The recent amendments this year to the National Defense Authorizations Act are an example of the latest legal trend expanding whistle-blower protections to employees of contractors working on federal projects. Building upon precedent established by the False Claims Act and the recently passed Whistleblower Enhancement Act of 2012, the NDAA affords increased protections from reprisals for employees. As a result, the act places greater responsibilities upon contractors working on federal projects to ensure that their internal compliance programs are robust enough to receive complaints and successfully investigate them while maintaining the anonymity of the alerting employee and protecting them from retaliation.

There are a number of key changes to the 2013 version of the act that specifically affect contractors working on federal projects. These changes provide expanded coverage for all employees of contractors, subcontractors or grant recipients working for the Department of Defense and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The revised act expanded those protections to contractor employees working for all government agencies (except intelligence agencies), as part of a four-year pilot program, which, pending completion of a study by the Government Accountability Office may become permanent rights.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]