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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (220309)	1/20/2002 12:05:50 PM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Key Democrats criticized Rights leader backs J. Warner's Senate bill on employee rights BY PETER HARDIN TIMES-DISPATCH WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT Jan 20, 2002 WASHINGTON - On a weekend celebrating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a group of civil rights advocates paused for a moment to rock the political status quo. At a conference yesterday on employment discrimination against federal workers, an NAACP leader faulted two top Democrats while pressing urgently for passage of legislation sponsored in the Senate by a Republican - Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., haven't done "squat" to get the anti-discrimination measure passed, complained Leroy W. Warren Jr., chairman of the NAACP Federal Sector Task Force. "We want that bill passed before Black History Month ends" on Feb. 28, Warren implored. He was addressing a summit convened by the task force, whose interim report branded the Senate's inaction "anti-family, racist, and a slap in the face" of many victims of discrimination. Warren acknowledged that most people in his audience vote Democratic. By criticizing two Senate Democrats, he underscored the urgency his panel attaches to companion bills aimed at making federal agencies accountable for workplace discrimination, harassment and retaliation. Warner introduced his version last January. It would require a federal agency that lost a court judgment or made a settlement to pay the penalty out of its own budget instead of a government-wide fund, as he described current practice. "Because there is no financial consequence to their actions, federal agencies are essentially able to escape responsibility when they fail to comply with the law and are unresponsive to their employees' concerns," Warner said at the time. A similar bill was passed 420-0 by the House of Representatives on Oct. 2. It was sponsored by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., a Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "What is so surprising is that it's two Republicans" fighting to protect federal employees' rights, said Lawrence C. Lucas, president of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Coalition of Minority Employees. Some groups pushing for the Sensenbrenner and Warner bills have labeled them the "first civil rights legislation of the 21st century." Not Warner. Representing thousands of federal workers from Virginia, he labeled his bill the "Federal Employee Protection Act of 2001." He said last week his role came about from watching the concerns of federal whistleblowers. While his sponsorship of the bill surprised some, an authority on civil rights history in Virginia said Warner was being consistent with his own record, sometimes out of step with his political party. Warner voted to extend the federal Voting Rights Act in the early 1980s and did not back Robert Bork, nominated by President Reagan, for the U.S. Supreme Court, said Dr. Jim Hershman of Georgetown University. The legislation may be far from dead in the Senate, meanwhile. "I'm confident the majority [Democrats] will give this fair consideration at an early time" this year, Warner said last week. A spokesman for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee said last week, "We are hoping we can take action on it soon after we come back" from the winter recess. Warner's bill also would require agencies to notify employees about discrimination, harassment and whistleblower laws, and require each agency to report to Congress yearly on the number and outcome of cases brought against it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- timesdispatch.com