Federal Air Marshal whistleblower Robert MacLean won an important victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit late last month allowing him to continue with his case alleging illegal retaliation in violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act (“WPA”).  The WPA protects government employees from retaliation because of “any disclosure of information by [...]

Government employee whistleblowers are awaiting a potentially major decision in the case of Berry v. Conyers, prompting the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (“OSC”) to file an amicus curiae brief for consideration by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the case.  According to an OSC press release, the case concerns two [...]

Late last year, federal employees, government whistleblowers, and advocates for LGBT equality cheered when Scott Bloch, the former head of the Office of Special Counsel (“OSC”), a federal agency, was charged with destruction of government property.  Mr. Bloch is the subject of a longstanding investigation by the Office of Personnel Management’s Office of Inspector General [...]

Government whistleblowers who suffered for years under the failed leadership of the former head of the Office of Special Counsel (“OSC”), Scott Bloch, received encouraging news on December 21, 2012, when the government charged Bloch with the destruction of government property.  The government alleges that on or about December 18, 2006, Bloch directed that a [...]

Department of Defense (“DOD”) contractor employees cost almost three times as much as an average DOD civilian employee performing the same job, according to research conducted by the Project on Government Oversight (“POGO”) last month.   A total of $254 billion was spent by the Pentagon on contract employees in 2010, as compared to just $108 [...]

The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (“WPEA”) was signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday, marking a significant step forward in a decade-long struggle by federal workers to gain meaningful whistleblower protections.  The WPEA will close loopholes in the current law and bolster protections for federal workers whose supervisors, all too often, have able retaliate [...]

Whistleblowers within the federal intelligence community received outstanding news yesterday in the form of a Presidential Policy Directive (“PPD”) prohibiting retaliation against employees in the intelligence community.  The PPD specifically prohibited employers from retaliating against a member of the intelligence community by limiting or revoking the employee’s security clearance.  This directive is particularly important in [...]

Whistleblowers within the federal government took an important step forward on Friday when the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (“WPEA”).  As the Government Accountability Project (“GAP”) reports, the bill will provide a number of significant benefits to federal employee whistleblowers.  Among other things, the bill: closes loopholes removing employee protections [...]

Three civilian whistleblowers employed by the U.S. Army have been granted a stay of disciplinary action against them in a proceeding before the Merit Systems Protection Board (“MSPB”), the administrative body responsible for resolving disputes between federal employees and government agencies.  The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (“OSC”) requested the stay from the MSPB after [...]

Ann O’Hanlon, spokeswoman for the Office of Special Counsel (“OSC”), announced last week that the OSC was projecting a record number of reported incidents from whistleblowers in fiscal year 2012.  GovExec.com, a government business news daily, reported on July 26, 2012, that through the first three quarters of the fiscal year, the OSC has received [...]