Dear Senator Durbin and Senator Grassley,
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FBI Integrity Project, a non-partisan movement to protect the FBI's integrity by mitigating its capacity and proclivity to abuse its authority and by safeguarding it from undue partisan influence seeks to ensure rank-and-file FBI employees can report abuses of authority without fear of retaliation from rogue FBI managers.

We would like to publicly thank your committee for your long-time support of fair, transparent FBI whistleblower protection legislation. In these times of intense partisanship, your cross-partisan engagement and that of your predecessors, stands out.

However, as Senator Grassley has long acknowledged, there is more work to do to make it possible for FBI whistleblowers to act without fear of retaliation.
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In 2016, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary proposed and Congress passed The FBI Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2016, which had been sponsored by Senators Grassley and Patrick Leahy (D-VT). This law expanded the parties to whom a prospective FBI whistleblower could make a whistleblower complaint, formally known as a protected disclosure. As you know, however, the law did little else. And, although a more robust version of the original bill had been proposed by your committee, which would have ensured judicial review of decisions regarding whether retaliation occurred, that version failed to get the congressional support needed to become law.
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As you know, had the Grassley/Leahy version become law, most of the recommendations in a 2015 Government Accountability Office review would have been implemented. Moreover, the original version of the 2016 bill was favored by the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General, other DOJ components, and numerous whistleblower advocacy groups, including the National Whistleblower Center.
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Instead, the limited version of the bill signed into law omitted provisions that would have:
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-Minimized the lengthy delays in DOJ's investigative and adjudicative process.
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-Provided relief when the Inspector General found in a whistleblower's favor, encouraging the FBI to settle such cases instead of wasting taxpayer money defending them.
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-Made DOJ decisions on cases publicly available so future whistleblowers would have access to important case precedent.
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-Ensured FBI employees have opportunities for a fair and independent hearing, including the ability to seek relief from a court of appeals.
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In fact, the last provision would have ensured someone outside DOJ could hold the FBI, its component agency, accountable for retaliation against a whistleblower. Put another way, the DOJ and FBI, as the defendant in any whistleblowing retaliation case, would not also be the judge.
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FBI Integrity Project believes the current process is too risky for FBI employees to report abuses of authority, including any attempt by an FBI manager to influence the FBI's decision-making for partisan gain.

Considering this, my organization, and the undersigned, ask you to once again take up the cause of whistleblower protection by amending the 2016 act to include the remaining provisions.
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Respectfully,

James S. Davidson
President​
FBI Integrity Project