Five members of the U.S. House of Representatives renewed their call for an unambiguous statement from the U.S. official responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination statutes within the federal workforce.
The members want to know if the regulations protect workers from sexual orientation discrimination.
Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., George Miller, D-Cal., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Henry Waxman, D-Calif., have exchanged correspondence about this point with Scott Bloch, director of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel ( OSC ) since February 2004.
The communications started shortly after Bloch ordered that any references to sexual orientation bias within the federal workforce be removed from the department's web site.
A letter signed by the representatives and dated March 3 was sent to the OSC. In the letter, the politicians noted that Bloch sent a letter dated Sept. 28, 2004, in which he stated that he would answer their question soon. The representatives' question read: ' [ I ] f an agency of the federal government discriminates against an individual based on his or her sexual orientation, does that violate the law and does that individual have any recourse through [ the OSC ] ?'