Federal employees have a legal, and moral, duty, to report not only out and out fraud; but waste, and mismanagement. However, court rulings the last 15 years have eviscerated any protections to carry out most of that responsibility. This bill only works on the 'out and out fraud' portion.

Court rulings have all been pretty consistent since the '90s – unfortunately. Even if true waste and abuse is correctly and courageously pointed out, the courts have made it easy to still punish the employees – with the people doling out the punishment being those in management and their agency's management structure who are doing the mismanagement and abusing. The key here is that court rulings have made the power to find an employee “insubordinate' something that trumps everything else – including employees who truthfully report waste and mismanagement. It also has allowed an employee who has found such things to be ordered to remain silent – and if they break that silence, management can, thanks to the courts, legally come down on the employee.

It means that anyone who first tries to work within the system to fix wrongs does so at their peril. And of course, going outside the system as a first recourse, ends up making enemies on all sides.

if Congress and OMB are serious about bringing needed institutional change and reform to the entire Federal workplace, the single best way to do it is to now pass a bill that makes up for these terrible court rulings. In that way, individual employees in each Agency – the ones who know best what truly needs fixing – would be empowered to first, work within the system to effect change; and then be protected when the system then tries to kill them.

Federal employees have a legal, and moral, duty, to report not only out and out fraud; but waste, and mismanagement. However, court rulings the last 15 years have eviscerated any protections to carry out most of that responsibility. This bill only works on the 'out and out fraud' portion.

Court rulings have all been pretty consistent since the '90s – unfortunately. Even if true waste and abuse is correctly and courageously pointed out, the courts have made it easy to still punish the employees – with the people doling out the punishment being those in management and their agency's management structure who are doing the mismanagement and abusing. The key here is that court rulings have made the power to find an employee “insubordinate' something that trumps everything else – including employees who truthfully report waste and mismanagement. It also has allowed an employee who has found such things to be ordered to remain silent – and if they break that silence, management can, thanks to the courts, legally come down on the employee.

It means that anyone who first tries to work within the system to fix wrongs does so at their peril. And of course, going outside the system as a first recourse, ends up making enemies on all sides.

if Congress and OMB are serious about bringing needed institutional change and reform to the entire Federal workplace, the single best way to do it is to now pass a bill that makes up for these terrible court rulings. In that way, individual employees in each Agency – the ones who know best what truly needs fixing – would be empowered to first, work within the system to effect change; and then be protected when the system then tries to kill them.