What is the No FEAR Act?
Federal employees are covered by many laws designed to protect them from discrimination and retaliation. Agencies are required to enforce these laws and ensure that the federal workplace is a safe, efficient place to conduct business. There are many indicators, however, that this is not true. According to the General Accounting Office (GAO), discrimination complaints by federal employees grew tremendously during the 1990’s. In fact, during fiscal year 1999 the number of complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was about 120% greater than the number of complaints in 1991. The GAO also reported that complaints alleging retaliation against employees who had participated in the complaint process increased significantly. This led some to conclude that additional legislation was needed to improve agency action in this area. As a result, a coalition of federal employees and other interested parties worked with Congress to pass the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-Discri
