Schumer ‘Generally Supports Protecting Whistleblowers’
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — Senator Schumer would not commit to backing legislation that would give added legal protection to people who report suspicious activities, but he said yesterday that he “generally supports protecting whistleblowers.”
City lawmakers are pushing Mr. Schumer and Senator Clinton to support a measure that passed in the House giving civil immunity to those who report possible terrorist activity. Rep. Peter King of Long Island introduced the motion, known as the John Doe amendment, after the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a lawsuit on behalf on six imams who were removed from a USAirways flight in November.
“I’d have to give it a look,” Mr. Schumer told The New York Sun. “I generally support protecting whistleblowers.”
The local officials said the matter has taken on new significance following the arrest on Tuesday of six men for an alleged plot to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey. Investigators in the case were tipped off to the men when a video store worker reported suspicious activity to authorities.
The measure passed the House in March, despite the opposition of most of the city’s congressional delegation. The lone Republican, Rep. Vito Fossella of Staten Island, voted in favor of it, as did Rep. Anthony Weiner, of Brooklyn and Queens. Some Democrats indicated they voted along party lines, and at least one New York congressman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, said he would have supported the measure if he had time to read it before voting.
Earlier yesterday in New York, several City Council members, along with the owner of Gristede’s, John Catsimatidis, introduced a resolution calling on the Senate and the state’s representatives to support the John Doe amendment.
Mr. Catsimatidis, a fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign who is considering a Republican bid for mayor in 2009, said the state’s elected officials “should put New York first and worry about New York before they worry about their party line.”
Mrs. Clinton’s Senate office has not responded to requests for comment on the matter.
