Anti-discrimination activists seek new federal workplace law
Activists say OPM regulations have subverted the intent of a 2002 law meant to stiffen penalties for discrimination.
A group of activists behind a 2002 law aimed at curbing discrimination in the federal workplace is back on Capitol Hill asking for stronger penalties.
The group -- called the No Fear 7 -- is made up of seven federal employees and supporters who experienced discrimination in various government agencies and brought the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation (No FEAR) Act into being.
Matthew Fogg, a U.S. marshal, said his colleagues abandoned him on a stakeout after he claimed racial discrimination among their ranks. Blair Hayes, a procurement adviser at the Health and Human Services Department, has won four Equal Employment Opportunity cases against the department. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a policy analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency, won a $600,000 verdict in a race and sex discrimination suit against EPA in 2000.
Fogg, Hayes, Coleman-Adebayo and the rest of the group gathered in the House's Cannon office building Wednesday to announce their campaign for a tougher follow-on to the No FEAR Act, including criminal penalties for managers who discriminate.
Rep. Al Wynn, D-Md., who represents more than 70,000 federal employees in his district, said he would herald the new bill. He said one of the intents of the original law, to make sure anti-discrimination verdicts are paid directly out of agency budgets as a deterrent, isn't having the effect he had hoped.
"Agencies have not paid what they're obligated to pay," Wynn said. "The bill needs more teeth."
Coleman-Adebayo said the new bill also will call for an independent organization to train government employees on diversity and the No FEAR Act's requirements, as opposed to, as she put it, "the managers or potential defendants who are part of the problem."
Anti-discrimination activists harshly criticized the Office of Personnel Management when it published draft regulations in January implementing a portion of the existing No FEAR law. The No FEAR coalition was angry that OPM proposed allowing federal managers to orally reprimand those who have violated the law, instead of requiring written disciplinary actions or firings.
Coleman-Adebayo said she is in talks with several lawmakers from both political parties to introduce the new bill.