[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 69 (Thursday, May 22, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1028]]


 INTRODUCTION OF H.R. 1703, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS EMPLOYMENT 
                     DISCRIMINATION PREVENTION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LANE EVANS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 22, 1997

  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, as you know, the problem of sexual harassment 
is not new to our society, let alone our Federal work force. It has 
been only in the past decade or so, however, that we in Congress have 
begun to truly recognize the depths of the problem and attempted to 
eliminate if from the workplace--even if such harassment comes from the 
highest levels of management.
  As recent testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on 
Oversight and Investigations has revealed, sexual harassment has been 
no stranger to the Department of Veterans Affairs [VA] over the past 
few years. Despite what I consider the sincere efforts of VA Secretary 
Jesse Brown, the VA's zero tolerance policy against sexual harassment 
has failed.
  In one highly publicized case brought to light during hearings last 
month, several VA employees had the courage to raise serious, 
substantiated allegations of sexual harassment against their boss, the 
Director of the Fayettesville, NC, facility. One employee was demoted 
after she rejected the Director's advances. When the filed charges of 
harassment with her immediate supervisor she was told she had little 
chance of succeeding on her claim because the accused was a powerful 
hospital director. In open testimony before our committee, she 
testified under oath that life had become so difficult for her at the 
facility that she was literally afraid to go to work each day, and 
ultimately transferred at her own expense to another VA hospital to get 
away from the Fayetteville Director.
  Other employees testified that the same Director commonly made 
references to various parts of their female anatomy, commonly used 
profanity, and made sexually suggestive comments toward them, and in 
one case grabbed an employee's breasts at a Christmas party. Still, 
when some of these women attempted to file charges of harassment 
against the Director, local and regional VA counsels discouraged them 
from pursuing such claims and provided incorrect information concerning 
how and when to file discrimination charges.
  Even amidst substantiated allegations of harassment and abusive 
treatment of women in the Fayetteville, NC, facility, the VA's solution 
was to transfer the Fayetteville Director to sunny Bay Pines, FL--the 
Director's planned retirement destination--with a pay increase and 
lessened responsibilities. The VA also paid his moving expenses, and 
specifically allowed him to be considered for a return to the Senior 
Executive Service [SES] in 3 years. The female victims of the 
Director's abuse, meanwhile, continue to suffer the lingering traumatic 
effects of his harassment.
  Unfortunately, little has changed in the VA workplace since 1992, 
when I first chaired oversight subcommittee hearings on this issue. At 
that time, we heard equally compelling testimony from a legion of women 
who also were subjected to abusive and hostile treatment by senior 
level managers in the VA workplace. Incredibly, one woman who testified 
during the 1992 hearing presently remains on disability leave from the 
VA, still unable to return to work because of the emotional trauma she 
suffered at the hands of her senior level VA harasser.
  That is why today I am pleased to join as an original cosponsor of 
the Department of Veterans Affairs Employment Discrimination Prevention 
Act. This bipartisan legislation, introduced today in the House, 
revamps the way VA investigates internal allegations of sexual 
harassment by, and against, its own employees and seeks to bring 
confidence and trust to the EEO process at the VA.
  Boiled down to its essence, this legislation changes the way charges 
of harassment and other discrimination claims are handled within the 
VA; instead of allowing claims to be investigated by poorly trained 
collateral duty employees at the very facility where the harassment or 
discrimination is said to exist, our bill requires that all such claims 
be investigated and reviewed by well-trained central office employment 
law experts with no direct ties to the VA facility where the 
discrimination has allegedly occurred. In addition, the bill calls for 
the final agency determination to be made by independent administrative 
law judges [ALJ's] rather than VA bureaucrats.
  This bill will help ensure that well-trained specialists investigate 
such claims, and will directly address the all-too-familiar scenario 
where a poorly trained, lower level VA employee is asked to investigate 
harassment or discrimination charges against a senior official who may 
have everything to say about his or her continued employment with the 
agency.
  I sponsored a nearly identical version of this legislation which 
overwhelmingly passed the House in the 103d Congress, but was never 
acted on in the Senate. At that time, the VA believed that a proposed 
Government-wide reform of the equal employment opportunity [EEO] 
processes at all Federal agencies would occur. The VA opposed the 
legislation on that basis, and also indicated that many of the changes 
called for in the bill could be made administratively.
  Nearly 5 years later there has been no Government-wide reform of the 
EEO process, there has been no major overhaul of the VA EEO 
administrative process, and the VA's well-intentioned zero tolerance 
policy has proven to be ineffective.
  We cannot be expected to wait any longer for meaningful reform of the 
VA EEO process to occur. More importantly, this Nation's veterans and 
the VA employees dedicated to serving them cannot be expected to wait 
any longer for meaningful action and honest reform.
  By enacting this legislation, we in Congress can help put the VA back 
on the path toward eradicating discrimination at the work place. Our 
veterans and VA employees deserve no less.

                          ____________________