Published: September 2015

Whistleblowers like Snowden deserve protections

Consumer Action joined over 40 advocate organizations to ask the President to pardon National Security Agency whistleblower and fugitive Edward Snowden and to endorse S. 794, legislation introduced by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., that would restore whistleblower protections for intelligence community contractors.

Coalition advocates sent a letter asking the President to endorse restoration of Intelligence Community contractor whistleblower protections and release an accurate We The People petition response in regard to Edward Snowden. After ignoring the petition (signed by 167,955 people) asking the President to pardon Snowden, the White House finally published a response in July. The coalition letter points out that the response grossly misleads the American public by implying that there were constructive channels in place for National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden to challenge widespread domestic surveillance and that Mr. Snowden and other contractor whistleblowers within the intelligence community (IC) have protections against retaliation.

In 2013, Congress removed protections for intelligence contractor whistleblowers. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has introduced S. 794, legislation that would restore whistleblower protections for IC contractors. Advocates ask that President Obama support the bill – the system should empower employees like Mr. Snowden with legal safeguards if they blow the whistle within the system of government checks and balances.

Lead Organization

Government Accountability Project (GAP)

Other Organizations

Access | American Civil Liberties Union | Bill of Rights Defense Committee | Center for Digital Democracy | Citizens for Health | Coalition for Change, Inc. | Constitutional Alliance | Consumer Action | Consumer Watchdog | Defending Dissent Foundation | Demand Progress | Drum Majors for Truth | Equal Justice Alliance | Essential Information | Expose Facts | Federal Ethics Center | Federally Employed Women Legal Education Fund | Freedom of the Press Foundation | Golden Badge | Government Accountability Project | Gun Owners of America | Human Rights Watch | International Association of Whistleblowers | Judicial Engineering Documented and Impeded | National Council for Occupational Safety and Health | National Employment Lawyers Association | National Forum On Judicial Accountability | National Judicial Conduct and Disability Law Project, Inc | OAK (Organizations Associating for the Kind of Change America Really Needs) | OpenTheGovernment.org | Patient Privacy Rights | Plea for Justice Program | Power Over Poverty Under Laws of America Restored (POPULAR) | Privacy Times | Project On Government Oversight | Public Citizen | Restore the Fourth | RootsAction.org | State Community Councils | Sunlight Foundation | The Rutherford Institute | United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities | Whistleblower Alliance | Whistleblower Support Fund | X-Lab

More Information

For more information, please visit GAP's website.

Download PDF

Whistleblowers like Snowden deserve protections   (POTUSICWberLetterFinal.pdf)