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government accountability project
Why Congress Must Extend Whistleblower Protections to Government Contractors
If the Expanding Whistleblower Protections for Contractors Act is passed, more contractors could feel empowered to stand up for what is right with crucial information.
Nov 15, 2024
With the recent presidential election, violence in the Middle East, and intense natural disasters prominent in the current news cycle, it’s understandable that major legislation is getting overlooked. However, there is one bill in particular that the public should keep its eyes on due to its potential impact on all aspects of our politics, like government accountability, immigration, and even public health: S. 1524, the Expanding Whistleblower Protections for Contractors Act.
Although there is existing legislation aimed at protecting government contractors, it is lackluster at best. Contractors can still face roadblocks on the way to truth-telling, such as limited jury trials, blacklisting, retaliation, and even a dearth of protections for refusing to violate the law. However, the Expanding Whistleblower Protections for Contractors Act increases protections for jobs funded by taxpayer dollars and closes these loopholes for federal contractors to build greater transparency in our government.
To find a case study on the importance of this legislation, one needs to look no further than the February 3, 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which sent forever chemicals and combustible materials, such as vinyl chloride (a toxic flammable gas), across the community and temporarily displaced 1,500 to 2,000 people. Three days later, authorities burned 116,000 gallons of vinyl chloride and other highly toxic chemicals from five tankers, sending a dense black toxic cloud over the entire region that could be seen from space. It was recently determined that the toxic fallout of materials from the derailment and burn have been detected in 16 states.
Less than a day after the derailment, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) failed to follow procedures to fly its Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology (ASPECT) plane for data collection of chemical levels in the area. Had it done so, the agency could have determined that the chemicals in the unexploded tanks were cooling and no longer posed a threat of explosion, making the so-called “control burn” unnecessary and its fallout avoidable. In fact, the ASPECT plane remained grounded for five days until the toxic cloud had dissipated. In the aftermath of the derailment, Dr. Robert Kroutil, an EPA contractor with Kalman & Company and a key developer in the ASPECT program, was concerned about the inordinate and unnecessary delays.
With improved and stronger whistleblower protections, Dr. Kroutil would most likely not have been forced into retirement because of the threats. He could have stood his ground while still on the job.
When he finally received data to analyze, he was shocked that the plane only collected data for seven minutes when more typical flights would collect hundreds of minutes of data. He also learned that the sensors were turned off when the plane flew over creeks, waterways, and the crash site itself. He and his fellow scientists reported that the presence of contamination was inconclusive. A few weeks later, the EPA used this report to conclude that the data collection was a success, and it was safe for residents to return to their homes when in fact the reason the results were inconclusive was because the EPA failed to collect the necessary data. Dr. Kroutil was so upset about what was happening, he filed a Freedom of Information request for documents such as back-dated flight plans. When he was threatened with termination unless he withdrew his requests, he decided to retire and go public with his revelations. He had no faith in the current, inadequate legal protections. The EPA retaliated by calling his claims “false” within minutes of hearing about them. The Office of Inspector General has determined, however, that a full investigation of his concerns is warranted, supported by many other whistleblowers.
With improved and stronger whistleblower protections, Dr. Kroutil would most likely not have been forced into retirement because of the threats. He could have stood his ground while still on the job. Unfortunately, similar events have already occurred surrounding the failure to deploy the ASPECT aircraft.
Since his disclosure of EPA’s mismanagement, two train derailments in Illinois and North Dakota have resulted in the spill of hazardous chemicals and mirror problems with the response to the derailment in East Palestine. In both incidents, the EPA failed to deploy its ASPECT chemical sensing aircraft to collect data. Instead, ASPECT at the time of the derailments was performing a nonemergency assessment near Buffalo, New York, collecting data on a legacy contamination issue from World War II.
With thousands of government contractors working tough jobs for our protection—from ensuring our food is safe to eat and defending us from foreign attacks to mitigating the impact of disasters like the derailment in East Palestine—it’s time we start protecting them too. The laws aimed at allowing contractors to speak truth to power must be modernized and repaired to make whistleblowers less vulnerable to retaliation. That is why we should pay attention to the Expanding Whistleblower Protections for Contractors Act of 2023, first introduced by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich) and Michael Braun (R-Ind.) and passed out of committee on a bipartisan basis, which would address the shortcomings in the current law.
Government contractors like these have a long history of saving thousands of taxpayer dollars, exposing our government’s wrongdoing, and, as in this case, saving countless lives; to be effective, laws that protect whistleblowers must encourage employees of conscience to speak up and deter employers from retaliating against them for doing so. If the Expanding Whistleblower Protections for Contractors Act is passed, more contractors could feel empowered to stand up for what is right with crucial information. Government Accountability Project is committed to continuing advocacy for greater whistleblower protections for government contractors and a more fair and transparent government.
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Whistleblowers Allege Kids Mistreated by ServePro Contractors Hired to Oversee Detention Camp
"We are traumatizing these kids," one official allegedly admitted. "This is terrible. This is horrible. People in Washington know. But this is an emergency situation and mistakes are going to happen."
Jul 07, 2021
Unaccompanied children held at an immigration detention camp in the Texas desert suffered substandard living conditions and mistreatment by contracted staff including employees of an emergency cleanup company, as well as neglect and indifference from Biden administration officials, according to a whistleblower complaint first reported Wednesday by NBC News' Julia Ainsley.
"The contractor providing direct supervision of the children in the dormitory tents--Servpro--is a fire and water damage repair company."
--Whistleblowers' complaint
The complaint (pdf) to Congress, filed by the Government Accountability Project on behalf of career civil servants Laurie Elkin and Justin Mulaire, alleges "gross mismanagement and specific endangerment to public health and safety at the Fort Bliss Emergency Intake Site (EIS) for unaccompanied children operated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)."
Elkin and Mulaire--who are both attorneys currently employed in the Chicago district office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)-- were on temporary volunteer assignment with HHS from May 12 to June 2, 2021 caring for unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody at Ft. Bliss, a large military base located in the desert outside El Paso, Texas.
The complaint notes that at the base, "thousands of children are housed for prolonged periods in enormous, undivided tents--perhaps the size of a football field."
\u201cThe conditions our whistleblower clients witnessed at one of the largest shelters for unaccompanied migrant minors "caused physical, mental and emotional harm affecting dozens of children."\nhttps://t.co/5CBO1klREM\u201d— Government Accountability Project (@Government Accountability Project) 1625673606
Elkin and Mulaire, who were tasked with supervising children held in the tents--which each housed between 1,000 to 1,500 minors--believed conditions at the detention camp "were placing children at risk," and according to the complaint, both attorneys "witnessed numerous instances of gross mismanagement, causing harm to children's health and well-being."
The complaint states that "perhaps the single greatest problem observed by Ms. Elkin and Mr. Mulaire was the use of wholly unsuitable contract staff."
The pair "learned that the contractor providing direct supervision of the children in the dormitory tents--Servpro--is a fire and water damage repair company," it says. "Many of the Servpro staff's t-shirts bore the Servpro corporate logo found on the internet, with some including the corporate logo: 'As if it never happened.'"
According to its website, "The Servpro Industries, LLC, franchise system is a national leader of fire, water, mold, and other specialty cleanup and restoration services."
"Youth care is not in its portfolio," the complaint states, adding that contracted staff at the detention facility told the whistleblowers that "they had received no training prior to beginning work and had little guidance about what their role was."
"Many contract workers seemed to view their job more as crowd control than youth care," the document alleges. "While some individuals plainly meant well, other contract workers exhibited impatience with children and were plainly unsure of how to supervise them."
The complaint further alleges:
- An inability to help children in distress due to the large number of both detained children and closely spaced bunk beds in the tents;
- Intolerable noise, including contractors' use of loudspeakers, a bullhorn, and a siren to wake children early in the morning;
- Odor and filth, including the stench of sewage, in tents;
- Ubiquitous dust and sand;
- Lack of clean clothes and bedding; and
- Hostility, indifference, and resistance to detainees' needs and care.
According to the complaint, in one instance Elkin "discovered a girl in a bottom bunk who looked ghostly pale. The girl told Ms. Elkin that she had not had her period for months but was now bleeding profusely and did not feel well. Clearly, the girl needed medical attention."
"Elkin approached a contractor to request that the girl be taken to the medical tent," the document states. "The contractor responded by saying she was not allowed to take girls to the doctor. Ms. Elkin then brought the case to contractor's supervisor who questioned why and if the girl needed to see a doctor. Ultimately, but only because of Ms. Elkin's intervention, the girl received medical treatment."
Furthermore, the complaint alleges widespread case management failures, including numerous children who "seemed to have fallen through the cracks," resulting in serious processing delays and "unnecessary emotional distress."
Miscommunication and lack of coordination were allegedly rife at the facility:
Early one morning a girl in Ms. Elkin's tent was woken up and told that she was going home that morning. The girl, who had then been in the tent for 38 days, wept with joy and relief. She quickly changed into street clothes to look good and said her tearful goodbyes. She was then taken to the case management tent to wait for the bus with other children that were going home that day.
Ms. Elkin went to the case management tent to see the girl off. On the verge of leaving after more than seven weeks at the facility, the girl was suddenly pulled out of the bus line. She was told a "mistake" had been made and that she was not going home. The girl collapsed in uncontrollable tears.
This wasn't an isolated incident; according to the complaint, "47 additional children that very morning had also been told they were going home only to be pulled out of the bus line and sent back to their tents."
"Each day seemed to bring new examples of deficiencies in the care of the children and resulting risks to their health. Instances of gross mismanagement of the site were pervasive."
--David Seide and Dana Gold, whistleblowers' attorneys
Elkin says one Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) official at the base told her: "We are traumatizing these kids. This is terrible. This is horrible. People in Washington know. But this is an emergency situation and mistakes are going to happen."
The whistleblowers say they were told during orientation "that the primary means of providing 'feedback' about any problems they noticed was to send emails to a 'suggestion box' at an HHS.gov address," and that "they were also told not to provide such feedback during their first 10 days on the job."
"Such gag orders are illegal," the filing notes. "The 'anti-gag' provision of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act... specifically states that gag orders cannot be imposed on federal employees unless they are explicitly told that such orders do not apply when employees exercise their whistleblower rights."
The whistleblowers made at least four complaints to HHS management regarding the aforementioned and other incidents. They say they were ignored, told to use the suggestion box, or that reporting multiple problems would likely be "perceived as a crying wolf situation."
"In sum, the time our clients spent at Fort Bliss was alarming," David Seide and Dana Gold, the attorneys representing Elkin and Mulaire, said in the complaint. "Each day seemed to bring new examples of deficiencies in the care of the children and resulting risks to their health. Instances of gross mismanagement of the site were pervasive."
Seide and Gold continued:
Having witnessed these things, as well as the despair of children who felt (often accurately) that they were being ignored or forgotten, our clients felt the need to speak out, yet were met with non-responsiveness at best and unlawful deterrence at worst. They volunteered for this detail as dedicated civil servants to further the mission of HHS and ORR to protect the well-being of the children at the Emergency Influx Sites. They are escalating these concerns now in service of that same mission.
While they are encouraged by reports that some conditions may have improved recently, including the numbers of children currently housed at Fort Bliss, many of the problems they witnessed will continue to harm the hundreds of children at the site if they are not addressed. Whatever one might think about immigration policy, the reality is that these children are here now and are in HHS's custody. HHS has a responsibility to make sure they are safe and treated humanely.
As Common Dreams reported earlier this year, the Biden administration's decision to detain migrant children at Ft. Bliss was condemned by immigrant and environmental justice advocates both for humanitarian reasons and due to the presence of toxic hazards from past military operations.
\u201cSave the Date: July 17, 9 - 12 MT, El Paso. NO BLISS IN DETENTION. Rally at Ft. Bliss to end migrant child detention. Details to come. @DetentionWatch\n@UNITEDWEDREAM @TsuruSolidarity @border_human\n@RAICESTEXAS @AlOtroLado_Org & more! #WelcomeWithDignity https://t.co/xGn1aUddeD\u201d— Witness At The Border (@Witness At The Border) 1625666588
Advocates have also decried the administration's skyrocketing detention and expulsion of migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers--among them many children--including what Amnesty International last month called the "dangerous and unconscionable" forced removal of thousands of unaccompanied minors without properly ensuring their safety.
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Advocacy Groups Slam 'Shameful' Deportation of ICE Medical Abuse Survivors
"Congress must investigate and immediately put an end to this injustice," said one attorney.
Nov 12, 2020
The advocacy groups representing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement whistleblower who earlier this year revealed horrific abuse of imprisoned migrant women--including forced surgical sterilizations--on Friday condemned ICE's deportation of victims of the coerced procedures in retaliation for speaking out.
Earlier this week, the Associated Pressreported ICE has already deported six women who came forward to report that Dr. Mahendra Amin performed medically unnecessary operations including forced hysterectomies on them, destroying or jeopardizing their ability to have children. At least seven other women who have accused the doctor are also facing deportation, according to their attorneys.
"By deporting these women, the government is risking--indeed facilitating--the loss of critical witnesses if law enforcement is unable to reach them in a different country."
--Dana Gold, Government Accountability Project
In September, Dawn Wooten, a longtime licensed nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center in southern Georgia, filed a whistleblower complaint alleging unsanitary conditions and practices that threatened to accelerate the spread of Covid-19, as well as an alarming number of non-consensual hysterectomies performed by Amin, who she called "the uterus collector." Wooten's disclosure shocked the nation and the world and prompted 173 congressional lawmakers to call for an investigation.
Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director for Project South and a lawyer for Wooten, responded to the actual and pending whistleblower deportations by issuing a statement calling ICE's actions "shameful" and accusing the agency of "actively [trying] to erase the evidence of human rights violations and get rid of the survivors and witnesses, instead of aiding in the investigation."
"Congress must investigate and immediately put an end to this injustice," Shahshahani stressed.
\u201c\ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffd\ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffd\ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffd "By silencing outspoken immigrant activists, jailing them and inciting violence against them, the government and White supremacists are attempting to keep immigrants in a state of fear and intimidation." Must read by @ashahshahani for @Colorlines.\n\nhttps://t.co/PbyjoCIZwd\u201d— SAALT (@SAALT) 1605284117
Dana Gold, senior counsel at the whistleblower advocacy organization Government Accountability Project, also represents Wooten.
"By deporting these women, the government is risking--indeed facilitating--the loss of critical witnesses if law enforcement is unable to reach them in a different country," Gold said in a statement. "Like Ms. Wooten, they are now suffering retaliation for speaking up about unconscionable abuses suffered by immigrants in ICE detention in a seeming effort to both punish and hide evidence of medical misconduct."
"We condemn these actions and demand that DHS stop all further deportations of those impacted by this investigation," added Gold, referring to the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE.
The forced sterilzation of migrant women is, along with the seizure of thousands of migrant children from their parents--with some 666 children still separated from their families--arguably the most egregious domestic human rights violation to occur during the presidency of Donald Trump, who launched his successful 2016 White House bid by calling immigrants "rapists" and "criminals."
Trump's tenure has been characterized by enmity and bigotry toward immigrants--especially people from Muslim countries and refugees fleeing deadly perils largely resulting from decades of U.S. policies and actions in Latin America and beyond.
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