WASHINGTON, D.C. | December 13, 2024 — On December 12th, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finalized a long-awaited rules to formalize its Auto Safety Whistleblower Program. The new rules define terms critical to the operation of the whistleblower program, outline procedures for submitting original information to the NHTSA and applying for awards and discuss the NHTSA’s procedures for making decision on applications.
The Auto Safety Whistleblower Program was created in 2015 with the passage of the Motor Vehicle Safety Whistleblower Act (MVSWA), which offers anti-retaliation protections and monetary rewards between 10-30% of penalties over $1 million collected by the government from successful whistleblower disclosures.
The NHTSA collected and reviewed public comments in the drafting of these new rules. National Whistleblower Center participated aggressively in this process, advocating for the inclusion of whistleblower best-practices to ensure the safety and fair compensation of whistleblowers in the industry. In the final rules, NWC is cited 16 times and many of the provided recommendations were accepted. While the finalized rules follow many whistleblower best-practices and address key faults in the prior program, there remain provisions where the rules fall short.
Primarily, the finalized rules allow for discretionary decision making in the whistleblowers’ awards process, permitting an NHTSA administrator to reject an otherwise qualified whistleblower from receiving their award. In addition, filing requirements are strict and there remains opacity around whether internal reporting requirements extend to compliance officers within companies. Stephen M. Kohn, Board Chairman of National Whistleblower Center and Partner at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, another contributor to the final rules, stated that “we remain very concerned about the discretionary nature of this program […] But these rules were badly needed.”
NWC Board Chairman Stephen M. Kohn is available for comment. For more information, contact NWC at info@whistleblowers.org.
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NWC is the leading nonprofit working with whistleblowers worldwide to fight corruption and protect people and the environment. For over 30 years, NWC has won policies to protect whistleblowers from retaliation and reward them for helping deliver criminal and civil penalties against wrongdoers.
