U.S. agency warned over threatening whistleblowers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Managers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences may have threatened employees about testifying to Congress about problems there, Chuck Grassley, ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, said on Thursday.

He asked National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni to ensure that employees at the agency know they are free to testify.

"Several people, both inside and outside of NIEHS, alerted my staff to the fact that NIEHS employees have recently 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 among others, congressional investigators," Grassley, an Iowa Republican, wrote in the letter.

"Such discussions can and often do have a chilling effect on NIEHS employees' sharing with Congress needed information. For example, one employee said that it was implied that leaks of information could affect employee bonuses."

The NIEHS is one of the National Institutes of Health.

Grassley said he frequently uses whistleblowers and was investigating allegations of mismanagement at NIEHS.

"I propose that you tell NIEHS employees that you are aware of these allegations and that any attempt to threaten federal employees, either directly or indirectly, for speaking to congressional investigators will not be tolerated," Grassley wrote in the letter to Zerhouni.

"This can best be accomplished by notifying NIEHS employees that they are free to talk to Congress and that you intend to protect their right to come forward and share information."

On Tuesday, former U.S. surgeon general Dr. Richard Carmona told Congress he was prevented from speaking out on some subjects by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. Carmona said these included stem cell research.