Senator pledges to advance anti-discrimination bill

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., committed to moving a federal anti-discrimination bill out of committee and onto the Senate floor after meeting with the Rev. Al Sharpton and a group of federal employees Tuesday afternoon.

The promise came after Sharpton and a grass-roots organization, the No Fear Coalition, staged a rally on Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington in an effort to force Lieberman's hand in getting the "No FEAR," or Notification of Federal Employees Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation Act (S.201), out of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. It has lain dormant there since March 2001. A House version of the bill passed by a margin of 420-0 last October.

The No FEAR bill gives federal employees additional on-the-job protection against discrimination and retaliation in the workplace by requiring more accountability from agencies. If passed, the bill would require agencies that lose or settle discrimination and whistleblower cases to pay judgments out of their budgets. Those payments are currently paid out of a general federal judgment fund. Under the proposed law, agencies would also be required to make employees aware of discrimination and whistleblower protection laws. The bill would also require each agency to file an annual report detailing the number of discrimination or whistleblower cases filed with it, how the cases were resolved, the amount of settlements and the number of agency employees disciplined for discrimination or harassment. "This bill has been languishing in the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee for one year," said Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a black senior manager at the Environmental Protection Agency who, in 2000, won a $600,000 verdict in a race and sex discrimination suit against her agency. "Discrimination, abuse and retaliation inside the federal government must end. No more delays, no more excuses and no more amendments." Coleman-Adebayo led the noon rally amid cries of "No justice, no peace!" and "No fear!" "We will continue to march and we will continue to ride freedom buses until the bill passes," Coleman-Adebayo said, drawing cheers from the crowd of at least 200 people. Several speakers took the podium, including longtime civil rights activist Dick Gregory, Washington radio personality and civil rights activist Joe Madison and Rawle King, president of the Washington area branch of Blacks in Government (BIG). Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who introduced H.R. 169, the House version of the No FEAR bill, sent a statement read by Rev. Ruby Reese Moone, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's (SCLC) Maryland chapter. The civil rights group was founded by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957. "The federal government must be the role model for civil rights, not for civil discrimination," Moone read from Sensenbrenner's statement. "Justice demands action by the Senate." Several federal EEO cases winners at the rally spoke as well. "Sen. Lieberman, let my people go," said Blair Hayes, a federal manager who won three EEO cases against the Health and Human Services Department and has another pending. "You don't want to pass it because it would give a victory to this Republican president. When is the right time to do right? Right now!" Sharpton took the podium just moments before protestors boarded two chartered buses and, in the spirit of the freedom rides of the 1960s, rode to Capitol Hill. The original freedom rides protested racial segregation in the South, where desegregation rulings were largely ignored. "The same people that feel Americans should fight for freedom, try to silence the Americans who work for the federal government," Sharpton said, his voice hoarse and gravelly. "We didn't get beat down 37 years ago by sticks and nightclubs, to be beat down now by memorandums." Once on Capitol Hill, the protestors made a beeline to Lieberman's office, and a core group, including Sharpton, Coleman-Adebayo and King, met with the senator behind closed doors. When the short meeting ended Coleman-Adebayo emerged triumphant. "We expressed our concern with the slowness, and he assured us that he is going to move this bill to a markup by the Easter recess period," she said. "Overall this was a very successful political action. I'm hoping this bill will move forward and ensure better protection for federal employees."