Section 5-301 - Applicability(a) This subtitle applies to: (1) all employees and State employees who are applicants for positions in the Executive Branch of State government, including a unit with an independent personnel system; and(2) if both the Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia enact similar whistleblower protections or waive their sovereign immunity as applied to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for the purpose of providing whistleblower protections, all employees of the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority.(b) For the purpose of subsection (a)(2) of this section, the General Assembly considers the following whistleblower protection laws to be similar to whistleblower protection laws established under Title 5, Subtitle 3 of the State Personnel and Pensions Article: (1) the District of Columbia's Employees of District Contractors and Instrumentality Whistleblower Protection Act, Title 2, Chapter 2, Subchapter XII of the Code of the District of Columbia; and(2) the Commonwealth of Virginia's Fraud and Abuse Whistleblower Protection Act, Title 2.2, Chapter 30.1 of the Code of Virginia.Amended by 2020 Md. Laws, Ch. 193,Sec. 1, eff. 10/1/2020.