The Special Counsel charged with protecting federal employees in the workplace has claimed that he does not have the legal authority to address discrimination based on sexual orientation. That interpretation is at odds with more than two decades of practice within the agency. Log Cabin Republicans has called upon him to resign.
The U.S. Office of the Special Counsel ( OSC ) is an obscure office with the responsibility of defending 1.7 million federal employees from discrimination and retaliation in the workplace. Scott J. Bloch was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a five-year term that began Jan. 5, 2004.
During the confirmation process the social conservative testified that he would protect the rights of gay federal employees, as has been standard practice since 1978. But only weeks after being sworn in, Block began to take a series of actions that have riled federal employees for many reasons and have led some to believe that he is on an antigay crusade within the agency.
In February 2004, Federal GLOBE, the umbrella group of GLBT federal employee organizations, charged that the OSC had 'removed references to sexual orientation from its basic brochure, its complaint form, a two-page flyer entitled 'Your Rights as a Federal Employee,' and a set of training slides.' It called the actions 'political pandering to the conservative right' that send 'a chilling message' to gay federal employees.
Gay congressional allies challenged Bloch's actions, and in April 2004 the White House released a statement saying, 'Longstanding federal policy prohibits discrimination against federal employees based on sexual orientation ... . President Bush expects federal agencies to enforce this policy and ensure that all federal employees are protected from unfair discrimination at work.'
Faced with this opposition, Block appeared to backtrack, at least for a while. Both Congress and the Bush administration are in a difficult position because the OSC was created to be insulated from political pressure. The director serves a fixed five-year term and can be removed only for cause, through a protracted administrative process.
Soon Block was conducting a wholesale reorganization of the small agency. He told key Washington employees they had 10 days to accept being reassigned to distant regional offices or resign. Most saw the reorganization as an attempt to purge the agency, to insert ideologues into positions in D.C.
In a Senate oversight hearing on government management May 24, Block made the startling statement that he lacks the legal authority to protect employees against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
He acknowledged that the Bush administration's April 2004 statement on sexual orientation 'is binding on me, but it is not something I can prosecute in my agency ... . I am limited by the enforcement statutes that you [ Congress ] give me.'
When pressed by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., as to whether he would recommend that Congress enact legislation to cover sexual orientation, Bloch declined to do so.
Blogger John Aravosis was not buying Bloch's legal arguments. 'It sounds an awful lot like you're just grabbing at straws in an effort to justify antigay bigotry, and while doing so, you're willfully and quite flagrantly disobeying an executive order and urging others federal employees to do the same.'
'Bloch is snubbing 20 years of bipartisan interpretation of the law. A statute in place since the late 1970s has protected federal workers against discrimination based on sexual orientation,' said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign.
Log Cabin Republicans went further, calling for his resignation. 'Scott Bloch has made it clear that he is not enforcing the law and is openly defying the President, accordingly he should resign immediately, 'said Chris Barron, political director of the organization.
