"Hotlining" is a process by which legislation can be passed through unanimous consent, without any debate or a roll-call vote. It requires unanimous consent, which gives you a unique opportunity to ensure this bill does not pass as is. Every Senator, regardless of committee assignment, has the opportunity to weigh in on this legislation.

It only takes one Senator's demand that these issues be fixed in order to stop this Trojan horse from destroying existing whistleblower protections.

Although many provisions of the bill enhance whistleblower protections, there are many "poison pills" that must be corrected, including these (see links to Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs report accompanying S. 372):

S. 372 repeals the FBI whistleblower protection law! Originally passed in 1978, improved in 1989, and given strong teeth by President Clinton in 1997, the law has been instrumental in permitting FBI agents to expose abuses ranging from civil rights violations, agent misconduct, and threats to our nations security. (see p.46)

Agency heads of the Justice Department, Commerce Department and security agencies (Defense Department etc.), covering over half the federal workforce, are given the power to unilaterally fire a whistleblower with no administrative or judicial review. (see p.73)

National security whistleblowers are denied the right to have their retaliation cases reviewed by independent agencies, such as the Office of Special Counsel or the Inspector General and they are denied the right to court access. Instead, the very agency that fired the whistleblower is given exclusive power to conduct the "fact finding" investigation into whether that agency broke the law. (see p.70)

A new procedural roadblock impacting every federal employee was inserted into this 105-page bill. This provision gives all federal agencies the power to request the dismissal of a whistleblower case without giving the employee an opportunity to have a hearing and will prevent most employees from obtaining a jury trial. (see p.57)

Hotlining is a convenient solution in that no Senator has his name attached to the bill for later political damage to his reputation. The flip side is that only one Senator needs to speak up and it must go through the Senate floor for debate and vote.

The prize of passage: Immediate dismissal of all whistleblower cases that are a thorn in the side of those who may be found to have violated law.

Sibel Edmonds is still currently under a gag order, isn't she? Would that gag order still stand if the case was dismissed? I wonder.

"Hotlining is a convenient solution in that no Senator has his name attached to the bill for later political damage to his reputation."

That's hot.

I did not expect that this story would get no traction.

This is troubling, I will be emailing my Senators just to let them know we are aware of this out here in the real world.

National security whistleblowers are denied the right to have their retaliation cases reviewed by independent agencies, such as the Office of Special Counsel or the Inspector General and they are denied the right to court access. Instead, the very agency that fired the whistleblower is given exclusive power to conduct the "fact finding" investigation into whether that agency broke the law. (see p.70)

The FBI always has been a thuggery and should be de-funded, investigated by actual third-parties and summarily dealt with agency head by agency head.

Whatever happened to the "good guys" model? Too difficult to keep up the charade?