Federal whistleblowers should be praised, not punished

Without federal whistleblowers, the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon might not have come to light. That’s from a recent blog post by J. David Cox Senior. Cox is president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 700,000 federal and D.C. government employees. Federal whistleblowers helped expose the FBI’s failure to follow up on evidence about terrorist plots before the September 11 attacks and without whistleblowers the waitlist scandal that resulted in veterans being denied timely access to medical care might have remained a secret. As these three examples illustrate, federal workers serve as a vital watchdog against waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in our government agencies. That’s why, Cox says, the current war on whistleblowers being waged by President Trump and others in his administration is not only disgraceful, but downright dangerous to our democracy. 
photo: In May, environmental activists joined with members of the American Federation of Government Employees outside the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters to thank EPA workers for their service.

---