H.R.1064 - To allow whistleblowers to disclose information to certain recipients

Photo of Congress member Representative Katie Hill

To amend title 5, United States Code, to allow whistleblowers to disclose information to certain recipients.



You might favor this bill if:
►  You believe whistleblowers should be protected by the law to report their concerns to their supervisors without fear of retaliation. Whistleblowers are a critical part to keeping government institutions transparent and accountable.

You might oppose this bill if:
►  You believe that intelligence whistleblowers do not need any extra protection by the law to report their concerns. There is a system set in place for some cases and employees do not have a need to report it specifically to their supervisor or their direct chain of command.
Introduced House Senate President Law


H.R.1064 would allow whistleblowers to report concerns about classified programs directly to their supervisors and up their chain of command.

Currently, it is unlawful to retaliate against a federal employee for disclosing classified or protected information of wrongdoing to anyone of the following recipients:
• the Office of Inspector General of their agency;
• the U.S. Office of Special Counsel; or
• a designated agency employee.

The legislation expands the list of recipients to whom a federal employee may make a protected disclosure to include a supervisor in the employee's direct chain of command, not just the past three recipients.

“We are fighting for a transparent and accountable government, which means we need to provide protections for the individuals who call out wrongdoing and let us know when something isn’t right. This bill will do just that,” Rep. Hill said (D-CA), sponsor of the legislation. “I am proud to fight for our intelligence community and thankful to Congressman Meadows for co-sponsoring this critical legislation and to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Cummings for his support.”


Congressman Mark Meadows (R-NC) is an original co-sponsor of the legislation and the former Chairman of the House Oversight’s Subcommittee on Government Operations.

“Whistleblowers are critical to a culture of transparency and accountability we should all strive for in the government, and their protections should be extended to the intelligence community," said Rep. Meadows (R-NC), cosponsor of the bill. "Reforms in protection of whistleblowers have been a critical part of our work on the Government Operations Subcommittee over the last few years, and this important bill would take a significant step toward furthering that goal.”


House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) has also expressed his support for the bill.

“It is critical that we encourage employees to blow the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse," said Chairman Cummings. "This bill protects employees who do the right thing and report to their supervisors when classified information reveals wrongdoing in their agency.”


The bill passed the House on 02/11/2019 and currently sits in the Senate.

Read the full text of the H.R.1064 - To amend title 5, United States Code, to allow whistleblowers to disclose information to certain recipients..

H.R.1064

Sponsored by: Rep. Hill, Katie [D-CA-25].

Cosponsored by: 2 Rep / 0 Dem.

See list of cosponsors.


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