Obama, FDA Muddy Whistleblower Waters
resident Obama and the Acting Commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration recently issued directives that could limit federal employees’ right to release information to Congress and the public. The president’s signing statement on this month’s $410 billion budget bill said the legislation would not limit his power to control the flow of certain information to lawmakers, according to the New York Times. Seperately, the FDA’s Frank Torti warned agency employees that releasing draft guidances and proposed rules that may contain commercial information could “result in disciplinary sanctions and/or individual criminal liability.” Critics called the Torti memo overly broad.
Both policies appear to contradict the president’s January 21 call for greater transparency in government, according to Amanda Hitt of the Government Accountability Project. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) called Obama’s signing statement “overly broad” and said it would “undoubtedly chill whistleblowers who might otherwise come forward to report waste, fraud or abuse to Congress.”
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