New bills would extend whistleblower protections to more feds

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, recently introduced two bills to expand the number of federal employees who are covered by whistleblower protection laws. 

“These two bills extend whistleblower protections so more patriotic men and women can come forward to sound the alarm on waste, fraud and abuse in government without fear of retaliation,” he said in a statement. “Whistleblowers shouldn’t be treated like a skunk at a picnic just for telling the truth.”

One of the measures (S. 4100) would require civil servants whose primary duties are to investigate and report wrongdoing to receive the same protections as other government workers when making a whistleblower disclosure. Grassley and government transparency nonprofits argued the legislation is necessary due to court and Merit Systems Protection Board decisions that have ruled such federal employees must meet a higher standard to prove whistleblower retaliation. 

“A recent [MSPB decision] canceled normal whistleblower rights for all employees permitted by their job descriptions to act against problems they discover,” said Tom Devine, the legal director of the Government Accountability Project, which has endorsed the bill, in a statement. “No other whistleblower law in the country demotes ‘duty speech’ to second class rights.”

The measure is cosponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Grassley and Wyden are the co-chairs of the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus. 

Grassley’s other bill (S. 4099) would require nondisclosure policies, forms and agreements of government corporations, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Tennessee Valley Authority, to include a notice that employees have the right to make whistleblower disclosures to Congress, an agency inspector general or the Office of Special Counsel. 

The senator introduced the two measures on March 16, which was the start of Sunshine Week, an annual event to promote government transparency. 

In 2025, Grassley successfully pushed the Trump administration to restore funding to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. The president has fired 19 IGs, and administration officials also had been blocking the central IG group from receiving congressionally approved spending.