What a yes vote endorsed
Expanding Whistleblower Protections for Contractors Act of 2026
What this does
This bill broadens the two federal laws that shield contractor whistleblowers from retaliation, one covering Defense Department and NASA contracts and one covering other federal contracts. It replaces the protected class of "employee" with a wider "protected individual" that covers contractors, subcontractors, grantees, subgrantees, their current and former employees, personal services contractors, and state, tribal, and territorial governments holding such contracts. It adds a new protected act, refusing to obey an order that would require violating a law, rule, or regulation tied to a contract, subcontract, grant, or subgrant. It bars these rights, remedies, and forum from being waived by any agreement, including a predispute arbitration agreement. It also states that executive branch officials have no authority to request a reprisal and authorizes proposing disciplinary action against an official who makes such a request.
Passed the House by voice vote
How we know · 6 sourced claims
- The bill amends two federal laws protecting contractor whistleblowers, one covering Defense Department and NASA contracts and one covering other federal contracts.Source: Sec. 2, Sec. 3
- It replaces the protected class of "employee" with a broader "protected individual" covering contractors, subcontractors, grantees, subgrantees, their current and former employees, personal services contractors, and state, tribal, and territorial governments holding such contracts.Source: Sec. 2(4), Sec. 3(4)
- It adds a protected act, refusing to obey an order that would require violating a law, rule, or regulation related to a contract, subcontract, grant, or subgrant.Source: Sec. 2(1), Sec. 3(1)
- It bars the rights, remedies, and forum under these statutes from being waived by any agreement, including a predispute arbitration agreement.Source: Sec. 2(2), Sec. 3(2)
- It states that executive branch officials have no authority to request a reprisal and authorizes proposing disciplinary action against an official who makes such a request.Source: Sec. 2(1), Sec. 2(2), Sec. 3(1), Sec. 3(2)
- The two sections apply the same changes to two parallel statutes, title 10 for Defense and NASA contracts and title 41 for other federal contracts.Source: Sec. 2, Sec. 3
Reported lobbying
No organization named this measure in a lobbying filing we could read with confidence.
That is not a finding that nobody lobbied it. The disclosure form takes a free text description of the issue, and a reference that could not be pinned to exactly one measure is refused rather than guessed. This bill may have been lobbied without being named, or named in words we would not risk reading as this bill.
From the LD-2 quarterly lobbying filings published at lda.gov by the Senate Office of Public Records. Read for 2025 Q1, 2025 Q2, 2025 Q3, 2025 Q4, 2026 Q1 and 2026 Q2. The pull came up 2 short in 2025 Q4 and 7 short in 2026 Q2 against the register's own count, so those quarters are the filings posted rather than every one filed. 2026 Q3 is still inside its filing window, so that quarter is only the filings posted so far.