Sponsors (2)
The bill strengthens and broadens whistleblower protections and official accountability for a wide range of government contractors and related workers, improving legal protections and oversight, but increases legal and administrative costs, litigation risk, and potential complications for sensitive programs and procurement interactions.
Contractors, subcontractors, grantees, subgrantees and their employees — including personal‑services contractors and employees/former employees of state, territorial, tribal, and local governments and intelligence components — are explicitly protected from retaliation for refusing unlawful orders and for reporting gross mismanagement, waste, abuse, legal violations, or serious public‑health/safety
Covered workers cannot be required to waive whistleblower rights, forums, or remedies (including by predispute arbitration), preserving their ability to seek enforcement in courts or administrative forums.
Individuals who are asked to carry out unlawful orders tied to government contracts are protected when they refuse, reducing coercion into illegal acts and protecting workers' legal compliance.
Contractors, grant recipients, and taxpayers may face higher legal, compliance, and contract‑administration costs because expanded protections and non‑waivable remedies increase exposure and administrative burden.
Prohibiting predispute arbitration and preserving access to courts is likely to increase litigation and caseloads in federal forums, prolonging dispute resolution and increasing legal uncertainty for employers and workers.
Expanded disclosure categories (e.g., allegations of 'gross mismanagement' or 'waste') could lead to increased reporting of confidential or classified information, raising risks to sensitive program integrity and national security.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Expands and clarifies whistleblower protections for contractors, grantees, and related workers, bars reprisals and requests for reprisals, and forbids waivers including predispute arbitration.
Introduced September 26, 2025 by Robert Garcia · Last progress September 26, 2025
Strengthens and broadens federal whistleblower protections for contractors, grantees, personal‑services contractors, and their employees and former employees who report wrongdoing connected to federal contracts and grants. It expands the kinds of disclosures protected (including gross mismanagement, waste, abuse of authority, violations of law or regulations, and substantial and specific danger to public health or safety), adds refusal‑to‑obey protections, forbids waivers (including predispute arbitration clauses), and bars executive branch officials from requesting reprisals while authorizing disciplinary proposals for officials who do so. The changes amend existing federal whistleblower statutes governing Department of Defense/NASA activities and non‑defense federal contracting/granting to replace narrow terms (like “employee”) with a broader “protected individual” definition that expressly includes contractors, subcontractors, grantees, subgrantees (including state, territorial, tribal, and local governments), personal‑services contractors, and certain intelligence elements, and to make rights, remedies, and forum protections non‑waivable.