Message to the Congress
Transmitting Proposed Whistleblower Protection Legislation
To
the Congress of the
I
am pleased to transmit for your consideration and enactment the ``Whistleblower
Protection Act of 1989.'' Federal employees who blow the whistle on fraud,
waste, abuse, and violations of the law help to ensure that the Federal
Government uses American taxpayers' dollars effectively and efficiently. The
Nation's laws must encourage such reports and protect those who make them from
reprisal.
At
the close of the last Congress, I withheld my approval from S. 508, the
Whistleblower Protection Act of 1988, because of the constitutional and other
defects in that bill. The measure I am transmitting today corrects those
defects. The legislation protects from reprisal Federal employees who expose
wrongdoing within the Government. It also ensures that Federal personnel
managers are not burdened with routinely defending appropriate personnel
decisions.
The
``Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989'' grants to Federal employees for the
first time the right to initiate an action before the Merit Systems Protection
Board to contest a personnel action on the ground that it was taken as a
reprisal for whistleblowing. The legislation also
grants job transfer preference to whistleblowers in filling jobs of equivalent
status and tenure as the job held by the whistleblowing
employee.
The
proposed legislation establishes the Office of Special Counsel as an
independent office within the Executive Branch. The Office would protect
Federal employees from prohibited personnel practices. To assist in the conduct
of investigations in executing this function, the Special Counsel may
administer oaths, examine witnesses, take depositions, and receive evidence.
The Special Counsel also may seek orders from the Merit Systems Protection
Board to stay a personnel action with respect to an employee until the
employee's case is resolved.
Under
the bill, when the Special Counsel determines that reasonable grounds exist to
believe that a prohibited personnel practice has occurred, the Special Counsel
generally reports that determination to the agency involved, the Merit Systems
Protection Board, the Office of Personnel Management, and in appropriate cases,
the President. When necessary to ensure that an agency found to have engaged in
a prohibited personnel practice takes corrective action, the Special Counsel
may seek an order from the Merit Systems Protection Board requiring such
actions. In cases involving reprisal for whistleblowing,
the individual who does not prevail in the proceeding before the Merit Systems
Protection Board may seek Federal court review of the Board's decision.
The
bill also entitles employees who make allegations to the Office of Special
Counsel to notification of the results of the Office's investigation. The
Office of Special Counsel may investigate allegations it receives and may
initiate investigations on its own.
Finally,
I would note that the proposed legislation does not contain the constitutional
defects that were contained in S. 508 of the 100th Congress. Unlike that bill,
the proposed legislation is consistent with the constitutional separation of
powers, investment of the Executive power in the President, and the proper
exercise of the Judicial power of the
Ronald
Reagan
The
White House,