and directed agencies to consult with OSC in that process. In November 2001, Congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, creating the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Under the Act, non-security screener employees of TSA can file allegations of reprisal for whistleblowing with OSC and the MSPB. Approximately 45,000 security screeners in TSA, however, could not pursue such complaints at OSC or the Board. OSC efforts led to the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with TSA in May 2002, under which OSC reviews whistleblower retaliation complaints from security screeners, and recommends corrective or disciplinary action to TSA when warranted. The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012 (WPEA) became law on November 27, 2012. The WPEA strengthens protections for federal whistleblowers by removing loopholes that deterred federal employees from disclosing waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. It also removes restrictions that narrowed the scope of what constituted a "protected disclosure" under the Whistleblower Protection Act. In addition, it enhances OSC's ability to hold managers and supervisors accountable for retaliating against whistleblowers, and it bolsters remedies available to federal whistleblowers who have been the victim of retaliation. Finally, it expands whistleblower reprisal protection to employees of the TSA. On December 28, 2012, President Obama signed the Hatch Act Modernization Act of 2012 into law. This update to the Hatch Act of 1939 allows most state and local government employees to run for partisan political office, many of whom were prohibited from running for partisan office under the original Hatch Act. Under the new law, state and local government employees are no longer prohibited from running for partisan office unless their salary is paid for completely by federal loans or grants. As a result of the Hatch Act Modernization Act, many state and local government employees will be able to participate more actively in governance of their communities. 1970s and 1980s According to congressional testimony by Tom Devine, legal director of the non-profit Government Accountability Project: The Watergate investigation of the 1970s revealed a Nixon administration operation to replace the non-partisan civil service system with a politically loyal workforce dedicated to partisan election goals. Every agency had a shadow "political hiring czar" whose operation trumped normal civil service authority of personnel offices. Then-White House Personnel Office chief Fred Malek teamed up with Alan May to prepare the "Malek Manual," a guide to exploiting loopholes in civil service laws to drive politically undesirable