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05/22/2012

Roll Call: Epstein: Culture Must Protect Fed Whistle-Blowers

Epstein: Culture Must Protect Fed Whistle-Blowers

By Dan Epstein
Special to Roll Call

Hollywood glorifies them, the media lauds them as heroes, and Members of Congress wave bills around asserting to protect them, but are federal whistle-blowers being retaliated against by their own agencies?

The recent General Service Administration and Secret Service scandals have shone a light on the lack of protection for whistle-blowers, despite laws in place that should safeguard them. GSA employees are afraid of retaliation, according to Inspector General Brian Miller. Administrator Jeff Neely threatened that his employees would be “squashed like a bug” if they spoke out against spending abuses.

Yet some insiders are choosing to brave the storm and stand up to the government to expose fraud and waste. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee received calls from agency insiders providing tips for the panel’s probe of the misbehavior of Secret Service agents in Colombia. Numerous federal agency insiders are contacting government watchdogs with information concerning waste, fraud and mismanagement. Are these signs that something is truly rotten in Washington, D.C., or only symbolic of a vain hunt for government carrion?

In the current administration, whistle-blowers should know the policies and procedures in place that offer them protection. As virtually his first act in office, President Barack Obama issued an ethics pledge to all executive branch appointees mandating that, “the head of every executive agency shall, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Government Ethics, establish such rules or procedures … as are necessary or appropriate to ensure that every appointee in the agency signs the pledge upon assuming the appointed office.”

Because of the president’s stated commitment to ethics, Cause of Action asked the Office of Government Ethics to disclose whether the GSA violated the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch.

Neely’s Las Vegas boondoggle was clearly wasteful, but it may also signify something deeply unethical about federal employee conduct.

A system of accountability is only as effective as the employees charged with its use. Cause of Action continues to await disclosure by the Office of Government Ethics of any documents that may reveal violations of ethics rules by the GSA as well as disclosure by the Office of Special Counsel of complaints made against the GSA by current or former employees who were silenced or retaliated against for blowing the whistle.

The president entered office promising to “strengthen whistle-blower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud and abuse of authority in government.”

Although little-known even on Capitol Hill, the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency exists to oversee and evaluate federal agencies in their accountability, including their maintenance of procedures designed to protect federal whistle-blowers. Jeffrey Zients, chairman of the council and acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, has been asked to conduct an agency-wide audit, evaluation and investigation to assess the state of whistle-blower protection within the federal government and respond to those violations of ethical rules and whistle-blower laws that have occurred.

Effective government cannot take place if whistle-blowers are threatened into silence. With the recent scandals that have come to light, it is time to determine whether agencies are committed to protecting whistle-blowers. If the government fails to defend those employees who blow the whistle on waste or fraud, then the government effectively endorses a culture of reckless spending and unaccountability.

As economic growth has slowed in an already economically embattled America, now is the key time to commit to government efficiency. As several Members of Congress recently pointed out, “Cutting the fat and tightening the belt are things that all American families do. It’s wrong if the federal government refuses to do the same.”

Investigating and exposing waste in the government not only has the salutary effect of increasing accountability, but it has a concomitant influence on the government’s culture of spending. While requests were made to 32 federal agencies for records on spending on commemorative coins and awards, one might label gift spending as negligible compared to, say, Department of Defense contracts yielding illegal kickbacks. Conceded, but spending taxpayer dollars on commemorative items reveals just how numb our tax-dollar-funded federal employees have become to the idea of self-stewardship.

Callousness toward wasteful spending and a corresponding vitriol toward whistle-blowers has become epidemic in Washington. A first step to curing Washington of its culture of waste is to treat the illness by promoting and maintaining a culture that protects whistle-blowers. Only then will the president’s ethics pledge avoid what taxpayer-funded commemorative coins have turned out to be: of empty value.


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05/18/2012

Media Advisory: Whistleblower Conference – Dan Epstein Joins Panel Discussion

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                         CONTACT:

Friday, May 18, 2012                                                  Mary Beth Hutchins,  202-507-5887

 

*MEDIA ADVISORY*

CAUSE OF ACTION’S DAN EPSTEIN TO PRESENT AT WHISTLEBLOWER SUMMIT

WHAT: A panel discussion on issues affecting whistleblowers as part of the annual Whistleblower Summit: Civil & Human Rights Conference.

WHEN:       Monday, May 21, 2012,  12:30pm—1:30pm ET

 WHO: Dan Epstein, executive director, Cause of Action will offer insight into the best litigation options for whistleblowers under current law. Cause of Action is a non-partisan organization that uses public advocacy and legal reform tools to ensure greater transparency in government, protect taxpayer interests and promote economic freedom. He will be joining other panel experts from various nonprofits and NGO’s.

 WHERE:    Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing Room

226 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

 

MORE INFORMATION: The Summit is hosted by Make it Safe Coalition (MISC), an assortment of various public interest/advocacy groups including the Government Accountability Project, the International Association of Whistleblowers, the American Federation of Government Employees, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Project On Government Oversight, the No FEAR Coalition, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Voices for Corporate Responsibility, and International Brotherhood of Teamsters; which focus on significant areas of public concern and individual rights, such as First Amendment, federal workforce, medical safety, national security, judicial reform, etc. See http://www.acorn8.com for more information on the conference.

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05/15/2012

WPEA under the Spotlight: Disclosure of Scientific Censorship

From MSPB Watch, an insight into the WPEA:

WPEA under the Spotlight: Disclosure of Scientific Censorship

 

WPEA under the Spotlight is a new running feature that will explore the provisions of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, currently being debated in Congress. This entry covers the disclosure of scientific censorship section of Senate Committee Report No. 112-155, which accompanies S. 743RS.

Background

M. Disclosures of scientific censorship

The Committee has heard concerns that federal employees may be discouraged from, or retaliated against for, disclosing evidence of unlawful or otherwise improper censorship of research, analysis, and other technical information related to scientific research. Although disclosures of such censorship may be protected as a disclosure of a legal violation or of an abuse of authority under the WPA, uncertainty on this specific issue may cause confusion and inhibit disclosure. It is essential that Congress and the public receive accurate data and findings from federal researchers and analysts to inform lawmaking and other public policy decisions.

In order to encourage the reporting of improper censorship, section 110 of S.743 would specifically protect employees who disclose information that the employees reasonably believe is evidence of scientific or technical censorship that may cause gross government waste or mismanagement, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety, or that violates the law. This definition of protected disclosures is nearly identical to the general definition of protected disclosures that do not relate to censorship. This is intended to make unmistakably clear that employees are protected for disclosing scientific censorship in the same manner as they are protected for making any other disclosure.

Section by Section Analysis

Section 110—Disclosure of Censorship Related to Research, Analysis, or Technical Information

This section clarifies that an employee is protected from reprisal under the WPA for disclosing information that an employee reasonably believes is evidence of censorship related to research, analysis, or technical information that is or will cause gross government waste or mismanagement, an abuse of authority, a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety, or any violation of law.

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05/14/2012

U.S. News & World Report: Federal Budget Office Asks All Agencies to Cut Conference, Travel Costs

Federal Budget Office Asks All Agencies to Cut Conference, Travel Costs

May 14, 2012

Since news of the General Services Administration’s $820,000 party in Las Vegas broke, the White House announced its putting the kibosh on the good times that have previously rolled on the taxpayers’ dime.

“One of the Federal government’s most fundamental responsibilities is to serve as a careful steward of taxpayer dollars to make sure that every dollar is well spent and directed toward areas of high returns,” says a memo released by the Office of Management and Budget. [Washington Whispers: GSA Heads Slammed During Congressional Hearing]

The OMB is asking government agencies to cut travel expenses by 30 percent before 2013, part of the plan which it estimates will save the government $1.2 billion.

The new guidelines also outline additional safeguards to protect against wasteful spending. Within each agency, the deputy secretary is now required to scrutinize budgets for conferences in which an agency anticipates to spend more than $100,000.

“I think it is clear that this is a direct response to the GSA,” says Dan Epstein, the Executive Director of Cause of Action, a group committed to tracking government spending and abuses, “It outlines conferences and travel…It is rather telling.”

The OMB’s new restrictions also prohibit federal agencies from spending more than $500,000 on conferences unless the head of the agency approves it, a safeguard that may have prevented the GSA abuses.

During congressional oversight hearings on the GSA incident, former GSA Chief Martha Johnson, who resigned over the incident, says she wasn’t aware of the excessive spending underway until after the lavish gifts and dinners were already purchased.

 

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05/7/2012

Limited Government: The Fading American Norm

In an April 24, 2012 New York Times Magazine article entitled, “Earth to Ben Bernanke”  Paul Krugman writes, “Bernanke’s big retreat from F.D.R.-like resolve happened way back in 2003, less than a year after he arrived at the Fed. That month, a Fed staff report rejected many of the ideas Bernanke previously supported — and ever since, Bernanke has spoken only of limited responses to the problem of the zero lower bound.”  By “problem of the zero lower bound” Krugman means:

‘Right now, the Fed believes that it’s facing a weak economy and subdued inflation, a situation in which it would ordinarily cut interest rates. The problem is that rates can’t be cut further. When the recession began in 2007, the Fed started slashing short-term interest rates until November 2008, when they bottomed out near zero, where they remain to this day. And that was as far as the Fed could go, because (some narrow technical exceptions aside) interest rates can’t go lower. Investors won’t buy bonds if they can get a better return simply by putting a bunch of $100 bills in a safe. In other words, the Fed hit what’s known in economic jargon as the zero lower bound (or, alternatively, became stuck in a liquidity trap). The tool the Fed usually fights recessions with had reached the limits of its usefulness.’

Krugman’s solution, it appears, is to cut short-term interest rates and print money in the hope of stimulating private borrowing and spending.  And Krugman believes that such intervention requires F.D.R.-like resolve.  According to the Italian philosopher Georgio Agamben, writing on the concept of the state of exception, “from the constitutional standpoint, the New Deal was realized by delegating to the president (through a series of statutes culminating in the National Recovery Act of June 16, 1933) an unlimited power to regulate and control every aspect of the economic life of the country – a fact that is in perfect conformity with the already mentioned parallelism between military and economic emergencies that characterizes the politics of the twentieth century.”  In other words, from a philosophical standpoint, Krugman’s argument is one in which Bernanke should execute the same kind of authority in fixing the economy that a commander-in-chief would exercise in times of war.  Independent of whether Krugman’s solution is ideal from an economic standpoint, from a legal standpoint, Krugman’s rhetoric signals a mentality in which wide-scale economic regulation no longer becomes the kind of executive action taken in exceptional cases but instead the norm of economic policy.

But regulation does not occur in a vacuum;  implicit within, say, the Affordable Care Act is a concomitant institutional aggrandizement of the Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Internal Revenue Service, both of which gain more authority in spending, rulemaking and enforcement.  Indeed the Dodd-Frank regulations entailed the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  The Troubled Asset Relief Program entailed an Inspector General office and congressional appropriations that funded investigations (the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission) and, eventually, spending (the Stimulus plan).  Economic intervention through regulation no longer takes place at the margin, or in the exceptional case, but instead has become the norm – one synonymous with administrative aggrandizement and the expansion of executive power. This has enormous consequences for transparency and accountability of the Executive Branch as the bureaucrats of the Federal Reserve or Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are unelected and any check on their spending comes after-the-fact, when policies and regulations have passed and any form of oversight will fail to retroactively remedy the damage regulatory regimes have done to job creation and capital formation in the market.  The American founders conceived of the normal state of American constitutionalism to be one of limited government.  Now this notion has become an exception relegated to the norm of administrative aggrandizement and, worse, overreach in the form of interventionist, enforcement-based (as opposed to cooperative) regulatory schemes and spending buttressed by an unchecked, unaccountable bureaucracy. Such executive power in the United States has been traditionally justified in times of war where martial law becomes a necessity for purposes both exceptional and expedient.  Constitutional rights to due process, habeas review, and the Third Amendment prohibition against the quartering of soldiers in “any house, without the consent of the owner” were seen as permanent limits against executive aggrandizement during times of war where national defense may need to subrogate other rights.  And yet now the bureaucrats and their regulations have become quartered within our savings and wealth.  And without our consent.

 

By Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action

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05/3/2012

Dan Epstein on Breitbart.com: Occupy’s Public Safety Threat Ignored by DOJ

Read the full story here. Breitbart

“On November 9, 2011, Cause of Action asked DOJ Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar to investigate the status of the DOJ’s response to the letter Rep. Jason Chaffetz had sent to Eric Holder in March of 2011. On December 28, 2011, the DOJ OIG declined our request, refusing to look into the request from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) to Attorney General Eric Holder to clear threats to the safety of Americans presented months earlier…”

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05/2/2012

FOIA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is in violation of the No FEAR Act of 2002

From MSPB Watch:

“Last week, fellow advocate site Whistlewatch.org made a FOIA request to the Department of Health and Human Services and all of its operating divisions, seeking all No FEAR Act annual reports to Congress since the law’s passage in 2002, as required by section 203 of that law. Now, the following response came back from HHS’ Office of Inspector General, claiming that no such reports can be found:

HHS FOIA 12-0404

Which means that HHS is in violation of the No FEAR Act, and the public won’t get to know how much litigation damages and attorney fees HHS has spent reimbursing meritorious whistleblowers and victims of discrimination.”

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