Congress Approves Whistleblower Enhancements Legislation

The U.S. Senate has approved a bill (S. 743), as amended by the House, that will strengthen whistleblower protections applicable to federal employees. According to the Government Accountability Project’s Food Integrity Campaign, the new legislation, if signed into law as expected by President Barack Obama (D), will protect previously vulnerable employees, such as a Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) district office manager who reports complaints by FSIS poultry inspectors that a company has increased line speeds making it impossible for workers to remove all potentially contaminated fowl from the line. The new law would also protect a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspector who exposes falsified Salmonella records at a produce operation and an FDA researcher whose findings on a controversial food ingredient are stifled by management. See Food Integrity Campaign News Release, November 13, 2012; FoodQualityNews.com and Meatingplace.com, November 15, 2012.