Federal Employee Protection of Disclosure Act

Summary

Federal Employee Protection of Disclosures Act - Includes as a protected disclosure by a Federal employee any lawful disclosure an employee or applicant reasonably believes is credible evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, or gross mismanagement, without restriction as to time, place, form, motive, context, or prior disclosure. Allows a presumption relating to the performance of a duty by an employee to be rebutted by substantial evidence. Requires each non-disclosure policy, form, or agreement to contain a statement that the restrictions are consistent with and do not supersede specified employee obligations, rights, or liabilities. Authorizes the Merit Systems Protection Board or any reviewing court, in any appeal relating to a suspension or other action relating to a security clearance, to determine whether there was a violation of prohibited personnel practices. Prohibits the Board from ordering the President to restore the clearance, but authorizes the Board to issue declaratory and other appropriate relief. Authorizes the Board to impose disciplinary action, a civil penalty, or a combination against employees found to have committed a prohibited personnel practice. Requires each agency to establish a process for providing confidential advice to employees on making lawful disclosures to Congress of information required to be kept secret in the interests of national defense or the conduct of foreign affairs. Permits representation by attorneys for the Office of the Special Counsel in civil actions brought in connection with such disclosures of information or provisions relating to political activities. Authorizes the Office of Personnel Management to obtain judicial review of Board decisions. Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to provide that, for purposes of provisions regarding the protection of voluntarily shared critical infrastructure information, a permissible use of independently obtained critical infrastructure information includes any lawful disclosure an employee or applicant reasonably believes is credible evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, or gross mismanagement, without restriction as to time, place, form, motive, context, or prior disclosure.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

3 official files

• Introduced in Senate (text)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 10 June 2003

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in Senate (PDF)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 10 June 2003

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 10 June 2003

  Open at official source

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.