During the Presidential campaign, the staff at the National Whistleblowers Center worked hard to put the candidates on record with regard to their views on whistleblower protections. This survey response, from then candidate Obama indicated an unequivocal support for strong whistleblower laws. As we reported soon after the elections, the American people fully expect President Obama to keep that promise, by supporting legislation to strengthen employees’ free speech rights and appointing whistleblower supporters to key positions.
It is for this reason that I found this post on the FedBlog (run by GovExec.com) to be so interesting. FedBlog is reporting that:
Apparently, Danielle Gray, the staffer who filled out [the National Whistleblowers Center] questionnaire for President Obama in which he expressed strong support for whistleblower protections, is now an associate counsel to Obama. It’s not clear that she’ll be working specifically on whistleblower issues in her new position, but it might affect how people read Obama’s signing statement on whistleblower issues in the omnibus spending bill.
One can only speculate on the effect this will have on the administration’s view of whistleblower rights, but it certainly seems like a good thing.