, provided whistleblower protections to intelligence community employees who are not covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act.…”