McCaskill to Space Agency: Keep NASA Whistleblowers in Orbit

Senator has worked to protect whistleblowers at federal agencies & extend protections for grantees, subcontractors

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, a leading voice for federal whistleblower protections, is urging NASA to implement the protections she helped pass into law earlier this year, after reports of delays and a lack of oversight at the space agency.

“Whistleblowers play a critical role in government oversight,” wrote McCaskill to the government’s top watchdog, requesting a report on whistleblower protections at NASA. “They are our eyes and ears on the ground and their disclosures about waste, fraud, abuse and public safety support have increased accountability and transparency in our government… I have grown increasingly concerned that these agencies are not doing their part in implementing these protections… little oversight has been done on NASA’s efforts at implementation of enhanced whistleblower protections for contractors and grantees. I have received troubling reports regarding some whistleblower cases falling through the cracks due to implementation delays.”

In September, McCaskill, a former Missouri State Auditor who was just named the top-ranking Democrat on the top committee for oversight and accountability in government, introduced legislation to expand protections for whistleblowers after a recent government watchdog report, completed at McCaskill’s request, detailed examples of retaliation and intimidation against whistleblowers by contractors at the Department of Energy—which has the largest civilian contracting workforce in the federal government.

In June, the Senate passed McCaskill’s legislation to extend whistleblower protections for all federal government grantees, subgrantees, and subcontractors, and make permanent these protections for all federal contractors. The bill also prohibits contractors from being reimbursed for legal fees accrued in their defense against retaliation claims by whistleblowers. Currently, a pilot program set to expire applies whistleblower protections to contractors, grant recipients, and subcontractors, but not to employees of subgrantees—even though the federal government distributes billions in grant funding each year, much of which gets passed through to other organizations.

Full text of the letter HERE.

Visit mccaskill.senate.gov/accountability to read more about McCaskill’s fight for stronger accountability in Washington.

###