Passage of legislation to broaden the types of
disclosures that are deemed to be protected under
federal whistleblowing law could increase the number
of complaints of retaliation filed at the Office of
Special Counsel and Merit Systems Protection Board,
the Congressional Budget Office has said.
A bill (HR-1317) that has cleared the House Government
Reform Committee would include as a protected
disclosure by a federal employee any lawful disclosure
an employee or applicant reasonably believes is credible
evidence of waste, abuse, or gross mismanagement,
without restriction as to time, place, form, motive,
context, or prior disclosure. That proposal is a
reaction to federal court opinions of recent years that
had the effect of narrowing what types of disclosures
are considered protected under whistleblower law. The
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee has approved a similar bill (S-494)
CBO said that currently, there are about 400 to 500
whistleblower cases brought per year and that passage
of the legislation “could increase the number of
whistleblower cases” although the costs to those agencies
“would not be significant.” CBO also noted that there
would be a cost from a provision requiring the Government
Accountability Office to produce a report regarding the
revocation of security clearances in retaliation for
whistleblowing.
