TSA extends whistleblower protections

The Transportation Security Administration has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Merit Systems Protection Board to provide its employees with enhanced whistleblower protection, the agency announced on Wednesday.

"Transportation security officers are on the frontlines, protecting the traveling public," TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said. "For their sake and the sake of security, this agreement with MSPB provides TSA officers [with] another independent avenue for whistleblower concerns."

Currently, the Office of Special Counsel is the sole authority responsible for investigating complaints of retaliation against TSA whistleblowers and recommending corrective or disciplinary action. Those recommendations are not binding. The agreement with MSPB would allow transportation security officers to appeal OSC's decisions to MSPB.

"The MSPB is delighted to join in this agreement to adjudicate allegations of retaliation due to whistleblower disclosures filed by transportation security officers," MSPB Chairman Neil McPhie said. "This third-party review should increase the confidence of security officers to make these disclosures and contribute to the traveling public's sense of safety."

Federal employee groups said that while the agreement was a step forward, it remained important that TSA employees receive the same whistleblower protections as other government employees, and that TSA abide by MSPB decisions.

"This agreement falls short of affording transportation security officers full whistleblower protections," said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. He pointed out that it does not allow officers to appeal a negative decision in the federal courts. It also allows MSPB and TSA together to hammer out the details of the whistleblower complaint process. "It is imperative that MSPB issue their own regulations and not negotiate with the agency they are overseeing," said Gage.

National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley said she was concerned that the agreement would not be strong enough, noting that it was not yet clear whether MSPB decisions would be binding, whether employees would be permitted evidentiary hearings or whether it would be possible to appeal MSPB decisions.

"Rather than leave the extension of this much-needed right for TSOs to the agency's discretion, we are going to continue seeking legislation on this issue," Kelley said. "TSA's token effort to increase worker protections is not good enough."

Both AFGE and NTEU have organized TSA chapters and advocated for stronger whistleblower protections. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., sponsored a bill (H.R. 985) last year that would give TSA employees the same whistleblower rights as other federal employees. The House passed the legislation in mid-March, and it is awaiting action in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the chairman of that subcommittee, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, have introduced their own broad update to the 1989 Whistleblower Protection Act (S. 274), which passed the Senate unanimously in December.