Who is covered under the Whistleblower Protection Act?
With few exceptions, current employees, former employees, and applicants for employment in any agency of the Executive Branch or Government Printing Office are protected from reprisal for whistleblowing. Current employees, former employees, and applicants for employment in government corporations, the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency or certain other agencies designated by the President, the General Accounting Office, the U.S. Postal Service, the Postal Rate Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are not protected. What is a Prohibited Personnel Practice? Under the law, there are twelve prohibited personnel practices, one of which is reprisal for whistleblowing. That is, it is prohibited personnel practice for a federal official to take or threaten to take a personnel action against an employee or applicant because of a protected disclosure made by that individual. The terms “protected disclosure” and “personnel action” are
