At least one Energy Department rule, which would strengthen protections for whistleblowers at DOE contractors, could be delayed by the regulatory freeze President Donald Trump instituted on his first day in office.
The new rule, published by the administration of now-former President Barack Obama, clarified that DOE can assess civil penalties against contractors that retaliate against whistleblowers within their ranks.
The rule was set to go into effect today, but that is in question following the new administration’s Jan. 20 declaration that any rules published in the Federal Register but not in effect as of Trump’s inauguration be delayed until March 21 “for the purpose of reviewing questions of fact, law, and policy they raise.”
DOE’s rule, published Dec. 27 in the Federal Register, said the agency’s “prohibition against whistleblower retaliation is a DOE Nuclear Safety Requirement to the extent that it concerns nuclear safety.”
Last summer, Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced legislation aimed at simplifying what they said are convoluted, overly bureaucratic whistleblower protocols at DOE. The bill — rendered null and void after the 115th Congress gavelled in Jan. 3 — would also have created new whistleblower protections and new consequences for contractors who subvert them.
In 2012, DOE halted construction on significant portions of the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) Bechtel National is building to treat waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state after an employee at a WTP subcontractor blew the whistle over safety concerns — a move the employee, engineer Walter Tamosaitis, said cost him his job.