Meeting the Moment

By Zoie Valencia, TSN’s Summer 2025 Intern

With each day, more individuals take a courageous stand for the truth and pursue accountability for systemic abuses of power and privilege. In fiscal year 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission reported a record number of whistleblower tips, while the Department of Justice recorded the highest number of qui tam lawsuits filed in a single year. This trend has carried over into the first half of 2025, as The Signals Network has seen a 289% year-over-year increase in requests received from whistleblowers seeking assistance, with a majority of those requests coming from within the United States.

As this number grows, however, the number of challenges these individuals face do too—a fact that has been most apparent at the government agencies positioned to ensure accountability. In recent months, the Department of Homeland Security has dramatically increased its use of polygraph tests to “search for leaks;” numerous Environmental Protection Agency employees were put on leave after signing a letter critical of current policies; and whistleblower complaints have reportedly gone untouched at the Justice Department inspector general’s office. Meanwhile, the independent oversight mechanisms within these agencies are still recovering from the mass firings that took place earlier this year. It is in this moment that we find ourselves confronted with a disquieting reality: this is a system that is resistant to the truth.

And a system that is resistant to the truth is a system that is not built for accountability.

For whistleblowers, this reality is the ultimate betrayal. Government oversight bodies are marketed as safe havens for information that furthers the public interest. When whistleblowers come forward, at great personal risk, to deliver their revelations to these bodies, they fully expect their information to be used to halt the wrongdoing they witnessed in its tracks. But when these systems fail to address these disclosures, or provide inadequate protections for those that come forward, they alienate those willing to stand for what’s right and decimate the public’s last line of defense from widespread harm from abuses of power.

We are left to wonder if these systems fail, how will whistleblowers adapt? Will they look to other spaces for support in their pursuit of accountability? Attorneys, non-profit organizations like The Signals Network and our partners, community advocates, journalists, and members of the public continue to dedicate their lives to supporting and protecting these individuals and the revelations they share for the public good. This uniquely challenging moment calls for more collaboration than ever before among all those who pursue truth, transparency, and accountability from government and corporate actors alike. Only together can we ensure that whistleblowers who risk everything to keep people safe and informed will not stand alone.