October 3, 2004
Congress Moves to Protect Federal Whistleblowers
By ROBERT PEAR, NY TIMES

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 - Over strenuous objections from the Bush administration, Congress is moving to increase protections for federal employees who expose fraud, waste and wrongdoing inside the government.

Lawmakers of both parties say the measures are needed to prevent retaliation against such whistleblowers, who reveal threats to public health, safety and security.

But the administration says the bill unconstitutionally interferes with the president's ability to control and manage the government.

On Wednesday, a House committee approved a whistleblower protection bill. In July, a Senate committee approved a similar measure offering more extensive protections to whistleblowers.

Representative Todd R. Platts, Republican of Pennsylvania, the sponsor of the House bill, said: "We need to protect public servants who expose fraud and intentional misconduct. Court decisions in the last 10 years have eroded whistleblower protections, so that if you're a federal employee, you're often risking your job - and the wrath of your superiors - if you come forward with evidence of wrongdoing.''

The Senate bill gained momentum when Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, chairwoman of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, joined Senator Daniel K. Akaka, Democrat of Hawaii, in pushing it.

"The campaign for this legislation went from dormant to active when Senator Collins embraced the bill a few months ago,'' said Thomas M. Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project, a watchdog group that works with whistleblowers. "That was the turning point.''

While the legislation has broad support and a compromise appears to be within reach, it is impossible to know whether the measure will become law. As evidence of a need for legislation, lawmakers cited dozens of cases, including these:

¶Federal investigators found that two Border Patrol agents, Mark Hall and Robert Lindemann, were disciplined after they disclosed weaknesses in security along the Canadian border.

¶Teresa C. Chambers was dismissed from her job as chief of the United States Park Police after she said the agency did not have enough money or personnel to protect parks and monuments in the Washington area:

Press Release

For Immediate Release: Monday, October 4, 2004
Contact: Chas Offutt (202) 265-7337

DEPUTY PARK POLICE CHIEF FORCED TO RESIGN
"Purge" of Park Police Management Following Dismissal of Chief Teresa Chambers

Washington, DC - A Deputy Chief of the U.S. Park Police was forced to resign this past Friday, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The abrupt departure of Deputy Chief Barry Beam caps a tumultuous year of leadership turnover at the oldest uniformed federal law enforcement organization.

Beam was given a proposed termination this past Wednesday following an investigation concerning an incident involving a Park Police marine escort in New York Harbor for a cruise ship carrying Beam and his wife on a vacation trip. Beam was charged with misuse of government resources in the incident and lack of candor in the investigation. He was placed on administrative leave, stripped of his badge and gun and driven home. Rather than contest the charges, Beam resigned this Friday.

Beam had been Deputy Chief of the Park Police for 27 months following more than 25 years with the Prince George's County (Maryland) Police Department. He began his service under then-Chief Teresa Chambers, who was placed on administrative leave approximately 10 months ago following a published interview with the Washington Post in which Chief Chambers conceded staffing and budget shortfalls. As with Chief Chambers, Deputy Park Service Director Donald Murphy, a political appointee, played a pivotal role in Beam's removal.

"This looks more like a Stalinist purge than a professional police force," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization is leading the legal defense for Teresa Chambers, whose case is awaiting decision before the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. "As with Chief Chambers, the Park Service appears ready to seize on any pretext to remove those suspected of insufficient political loyalty."

During the past year, the U.S. Park Police has had three different chiefs. At the same time, outside reviews have found that the U.S. Park Police lacks the resources to fulfill the additional responsibilities assigned to it since September 11, 2001. Prior to her departure, Chief Chambers warned about rising dangers to park visitors, parkway commuters and the national icons in Washington, D.C.

According to employee sources, the investigation of the Beam cruise ship incident resulted from a report from inside the Park Police to the Interior Office of Inspector General.

"The snipers are winning," added Ruch referring to holdover Park Police staff resentful of Chambers' appointment, as an outsider and first female chief of a force created by George Washington. Anonymous harassment of Chambers and her leadership team included pepper spraying an office door, breaking into office computers, scattering nails under car tires and placing used condoms around assigned vehicles.

"Chief Teresa Chambers was recruited to bring the U.S. Park Police into the 21st Century but she was not allowed to do her job," concluded Ruch, decrying the current "management merry-go-round" at the Park Police. "Now the Park Service and Department of Interior political leadership seems determined to get rid of anyone associated with Chief Chambers regardless of the effect on the force and its mission."

For information about Chief Chambers and the turmoil at the U.S. Park Police

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is a national alliance of local, state and federal resource professionals, working to protect the environment.

¶The nation's top Medicare official threatened to fire Richard S. Foster, the chief Medicare actuary, if he provided data to Congress showing the cost of the new Medicare law, which exceeded White House estimates.

Airport baggage screeners say they have been penalized for raising concerns about aviation security. But in August, an independent federal agency, the Merit Systems Protection Board, ruled that they had none of the whistleblower rights available to other federal employees. The government, it said, can "hire, discipline and terminate screeners without regard to any other law.''

The United States Office of Special Counsel, which investigates complaints of reprisal before they go to the board, has a large backlog of whistleblower cases, including many pending more than a year.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have made the government more secretive, but have also prompted whistleblowers to come forward in greater numbers. "They feel they can no longer stand by knowing that people's lives are at risk,'' said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, another watchdog group.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said he knew of several instances in which federal agencies had retaliated against whistleblowers by revoking their security clearances. Because they can no longer do their jobs, Mr. Grassley said, "the pulling of a security clearance effectively fires employees.''

Administration officials gave several reasons for opposing the bills. Peter D. Keisler, an assistant attorney general, said the legislation would encourage frivolous complaints by disgruntled employees, crippling the ability of senior officials to manage the federal work force.

"The bill would convert every federal employee into a potential whistleblower and every minor workplace dispute with a supervisor into a potential whistleblower case,'' Mr. Keisler said.

Mr. Akaka said the objections came as no surprise. "The Justice Department has an institutional conflict of interest'' because it is responsible for defending agencies accused of retaliating against whistleblowers, he said.

Congress has repeatedly tried to protect conscientious civil servants, under laws adopted in 1978, 1989 and 1994. But lawmakers said these efforts had been frustrated by the court that hears appeals from aggrieved federal employees, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The court often assumes that a federal agency acted properly unless an employee offers "irrefragable proof to the contrary.''

The Senate committee cited this as one of many issues on which the court had misinterpreted the law and the intent of Congress. "By definition,'' it said, "irrefragable means impossible to refute. This imposes an impossible burden on whistleblowers.''

By contrast, the House and Senate bills would protect the disclosure of any information that a whistleblower "reasonably believes'' to be evidence of government illegality or misconduct.

The legislation would also clarify the right of federal employees, like Mr. Foster, the Medicare actuary, to provide information to Congress, free of threats or reprisals.