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Washington D.C. — The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today offered its strong support for pending legislation in both the House and Senate that would restore the rights of federal employees to be protected from workplace discrimination because of their sexual orientation.

“These bills underscore the importance of these long-standing protections,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “I look forward to prompt congressional action on this vital issue.”

The measures were introduced by Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee, and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee.

The bills address an interpretation of federal law expressed by Scott Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel, which has among its other responsibilities the duty to enforce civil service laws that make it unlawful to discriminate against federal employees on the basis of private off duty conduct that does not affect their ability to perform their jobs.

Notwithstanding that the executive branch has for over 25 years interpreted this statutory provision to prohibit discrimination based on sexual “orientation,” under Bloch, the Office of Special Counsel has refused to investigate such claims, unless an employee also shows that the discrimination he or she suffered was based on specific sexual “conduct.” That narrow and impractical interpretation is at odds with the consistent views of the Office of Personnel Management, and the Civil Service Commission before it, as well the interpretation of the law followed by the previous Special Counsel.

As those officials have recognized, in this context, there is no meaningful distinction between discrimination based on an employee’s sexual orientation and discrimination based on their sexual “conduct.”

In a statement accompanying his legislation, Sen. Akaka said that “one administration official’s personal interpretation of the law cannot be permitted to undermine the merit system or the rights and protections of federal workers.”

This is not the first time that action has had to be taken to address Bloch’s views on this subject. Not long after his appointment, he created a firestorm of protest—led by NTEU—by removing from the web site of the Office of Special Counsel information concerning the rights and options for redress of federal workers faced with sexual orientation discrimination.

The criticisms were so swift in coming and so strong that the White House had to issue a statement reaffirming the existence of such rights for federal workers. Bloch, nonetheless, has continued to refuse to enforce the prohibition, necessitating this new legislation, which will explicitly correct his misinterpretation of the law.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.