Bulletproof vests that don’t work. Russian money laundering. US tax cheats with Swiss bank accounts. No-bid, sweetheart government contracts.
Once a year, whistleblowers and their supporters gather to remind each other why they risked so much to expose wrongdoing. This year’s National Whistleblower Day event will be Tuesday, July 30. It will be broadcast live from Capitol Hill on Facebook. It is one of several events and panels underway this week as part of the annual Whistleblower Summit.
From the National Whistleblower Center:
National Whistleblower Day will commemorate the 241st anniversary of America’s first whistleblower law, and celebrate the contributions of whistleblowers to democracy.The event will feature speakers including whistleblowers, lawmakers, and other public officials.
More from the NWC on some of the speakers, with video from past events:
Sherron Watkins: She exposed corporate misconduct in the infamous Enron and WorldCom scandals paving the way for the enactment of the SOX corporate reform law.
Bradley Birkenfeld: An international banker and wealth manager with UBS who in 2012 reported IRS tax fraud and obtained the largest whistleblower reward ever.
Bunnatine Greenhouse: She objected to a secret, no-bid contract guaranteeing a politically connected company billions of dollars from the Army Corps of Engineers for oil field services related to the invasion of Iraq.
Aaron Westrick: He exposed unsafe bulletproof vests sold to hundreds of local police departments, the U.S. military and Secret Service.
Sheila White: Filed charges of discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation against a major railroad company. The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in her favor, expanding legal protection for workers.
NWC would like to make National Whistleblower Day official. More on that effort here. On Wednesday, the Senate passed of a resolution designating July 30 as National Whistleblower Appreciation Day. Also on Wednesday, three new senators joined the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus: Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).