A trio of Democratic senators on Monday proposed legislation that would expand protections for whistleblowers in the Department of Energy, following a report from the Government Accountability Office that found agency officials had engaged in retaliation and intimidation.
“It has become clear that the Department of Energy is not going to change its culture of retaliation against whistleblowers, so it’s up to Congress to change it,” Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said in a statement about the proposal.
The bill, which is being co-sponsored by Wyden, Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, would add waste, fraud and abuse to the list of protected whistleblower disclosures, extend the amount of time employees are able to file a complaint from six months to one year, and allow them to pursue a federal trial if the department fails to investigate within a year.
A GAO report published in July found agency contractors retaliating against whistleblowers, including one who raised concerns about a treatment facility for radioactive waste in Washington, while the agency did little to remedy the problem.
“Instead of protecting whistleblowers from retaliation by contractors, the Department of Energy has indiscriminately reimbursed contractors for their legal fees, even though the law limits such awards,” Markey said in a statement. “This legislation expands the types of whistleblower disclosures that are protected under law, forces DOE to stop issuing blank checks to contractors who retaliate against whistleblowers, and imposes real penalties on those that do.”
