Federal Employee Protection of Disclosures Act

On Monday of this week, the Senate by unanimous consent approved S.274, the Federal Employee Protection of Disclosures Act ("FEPDA"). The House of Representatives had passed similar legislation, H.R. 985, back in March of this year. The text of the Senate bill can be found at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-274. The FEPDA would, among other things:

- Afford federal employee whistleblowers jury trials with the potential for compensatory damages awards;

- Permit federal whistleblower appeals to go to the Circuit Courts, ending the Federal Circuit's monopoly on such appeals;

- Revise the statute to provide that reports made as a part of an employee's job duties can be considered whistleblowing, thus avoiding the holding of the Supreme Court in Garcetti v. Ceballos;

- Permit the denial of a security clearance to be viewed as an adverse employment action;

- Provide whistleblower protections to employees of federal contractors, the TSA, and other agencies whose employees were previously not protected.