{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://duffy.house.gov/press-release/duffy-connolly-whistleblower-protection-bill-passes-the-house-with-bipartisan-majority", "Duffy & Connolly Whistleblower Protection Bill Passes the House with Bipartisan Majority", "2016-11-30", "2016", "2016-11", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "H.R. 6186, Follow the Rules Act\nWashington D.C. \u2013 Representatives Sean Duffy (WI-07) and Gerry Connolly (VA-11)\u2019s bill to extend whistleblower protections for Federal employees who refuse to violate rules and regulations passed the U.S. House of Representatives with overwhelming bipartisan support today. This bill comes on the heels of a landmark Federal court decision that found that the Whistleblower Protection Act safeguards Federal workers against employment retaliation for refusing orders to violate Federal law, but those same safeguards do not apply to employees who refuse to violate rules and regulations, despite the fact that rules and regulations are supposed to be derived of law.\u00a0 The Follow the Rules Act will address this glaring inconsistency. \u00a0\nIn his remarks during debate on the bill, Rep. Duffy offered, \u201cThe court ruling will take away whistleblowers\u2019 protections when they stand up to bad actors in the Federal workforce.\u00a0\nIn effect, this ruling will give permission to supervisors in positions of authority to force Federal workers to violate the rules and regulations that Congress, through law, directs the agencies to implement.\nFor example, at the Treasury Department, one of the agencies I oversee, this would mean that Federal workers could be forced to violate sanctions against Russia for its violation of Ukraine\u2019s territorial integrity.\u00a0 Many of those sanctions are enforced through the Code of Federal Regulations pursuant to laws enacted by Congress.\u201d\nHe continued, \u201cRegardless of your opinion about certain rules and regulations, we should not leave exposed Federal workers who simply want to follow them.\u201d\u00a0\nClick on the image below to watch his full remarks:\n\u00a0\nRep. Connolly added: \u201cI\u2019m proud to work with Rep. Sean Duffy to support federal whistleblowers and improve management practices across the federal government. The Follow the Rules Act will close a loophole that undermines whistleblower protections for federal employees. Federal employees who defy a supervisor\u2019s direction to violate rules and regulations should not be subject to retaliation. This bill continues the bipartisan effort to fight whistleblower retaliation in the federal government and strengthen federal employee protections.\u201d\u00a0\n\u00a0\nAn example of the kind of rules and regulations Federal employees should follow: Consider sanctions against North Korea, which Congress directed the President to promulgate in the form of Federal rules and regulations.\u00a0 Under current law, Federal employees who are told by their supervisor(s) to violate North Korean sanctions have no whistleblower protections.\u00a0 The Follow the Rules Act would fix this and should be considered by Congress.\n\u00a0\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://duffy.house.gov/press-release/duffy-connolly-whistleblower-protection-bill-passes-the-house-with-bipartisan-majority"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9636799115687609, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}