II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 874
To ensure that whistleblowers, including contractors, are protected from
retaliation when a Federal employee orders a reprisal, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH5, 2025
Mr. P
ETERSintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To ensure that whistleblowers, including contractors, are pro-
tected from retaliation when a Federal employee orders
a reprisal, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Expanding Whistle-4
blower Protections for Contractors Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFENSE CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEES: PROTECTION 6
FROM REPRISAL FOR DISCLOSURE OF CER-7
TAIN INFORMATION. 8
Section 4701 of title 10, United States Code, is 9
amended— 10
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(1) in subsection (a)— 1
(A) in paragraph (1)— 2
(i) in the matter preceding subpara-3
graph (A)— 4
(I) by striking ‘‘An employee’’ 5
and all that follows through ‘‘services 6
contractor’’ and inserting ‘‘A pro-7
tected individual’’; and 8
(II) by striking ‘‘disclosing’’ and 9
all that follows through ‘‘evidence of’’; 10
and 11
(ii) by striking subparagraphs (A), 12
(B), and (C) and inserting the following 13
subparagraphs: 14
‘‘(A) Refusing to obey an order that would re-15
quire the protected individual to violate a law, rule, 16
or regulation related to any contract, subcontract, 17
grant, or subgrant. 18
‘‘(B) Disclosing to a person or body described 19
in paragraph (2) information that the protected indi-20
vidual reasonably believes is evidence of the fol-21
lowing: 22
‘‘(i) Gross mismanagement of any Depart-23
ment of Defense contract or grant, any gross 24
waste of Department funds, any abuse of au-25
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thority relating to any Department contract, 1
subcontract, grant, or subgrant, or any viola-2
tion of law, rule, or regulation related to any 3
Department contract or subcontract (including 4
the competition for or negotiation of a contract 5
or subcontract) or grant or subgrant. 6
‘‘(ii) Gross mismanagement of any Na-7
tional Aeronautics and Space Administration 8
contract or grant, any gross waste of Adminis-9
tration funds, any abuse of authority relating to 10
an Administration contract, subcontract, grant, 11
or subgrant, or any violation of law, rule, or 12
regulation related to any Administration con-13
tract or subcontract (including the competition 14
for or negotiation of a contract or subcontract) 15
or grant or subgrant. 16
‘‘(iii) A substantial and specific danger to 17
public health or safety.’’; and 18
(B) in paragraph (3)— 19
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 20
‘‘an employee’’ and inserting ‘‘a protected 21
individual’’; and 22
(ii) by striking subparagraph (B) and 23
inserting the following subparagraph: 24
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‘‘(B) it shall not be within the authority of an 1
executive branch official to request that a con-2
tractor, subcontractor, grantee, or subgrantee en-3
gage in a reprisal prohibited by paragraph (1).’’; 4
(2) in subsection (c)— 5
(A) in paragraph (1), by adding at the end 6
the following subparagraph: 7
‘‘(E) Propose appropriate disciplinary action 8
against any executive branch official for any request 9
made of a contractor, subcontractor, grantee, or sub-10
grantee that subjected the complainant to a reprisal 11
prohibited by subsection (a).’’; and 12
(B) by striking paragraph (7) and insert-13
ing the following paragraph: 14
‘‘(7) C
LARIFICATION FOR SCOPE OFWAIVERRE-15
STRICTIONS.—(A) The rights, forum, and remedies pro-16
vided for in this section may not be waived by any public 17
or private agreement, policy, form, or condition of employ-18
ment, including by any predispute arbitration agreement. 19
‘‘(B) No provision of the predispute arbitration 20
agreement shall be valid or enforceable if it requires arbi-21
tration of a dispute arising under this section.’’; 22
(3) by striking subsection (e) and redesignating 23
subsections (f) and (g) as subsections (e) and (f), re-24
spectively; 25
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(4) in subsection (e), as so redesignated— 1
(A) by striking ‘‘an employee’’ and insert-2
ing ‘‘a protected individual’’; and 3
(B) by striking ‘‘the employee’’ and insert-4
ing ‘‘the protected individual’’; and 5
(5) in subsection (f), as so redesignated, by 6
adding at the end the following new paragraph: 7
‘‘(8) The term ‘protected individual’ means— 8
‘‘(A) a contractor, subcontractor, grantee, 9
or subgrantee of the Department of Defense or 10
the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis-11
tration, including— 12
‘‘(i) the government of each of the 13
several States, the District of Columbia, an 14
Indian tribe or authorized tribal organiza-15
tion, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 16
Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Is-17
lands, the Commonwealth of the Northern 18
Mariana Islands, or any other territory or 19
possession of the United States; 20
‘‘(ii) the government of any political 21
subdivision of, agency of, or instrumen-22
tality of, a government listed in clause (i); 23
and 24
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‘‘(iii) an element of the intelligence 1
community (as defined in section 3 of the 2
National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3
3003)) within the Department of Defense; 4
‘‘(B) an employee of a contractor, subcon-5
tractor, grantee, or subgrantee of the Depart-6
ment of Defense or the National Aeronautics 7
and Space Administration, or a former em-8
ployee of such contractor, subcontractor, grant-9
ee, or subgrantee whose protected disclosure or 10
engagement in any activity protected against 11
reprisal under this section occurred prior to ter-12
mination, including an employee of— 13
‘‘(i) the government of each of the 14
several States, the District of Columbia, an 15
Indian tribe or authorized tribal organiza-16
tion, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 17
Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Is-18
lands, the Commonwealth of the Northern 19
Mariana Islands, or any other territory or 20
possession of the United States; 21
‘‘(ii) the government of any political 22
subdivision of, agency of, or instrumen-23
tality of, a government listed in clause (i); 24
and 25
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‘‘(iii) an element of the intelligence 1
community (as defined in section 3 of the 2
National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3
3003)) within the Department of Defense; 4
or 5
‘‘(C) a person performing personal services 6
for the Department of Defense or the National 7
Aeronautics and Space Administration pursuant 8
to a contractual agreement for the performance 9
of personal services, including a personal serv-10
ices contract or personal services agreement, 11
and who engages in an activity for which any 12
reprisal is prohibited under subsection (a), in-13
cluding a person performing personal services 14
pursuant such a contractual agreement for— 15
‘‘(i) the government of each of the 16
several States, the District of Columbia, an 17
Indian tribe or authorized tribal organiza-18
tion, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 19
Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Is-20
lands, the Commonwealth of the Northern 21
Mariana Islands, or any other territory or 22
possession of the United States; 23
‘‘(ii) the government of any political 24
subdivision of, agency of, or instrumen-25
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tality of, a government listed in clause (i); 1
and 2
‘‘(iii) an element of the intelligence 3
community (as defined in section 3 of the 4
National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 5
3003)) within the Department of De-6
fense.’’. 7
SEC. 3. ENHANCEMENT OF NON-DEFENSE CONTRACTOR 8
PROTECTION FROM REPRISAL FOR DISCLO-9
SURE OF CERTAIN INFORMATION. 10
Section 4712 of title 41, United States Code, is 11
amended— 12
(1) in subsection (a)— 13
(A) by striking paragraph (1) and insert-14
ing the following paragraph: 15
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A protected individual may 16
not be discharged, demoted, or otherwise discrimi-17
nated against as a reprisal for the following: 18
‘‘(A) Refusing to obey an order that would 19
require the protected individual to violate a law, 20
rule, or regulation related to any contract, sub-21
contract, grant, or subgrant. 22
‘‘(B) Disclosing to a person or body de-23
scribed in paragraph (2) information that the 24
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protected individual reasonably believes is evi-1
dence of the following: 2
‘‘(i) Gross mismanagement of any 3
Federal contract or grant, any gross waste 4
of Federal funds, any abuse of authority 5
relating to any Federal contract, sub-6
contract, grant, or subgrant, or any viola-7
tion of law, rule, or regulation related to 8
any Federal contract or subcontract (in-9
cluding the competition for or negotiation 10
of a contract or subcontract) or grant or 11
subgrant. 12
‘‘(ii) A substantial and specific danger 13
to public health or safety.’’; and 14
(B) in paragraph (3)— 15
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 16
‘‘an employee’’ and inserting ‘‘a protected 17
individual’’; and 18
(ii) by striking subparagraph (B) and 19
inserting the following subparagraph: 20
‘‘(B) it shall not be within the authority of 21
an executive branch official to request that a 22
contractor, subcontractor, grantee, or sub-23
grantee engage in a reprisal prohibited by para-24
graph (1).’’; 25
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(2) in subsection (c)— 1
(A) in paragraph (1), by adding at the end 2
the following new subparagraph: 3
‘‘(E) Propose appropriate disciplinary ac-4
tion against any executive branch official for 5
any request made of a contractor, subcon-6
tractor, grantee, or subgrantee that subjected 7
the complainant to a reprisal prohibited by sub-8
section (a).’’; and 9
(B) by striking paragraph (7) and insert-10
ing the following paragraph: 11
‘‘(7) R
IGHTS, FORUM, AND REMEDIES NOT 12
WAIVABLE.— 13
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The rights, forum, 14
and remedies provided for in this section may 15
not be waived by any public or private agree-16
ment, policy, form, or condition of employment, 17
including by any predispute arbitration agree-18
ment. 19
‘‘(B) V
ALIDITY.—No provision of the 20
predispute arbitration agreement shall be valid 21
or enforceable if it requires arbitration of a dis-22
pute arising under this section.’’; 23
(3) in subsection (e)— 24
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(A) by striking ‘‘an employee’’ and insert-1
ing ‘‘a protected individual’’; and 2
(B) by striking ‘‘the employee’’ and insert-3
ing ‘‘the protected individual’’; 4
(4) by striking subsection (f) and redesignating 5
subsections (g) and (h) as subsections (f) and (g), 6
respectively; and 7
(5) in subsection (f), as so redesignated, by in-8
serting after paragraph (2) the following new para-9
graph: 10
‘‘(3) The term ‘protected individual’ means— 11
‘‘(A) a contractor, subcontractor, grantee, 12
or subgrantee of the Federal Government, in-13
cluding— 14
‘‘(i) the government of each of the 15
several States, the District of Columbia, an 16
Indian tribe or authorized tribal organiza-17
tion, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 18
Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Is-19
lands, the Commonwealth of the Northern 20
Mariana Islands, or any other territory or 21
possession of the United States; 22
‘‘(ii) the government of any political 23
subdivision of, agency of, or instrumen-24
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tality of, a government listed in clause (i); 1
and 2
‘‘(iii) an element of the intelligence 3
community (as defined in section 3 of the 4
National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 5
3003)); 6
‘‘(B) an employee of a contractor, subcon-7
tractor, grantee, or subgrantee of the Federal 8
Government or a former employee of such con-9
tractor, subcontractor, grantee, or subgrantee 10
whose protected disclosure or engagement in 11
any activity protected against reprisal under 12
this section occurred prior to termination, in-13
cluding an employee of— 14
‘‘(i) the government of each of the 15
several States, the District of Columbia, an 16
Indian tribe or authorized tribal organiza-17
tion, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 18
Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Is-19
lands, the Commonwealth of the Northern 20
Mariana Islands, or any other territory or 21
possession of the United States; 22
‘‘(ii) the government of any political 23
subdivision of, agency of, or instrumen-24
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tality of, a government listed in clause (i); 1
and 2
‘‘(iii) an element of the intelligence 3
community (as defined in section 3 of the 4
National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 5
3003)); or 6
‘‘(C) a person performing personal services 7
for the Federal Government pursuant to a con-8
tractual agreement for the performance of per-9
sonal services, including a personal services con-10
tract or personal services agreement, including 11
a person performing personal services pursuant 12
to such a contractual agreement for— 13
‘‘(i) the government of each of the 14
several States, the District of Columbia, an 15
Indian tribe or authorized tribal organiza-16
tion, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 17
Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Is-18
lands, the Commonwealth of the Northern 19
Mariana Islands, or any other territory or 20
possession of the United States; 21
‘‘(ii) the government of any political 22
subdivision of, agency of, or instrumen-23
tality of, a government listed in clause (i); 24
and 25
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‘‘(iii) an element of the intelligence 1
community (as defined in section 3 of the 2
National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3
3003)).’’. 4
Æ
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