Two developments in the whistleblower world caught the Government Accountability Project speaking out of both sides of its mouth today.
GAP’s Tom Devine is inconsistent on whistle blowers.
Here’s GAP’s Legal Director, Tom Devine, on news that the Federal Circuit dealt a serious blow today to national security employees’ (and possibly all federal employees’) civil service protections:
Last year Congress unanimously passed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (“WPEA”) due to hostile Federal Circuit activism creating judicial loopholes that gutted statutory free speech rights. Apparently the Federal Circuit did not get it. This time the court created a loophole to remove the civil service rule of law from virtually the entire federal workforce. It erased all federal laws that shield the two million federal employee workforce from becoming a national security spoils system.
And
After Conyers, federal employees will have two rights left: be national security ‘yes people,’ or leave. A bureaucracy where it is only legally safe to be a national security ‘yes man’ is a clear and present danger to freedom for all Americans.
Of course, courts do not issue rulings destroying 100+ years of civil service protections willy-nilly. Someone has to argue for that position. Conspicuously missing from GAP’s myopic condemnation is any mention of the driver and originator of this decision: the Obama Administration, as well as Acting OPM Director Elaine Kaplan, a former Special Counsel and recipient of a GAP-sponsored award.
Turning to the second development, here’s the very same Tom Devine defending the White House on charges that the president misspoke/misled/lied to the public when he said that his executive order (PPD-19) would have given Edward Snowden a viable channel to blow the whistle. The article ably lays out all the different interpretations and positions on this issue. For my purposes, however, it’s sufficient to quote the end:
“There is no substitute for codified rights,” said GAP’s Devine. “But to be fair, the president is doing what he can to sweep in contractors” under the October directive. Devine’s discussions with White House aides indicate they believe the White House has the authority to act alone, he said, perhaps by using “expansive definitions of government employee.”
Sometime between the time Obama signed the October order and the stripping of contractor protections in the defense bill, Devine said, the issue fell off the White House radar.
So there you have it folks. When it comes to a conscious, relentless effort to eviscerate decades-long civil service protections, the Obama Administration is nowhere to be mentioned in Devine’s indignant quotes. But when the president makes a comment that perks the ears of whistleblower advocates across town, Devine is there, ready to offer innocuous sounding excuses on his behalf.
Here’s a question to my fellow whistleblowers: does this conduct do justice to your sacrifices?
Photo by Towle N released under a Creative Commons license.
