US Senator Chuck Grassley spoke with KCII News about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives memo to employees about their right to disclose agency misconduct, “We have problems with a lot of government agencies on the gag rule. Start out a lot of the problem is this, that a lot of government agencies want to discourage whistleblowers. And the IG has a responsibility every so often of saying to their respective departments about every time we send out a notification about whistleblowing, we have to tell them about the anti-gag rule, so the whistleblowers will feel comfortable coming to us.” The ATF circulated the memo two days after Senator Grassley made public the agency’s neglect to fully investigate alleged criminal misconduct, including gun trafficking and drunken assault, among its own employees. Senator Grassley had obtained that information through legally protected whistleblower disclosures.