House passes Sens. Grassley and Leahy's bipartisan whistleblower protection legislation

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved bipartisan legislation by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont that aims to protect whistleblowers who sound the alarm about breaches of antitrust law.

The Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act was approved by the Senate in 2019 and will now head to the president. In statements included in a press release Sens. Grassley and Leahy both urged the president to sign the legislation into law.

“The Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act encourages and shields from reprisal private sector employees to shine a light on activities that violate our antitrust laws," Grassley said in the statement. "This bipartisan bill is an important step to safeguarding fair marketplaces as well as the whistleblowers who support them. It’s earned broad support in both chambers of Congress, and I urge President Trump to sign it into law without delay.” 

One more Republican and five more Democrats are described as "Additional original cosponsors" of the legislation: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

"The Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act extends whistleblower protections for employees who provide information to the Department of Justice related to criminal antitrust violations. The Senate unanimously passed a similar version of the legislation in 2013, 2015 and 2017," the press release noted. "The bill allows an employee who believes he or she is the victim of retaliation to file a complaint with the Secretary of Labor, and provides for that employee to be reinstated to their former status if the Secretary finds in their favor. Grassley and Leahy authored similar whistleblower statutes as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002."