NIH Agency Suppresses Whistleblowers By Forcing Them To Record All Contact With Congress

For the past several months, House and Senate committees have been investigating David Schwartz, the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which is a branch of NIH. They are examining whether Schwartz “disregarded conflict-of-interest guidelines,” broke government spending rules, and violated ethics rules. Since Schwartz’s arrival in 2005, three top institute officials have left. One NIEHS official stated, “Morale is just horrible” at the agency.

Under Schwartz, the agency is now requiring all of its employees to fill out a form to document all their contacts with Congress. The form, obtained by ThinkProgress, appears to be an attempt to discourage employees from cooperating with congressional investigators.

Yesterday, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) wrote to NIH head Dr. Elias Zerhouni and asked him to explain who approved the form’s distribution, which employees received it, and the rationale behind “having this type of form at all.” He also expressed concern at the chilling effect the interference may have on whistleblowers:

[T]his form looks more like something people in NIH congressional affairs would use to log requests for information from Congress. It doesn’t appear to be something that would be handed out to regular NIEHS employees or employees at any of the other NIH institutes. In fact, handing this form out to rank and file NIEHS employees during the course of a congressional investigation could cause these employees to feel that management is attempting to flush out whistleblowers or any other individual assisting me with my inquiry.

On July 11, Grassley also wrote a letter to Zerhouni stating that NIEHS employees had “discussions with management that left them with the impression that there would be retaliation if it was discovered that they had provided information to…congressional investigators.”

Such interference with congressional investigations is illegal, as is denying or interfering with “employees’ rights to furnish information to Congress.” Yet it is not the first example of whistleblower suppression by the Bush administration. President Bush’s former surgeon general Richard Carmona recently told Congress that during his term, political appointees were assigned to “vet his speeches.” He was also barred from speaking freely to reporters, as was James Hansen, NASA’s top climate scientist.

Digg It!