Scott
J.
Bloch,
the
controversial
head
the
U.S.
government
office
charged
with
protecting
federal
employees
from
discrimination,
has
threatened
to
fire
12
high-level
employees
—
two
of
whom
are
gay
—
unless
they
agree
to
be
reassigned
to
positions
in
other
cities.
Three
government
watchdog
groups
called
Bloch’s
action
another
in
a
series
of
moves
aimed
at
packing
the
Office
of
Special
Counsel
with
religious,
right
wing
cronies
and
threatening
its
longstanding
mission
of
protecting
federal
employees
from
harassment
or
intimidation
for
exposing
corruption
or
incompetence.
“Unfortunately,
Mr.
Bloch’s
current
pattern
of
leadership
threatens
to
transform
the
OSC
from
an
independent
agency
whose
mission
is
to
protect
the
merit
system
into
a
role
model
for
destroying
it,”
said
the
leaders
of
the
Government
Accountability
Project,
the
Project
on
Government
Oversight,
and
Public
Employees
for
Environmental
Responsibility.
The
three
groups
made
the
statement
in
a
Jan.
10
letter
to
Senators
Susan
Collins
(R-Maine)
and
Joseph
Lieberman
(D-Conn.),
who
serve
as
chair
and
ranking
minority
member
of
the
Senate
Committee
on
Government
Affairs,
which
has
jurisdiction
over
the
OSC.
The
groups
called
on
the
committee
to
conduct
an
oversight
hearing
on
Bloch’s
“illegal
personnel
practices
and
the
culture
of
fear
he
has
created
at
OSC.”
An
OSC
spokesperson
told
the
Washington
Post
Bloch’s
decision
to
reassign
the
12
employees
was
part
of
an
OSC
reorganization
plan
aimed
at
reducing
the
office’s
longstanding
problem
of
retaining
a
large
backlog
of
cases.
The
spokesperson,
Cathy
Deeds,
called
allegations
by
the
watchdog
groups
that
Bloch
was
conducting
a
purge
“outrageous
and
inaccurate,”
according
to
the
Washington
Post.
Deeds
and
Bloch
did
not
return
Blade
calls
by
press
time.
Congress
created
the
OSC
in
the
1980s
as
an
independent
federal
investigative
and
prosecutorial
agency
to
safeguard
the
civil
service
system,
which
bases
its
hiring
practices
for
most
of
the
federal
workforce
on
merit
rather
than
political
connections.
Among
other
things,
OSC
is
charged
with
protecting
federal
employees
from
harassment
and
intimidation
under
the
Whistleblower
Protection
Act
in
cases
where
they
expose
corruption
or
gross
incompetence.
During
the
Clinton
administration,
the
OSC
took
on
an
added
role
of
adjudicating
sexual
orientation
discrimination
cases
filed
by
gay
federal
employees.
The
Clinton
White
House
assigned
that
task
to
the
OSC
after
Clinton
issued
an
executive
order
banning
sexual
orientation
discrimination
in
the
federal
workplace.
Bloch
took
steps
to
diminish
OSC’s
role
in
addressing
sexual
orientation
cases
in
January
2004,
shortly
after
President
Bush
appointed
him
to
the
OSC
post.
Bush
administration
officials,
responding
to
complaints
by
members
of
Congress,
directed
Bloch
to
resume
the
office’s
enforcement
role
on
gay
cases,
but
he
has
resisted
doing
so.
Prior
to
joining
the
Bush
administration,
Bloch
practiced
law
in
Lawrence,
Kan.
He
also
served
as
a
research
fellow
for
the
Claremont
Institute,
an
ultra-conservative
think
tank
in
California
which
boasts
of
“fighting
the
gay
rights
movement”
as
one
of
its
mottos,
before
starting
his
first
Bush
administration
post
at
the
Justice
Department.
He
served
there
as
deputy
director
of
the
department’s
Task
Force
for
Faith-Based
&
Community
Initiatives.
He
began
his
post
at
OSC
in
January
2004,
replacing
lesbian
attorney
Elaine
Kaplan,
who
had
been
appointed
by
President
Clinton.
The
law
creating
the
OSC
established
a
fixed,
five-year
term
for
the
director’s
job,
which
prevents
a
president
from
removing
the
director
unless
it
can
be
shown
that
he
or
she
has
engaged
in
misconduct
or
violated
the
law.
Anthony
Vergnetti,
an
attorney
representing
some
of
the
12
OSC
employees
ordered
to
be
reassigned,
said
Bloch
gave
them
all
10
days
notice
to
decide
whether
to
accept
the
reassignments
or
resign
or
be
fired.
Seven
were
to
be
reassigned
to
a
newly
created
OSC
regional
office
in
Detroit;
four
were
to
be
sent
to
an
existing
OSC
office
in
Dallas,
and
one
was
to
be
sent
to
an
office
in
Oakland,
Calif.,
Vergnetti
said.
Should
they
choose
to
accept
the
transfers,
Vergnetti
said,
the
12
employees
must
report
for
work
at
the
new
locations
in
60
days,
a
development
that
would
create
hardships
for
the
employees,
some
of
whom
have
families
with
school
children
in
the
D.C.
area.
Vergnetti
said
Bloch
has
since
extended
the
deadline
for
the
employees’
decision
on
the
reassignments
by
another
10
calendar
days.
He
said
none
of
the
employees
had
reached
a
decision
on
what
to
do
as
of
late
this
week.
Under
federal
employment
law,
the
employees
have
virtually
no
recourse
other
than
to
appeal
to
Congress
to
review
Bloch’s
action,
Vergnetti
said.
Ironically,
federal
employees
in
most
other
agencies
could
turn
to
OSC
for
help
in
cases
like
this,
where
an
employee
believes
he
or
she
is
being
targeted
for
retaliation
or
dismissal
through
a
threat
of
a
transfer.
But
OSC
employees
are
ineligible
to
go
to
their
own
agency
for
redress
in
such
a
situation,
said
Vergnetti,
who
specialized
in
...
