'No bureaucrat has the right to single-handedly roll back decades-old protections for workers securing our homeland and protecting our nation's health,' said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.

WASHINGTON - After a seven-month delay, Office of Personnel Management Inspector General Patrick McFarland will finally begin an investigation into the misconduct of Special Counsel Scott Bloch. On March 3, 2005, Bloch's own staff members and a coalition of whistleblower protection and civil rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, filed a complaint against the Bush administration's appointee for violating the very laws he is supposed to be enforcing.

Those violations include failing to uphold the longstanding interpretation of federal law that protects federal civil service employees from discrimination based upon sexual orientation.

"No bureaucrat has the right to single-handedly roll back decades-old protections for workers securing our homeland and protecting our nation's health," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "The inspector general's investigation should finally reel in a renegade appointee who has unilaterally ignored the law to satisfy his own extremist agenda."

The White House and the current director of the Office of Personnel Management, Linda Springer, have stated that federal law and policy prohibit discrimination based upon sexual orientation in the federal workplace.