The Washington Post

   COLUMNS/ Federal Diary

Making Agencies Pay the Price of Discrimination, Retaliation 

By Stephen Barr
Thursday, May 16, 2002; Page B02 President Bush signed legislation yesterday that is designed to hold federal agencies more accountable for acts of discrimination or reprisal against their employees.

The new law will hit agencies in their pocketbooks, according to proponents.

It requires agencies to pay -- out of their budgets -- for settlements and judgments against them in discrimination and whistle-blower cases. Most settlements and awards in favor of federal employees who sue agencies in discrimination cases have been paid from a government-wide Judgment Fund.

In addition, the law requires agencies to file reports with Congress and the attorney general on the number of complaints filed against them by employees, the disposition of each case, the total of all monetary awards charged against the agency and the number of agency employees disciplined for discrimination or harassment.

The law directs agencies to post on their Internet sites "summary statistical data" about the numbers and types of equal employment opportunity complaints filed against them.

The legislation's chief sponsors were Reps. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), Sheila JacksonLee (D-Tex.) and Constance A. Morella (R-Md.) and Sen. John W.Warner (R-Va.).

The House, by a vote of 412 to 0, sent the measure to Bush on April 30 after Senate approval on April 23.

"No longer will discrimination and retaliation be swept under the rug and considered an inconvenience for working at a federal agency," said Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "By holding accountable those who insist upon discriminating against others, the federal government will become a role model for civil rights -- and not civil rights violations."

During the Senate debate, Warner hailed the measure as "the first civil rights bill of the new century" and predicted that it would "create a more productive work environment by ensuring that agencies enforce the laws intended to protect federal employees from harassment, discrimination and retaliation for whistle-blowing."

The legislation grew out of a House investigation two years ago into what Sensenbrenner aides called a disturbing pattern of intolerance, harassment and discrimination at the Environmental Protection Agency. During the probe, federal employees at other agencies complained of similar problems.

Among those who had pushed for the legislation was Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, an EPA employee who was awarded $600,000 in 2000 by a Washington jury in a federal race and sex discrimination case against the agency. A judge later reduced the jury award to $300,000.

The legislation -- the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act, or "No FEAR" -- alters a long-standing practice that permitted agencies to avoid the costs of settlements and judgments in bias cases. Congress created the Judgment Fund to avoid having to approve specific appropriations for such legal costs and, in theory, to allow for prompter payment.

Under the new law, agencies must reimburse the fund for settlements and judgments. Because some judgments might leave agencies short of cash, the law allows for a "reasonable time" to reimburse the Judgment Fund and says agencies may extend repayments over several years to avoid layoffs or furloughs.

The General Accounting Office reported that in fiscal 2000 agencies paid about $26 million in discrimination complaint settlements and judgments. In the same period, the Judgment Fund paid out about $43 million more in such cases.

  

May 16, 2002 Bush signs anti-discrimination bill into law By Kellie Lunney

klunney@govexec.com
President Bush signed legislation Wednesday that will make federal agencies more accountable for discrimination and retaliation against employees.The Notification and Federal Employee Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2001 (No FEAR) requires agencies that lose or settle discrimination and whistleblower cases to pay judgments out of their own budgets. Those judgments are currently paid out of a general government fund. No FEAR requires agencies to make employees aware of discrimination and whistleblower protection laws. Agencies also must now file an annual report detailing the number of discrimination or whistleblower cases filed against them, how the cases were resolved, the amount of settlements and the number of agency employees disciplined for discriminating against other workers or harassing them. “No longer will discrimination and retaliation be swept under the rug and considered an inconvenience for working at a federal agency,” said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and sponsor of the No FEAR bill.The House unanimously passed the bill (H.R. 169) last October, and the Senate approved the legislation with minor changes in April.Allegations of discrimination at the Environmental Protection Agency prompted the No FEAR bill, which Sensenbrenner and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, introduced in October 2000. In August 2000, a black senior manager at the EPA won a $600,000 verdict in a race and gender discrimination suit against the agency.During an October 2000 hearing before the House Science Committee, then-EPA Administrator Carol Browner and other agency officials vigorously defended the EPA’s commitment to diversity.

NEW YORK TIMES

Bush Signs Fed Whistleblower Bill

May 15, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush signed legislation Wednesday that requires federal agencies to pay for discrimination or ``whistleblower'' cases from their own budgets.

The bill is called No FEAR, an acronym for Notification and Federal Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation Act.

The legislation ``could not have been passed without the pain and the sheer agony of so many employees who came forward to mention that their lives were made almost in the form of a nightmare because they chose to stand up,'' said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.

Bush signed the bill in an Oval Office ceremony attended by a few civil rights activists and members of Congress. Some of them heralded it as the first major civil rights law of the new millennium.

``By holding accountable those who insist upon
discriminating against others, the federal government will become a role model for civil rights -- and not civil rights violations,'' said House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., a sponsor of the bill.

Under the law, federal agencies must pay for settlements or judgments against them in whistleblower and discrimination cases. Currently, such payments are made from a general,
government-wide fund.

``It means now the federal government will have to obey its own laws, ... not hide behind a slush fund in the Treasury to pay for their indiscretions,'' said Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a federal employee who won a $600,000 judgment against the Environmental Protection Agency for racial and gender bias. Her case was the impetus for the law.

The legislation also requires that employees be notified of their rights under anti-discrimination laws, and forces agencies to report annually to Congress on how many discrimination cases were brought against them, what happened in those cases and whether any employees were disciplined.

Last year, some EPA scientists said they were targeted for reprisals after they questioned agency policies. An investigation found that the number of discrimination complaints against federal agencies filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission more than doubled during the 1990s.

NAACP board member Leroy Warren said, ``This legislation should stop some of the managers whose actions are like some international outlaw, where they can do what they want to, when they want to and how bad they want to, without anyone taking control of it.''
washingtonpost.com Making Agencies Pay the Price of Discrimination, Retaliation
By Stephen Barr

Thursday, May 16, 2002; Page B02 P resident Bush signed legislation yesterday that is designed to hold federal agencies more accountable for acts of discrimination or reprisal against their employees.

The new law will hit agencies in their pocketbooks, according to proponents.

It requires agencies to pay -- out of their budgets -- for settlements and judgments against them in discrimination and whistle-blower cases. Most settlements and awards in favor of federal employees who sue agencies in discrimination cases have been paid from a government-wide Judgment Fund.

In addition, the law requires agencies to file reports with Congress and the attorney general on the number of complaints filed against them by employees, the disposition of each case, the total of all monetary awards charged against the agency and the number of agency employees disciplined for discrimination or harassment.

The law directs agencies to post on their Internet sites "summary statistical data" about the numbers and types of equal employment opportunity complaints filed against them.

The legislation's chief sponsors were Reps. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) and Constance A. Morella (R-Md.) and Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.).

The House, by a vote of 412 to 0, sent the measure to Bush on April 30 after Senate approval on April 23.

"No longer will discrimination and retaliation be swept under the rug and considered an inconvenience for working at a federal agency," said Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "By holding accountable those who insist upon discriminating against others, the federal government will become a role model for civil rights -- and not civil rights violations."

During the Senate debate, Warner hailed the measure as "the first civil rights bill of the new century" and predicted that it would "create a more productive work environment by ensuring that agencies enforce the laws intended to protect federal employees from harassment, discrimination and retaliation for whistle-blowing."

The legislation grew out of a House investigation two years ago into what Sensenbrenner aides called a disturbing pattern of intolerance, harassment and discrimination at the Environmental Protection Agency. During the probe, federal employees at other agencies complained of similar problems.

Among those who had pushed for the legislation was Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, an EPA employee who was awarded $600,000 in 2000 by a Washington jury in a federal race and sex discrimination case against the agency. A judge later reduced the jury award to $300,000.

The legislation -- the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act, or "No FEAR" -- alters a long-standing practice that permitted agencies to avoid the costs of settlements and judgments in bias cases. Congress created the Judgment Fund to avoid having to approve specific appropriations for such legal costs and, in theory, to allow for prompter payment.

Under the new law, agencies must reimburse the fund for settlements and judgments. Because some judgments might leave agencies short of cash, the law allows for a "reasonable time" to reimburse the Judgment Fund and says agencies may extend repayments over several years to avoid layoffs or furloughs.

The General Accounting Office reported that in fiscal 2000 agencies paid about $26 million in discrimination complaint settlements and judgments. In the same period, the Judgment Fund paid out about $43 million more in such cases.