Committee approves bill to extend whistleblower protections for state employees, 7-6

Representative Robbins brought House File 23 to the Fraud Prevention and State Oversight Policy Committee and, after adopting an author’s A1 amendment, the committee voted 7-6 to send the bill to the Workforce, Labor and Economic Development Committee.

The A1 amendment, which the sponsor said “just gets the bill in the shape that I would like to have it,” clarifies statutory definitions of “abuse, fraud and waste” and aligns those definitions with language in Minn. Stat. §127A.21 and related inspector-general provisions, Representative Robbins said. The amendment was adopted by voice vote before the committee considered the full bill.

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Robbins, said the measure “is to expand protection for potential whistleblowers in the state of Minnesota,” and described it as a bipartisan effort that would explicitly extend whistleblower protections to state employees reporting waste, fraud or abuse to legislators, the legislative auditor or constitutional officers such as the attorney general.

Devin Bruce, director of legislative and political affairs for the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE), testified in support of the bill’s intent but urged…