Edward Snowden shocked the world in 2013 with millions of leaked documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) revealing classified technological capabilities for mass surveillance. Yet because Snowden was a government contractor through the company Booz Allen Hamilton rather than a government employee, whistleblower protections are not available to him.

S. 795, “A bill to enhance whistleblower protection for contractor and grantee employees,” would add protections for contractors in almost every area except the intelligence community. It passed the Senate in June. Could another bill introduced by the same senator to protect intelligence contractors like Snowden also pass the Senate too?

What the bills do

S. 795 would extend existing whistleblower protections to contractors, subcontractors, and grantees. The protections include protection from retaliation by supervisors for reporting violations of the law, abuse of authority, or a danger to public health or safety, according to the Office of Personnel Management. That’s of no small importance, with nearly half a million contractors holding “top secret” clearances but not having those protections currently granted to government employees.

However, the bill does not include the intelligence community of which Snowden was a part. Intelligence contractors were stripped of whistleblower protections in 2012 — the year before Snowden made his disclosures. Another bill, S. 794, introduced the same day last March as S. 795, would reinstate whistleblower protections for intelligence contractors.

Neither bill appears to be retroactive, meaning that their protections may not apply to Snowden himself — although they would apply to potential future Snowdens, whether in the intelligence community or outside of it. (Fearing government prosecution, Snowden fled to Hong Kong and then to Moscow where he remains to this day, unable to leave due to the U.S. government revoking his passport.)

What supporters say

Supporters say that the bills would keep government honest and help prevent retaliation against those who are trying to expose the truth.

“Whistleblowers are the taxpayers’ best friend,” the bills’ sponsor Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said in a press release. “These folks play a critical role in keeping our government accountable to its citizens by exposing waste, fraud and abuse — and we’ve got to surround them with the robust legal protections that enable them to come forward to report wrongdoing.”

Similar legislation introduced by McCaskill in the previous Congress received support from more than 40 groups include the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, and the Sunlight Foundation. “In the absence of adequate protections, they [contractors] have only two alternatives to almost certain retaliation: 1) remain silent observers of wrongdoing; or 2) make anonymous leaks,” the open letter said. “Whistleblowers must be free to report abuses of power that betray the public trust without fear. It is imperative that Congress quickly fill this accountability loophole.”

What opponents say

Opponents say that protections would only encourage leaks that could endanger national security and undermine an existing sensible hierarchy within the government.

Robert Litt, General Counsel for the Director of National Intelligence, called the creation of contractor whistleblower protections “complicated” because “A contractor isn’t working for the government,” making it a dubious proposition whether they’re worthy of equivalent legal protections as government employees.

Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), former chair of the House Intelligence Committee and one of Snowden’s biggest critics, said there are alternate better avenues already in existence for would-be whistleblowers. “There are already strong protections in place for true whistle blowers — they can take their concerns to a variety of inspectors general and ombudsmen throughout the Intelligence Community, and they can talk to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. I have seen many people take advantage of these channels, which allow a whistleblower to voice concerns about legitimate government abuse in a secure environment,” Rogers said.

Why it passed and odds of passage

Introduced last March by McCaskill, the S. 795 bill for civilian and defense (but not intelligence) contractors received a floor vote last month. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee had approved it by voice vote in February and the full Senate approved it by unanimous consent, both methods under which individual senators’ votes aren’t recorded. So the public doesn’t know whether it passed by a hair or by a landslide.

However, last year’s NSA and surveillance reform legislation may be a guide. It passed 338 to 88, nearly the opposite margin of the 315–97 vote back in 2010 to reauthorize most of the Patriot Act, which authorized the existing surveillance methods. Most of that shift was attributed to Snowden and the information he revealed in 2013.

Yet despite that sea change, Congress does not appear to be willing to grant intelligence contractors whistleblower protections just yet. S. 794 has not even received a vote in committee, let alone the entire Senate, and has attracted zero cosponsors.