TSA employees to gain full whistleblower protections

Employees in the Transportation Security Administration-including 44,000 baggage screeners-will gain full whistleblower protections when they move to the Homeland Security Department, the Bush administration confirmed Thursday.

Language in the bill establishing the department extends whistleblower protections to all employees in the new department, including TSA baggage screeners, who currently have limited whistleblower protections. Specifically, language in Section 841 of the homeland security bill, (H.R. 5005) requires the department to obey all federal whistleblower and equal employment opportunity laws, including the 1989 Whistleblower Protection Act and the 2001 Notification and Federal Employee Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation Act (No FEAR).

The bill was passed by the Senate Tuesday, after the House passed it last week.

The language overrides a provision in the law creating TSA that gave the agency discretion to decide how to treat whistleblowers.

"Whistleblower and EEO protections will be extended to them," said an official at the Office of Personnel Management.

The development means thousands of employees with frontline responsibilities for airport security will have standard protections from retaliation if they report wrongdoing at the TSA. Currently, TSA employees who believe they have been retaliated against for reporting misdeeds cannot appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, an agency that has oversight in whistleblower cases.

It is also, perhaps, the only case where employees will gain rights by moving to the Homeland Security Department. Federal employee unions opposed the homeland security legislation because it allows the administration broad authority to cancel other civil service protections, although the law does require the department to respect merit system principles.

The language is a victory for Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who pushed for the whistleblower language to be added to the homeland security bill. In June, Grassley proposed legislation to extend full whistleblower rights to TSA employees.

"All federal whistleblowers deserve full coverage," he said in a statement. "It doesn't serve the public to keep this kind of information buried in the bureaucracy."

TSA believes baggage screeners deserve full whistleblower protections, a spokesman said. "Our employees are entitled to the same type of whistleblower protections as any other type of employee, and if there's something wrong, we wouldn't want them to be unjustly or unfairly retaliated against," said spokesman Brian Doyle.

TSA employees currently have limited whistleblower rights under an arrangement between the agency and the Office of Special Counsel, the independent agency responsible for enforcing the 1989 Whistleblower Protection Act. The arrangement allows employees to request an investigation by the Office of Special Counsel if they believe they have been retaliated against for whistleblowing. The office then reports to the TSA on whether the allegations are justified. TSA officials make the final decision on whether corrective action is needed. Employees cannot appeal those decisions to MSPB.

The Office of Special Counsel has received seven requests for investigations to date under this system.

TSA employees will have full whistleblower protections once the new department is created, according to Tim Hannapel, deputy director of the Office of Special Counsel.