WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is providing protection for whistle-blowers in the national security arena so that they can report waste, fraud and abuse without fear of retaliation.
The president has signed a policy directive providing the protection because legislation in Congress has not done so. A rewrite of the whistle-blower protection law is in the Senate. House Republicans removed the proposed protection for those involved in national security.
Under the president's new policy, whistle-blowers who handle classified information — meaning almost everyone in the intelligence community — can report wrongdoing or bureaucratic breakdowns as long as they do so within channels at their agencies.
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