Whistleblowers Are Now 'Deputized' to Protect Food Supply - Central Coast News KION/KCBA

Washington, D.C. – The Government Accountability Project's Food Integrity Campaign or FIC is praising Congress for passing the strongest federal whistleblower protections in history on Tuesday. The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act or WPEA, passed the Senate on Tuesday and is now being sent to President Obama for his signature. This legislation overturns many loopholes and provides critically important upgrades to weak, current protections.

Passage of the WPEA plays a significant role in food safety oversight, as it better protects those charged with enforcing food safety laws – including U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarians and inspectors, as well as Food and Drug Administration employees. Over the past several years the Government has heard from countless federal whistleblowers that want to expose food industry wrongdoing, but failed to come forward due to a lack of strong whistleblower protections.

"America's food just got a lot safer," said FIC Director Amanda Hitt. "Government workers who serve as the public's watchdog are now themselves safer from retaliation. Federal food safety employees have finally been deputized to protect the food supply."

Under the new legislation's improvements, a federal employee is now protected even when s/he:

• is not the first person who discloses given misconduct
• blows the whistle while carrying out job duties
• makes a disclosure to a supervisor
• discloses the consequences of a policy decision, or
• does not have "irrefragable proof" (defined as "undeniable, incontestable, incontrovertible proof") of government misconduct.

Here are a few scenarios that will now allow federal workers to receive solid and enforceable whistleblower protections. They include:

• A public health veterinarian reporting to his/her USDA supervisor that a slaughterhouse repeatedly violated humane handling regulations
• An FDA inspector who tries to expose falsification of Salmonella records at a cantaloupe farm
• A Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) district office manager reporting frequent complaints by FSIS poultry inspectors that increased line speeds have made it impossible for workers to pull all potentially contaminated birds off the line
• An FDA researcher whose attempts at publishing new findings on a controversial food ingredient are stifled by upper management

Hitt concluded by referencing the next steps in advocating for food worker rights, stating: "We're not done yet – these protections only cover federal food employees. The 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act protects corporate workers exposing problems with FDA-regulated products. However, USDA-regulated product industry workers still lack protections. These workers – who monitor our beef, poultry, pork and egg products – still cannot safely speak up for the public welfare."