FederalDaily - October 19, 2005
EEOC Discusses Little-Known Discrimination Provision
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Oct. 17 issued a question-and-answer-style
document about a little-known but significant provision of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) that protects people from discrimination based on their
association with people with disabilities. The document is available at www.eeoc.gov.
The "association" provision of the ADA prohibits an employer from
discriminating against an applicant or employee who has a known association
with an individual with a disability. This prohibition covers hiring,
firing and other terms, conditions and privileges of employment. For
example, an employer may not refuse to hire someone because of an unfounded
fear that the individual will be excessively absent or unproductive because
of the need to care for a child with a disability.
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Invasive Species on Military Installations
On Oct. 18 the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) issued a report saying that
invasive species are infiltrating military lands across the country, severely
impacting the health and welfare of U.S. military forces, citizens and ecosystems. "Terrorists
or natural disasters jump to mind when picturing threats to military readiness
and homeland security," said Heidi Hirsh, natural resource specialist
at the U.S. Marine Headquarters in Washington, D.C. "But few people realize
that we also face the threat of nonhuman invaders." The NWF report said
that from exotic plants overrunning training lands at Camp Pendleton in California
to wild boars blocking runways at Avon Park in Florida, invasive species are
more than just a nuisance on military installations. For more on this story,
go to www.nwf.org.
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Military Recruitment Case Goes to Supreme Court
A case concerning colleges' right to receive federal funding but bar military
recruiters from campuses because of disagreements over the Department of Defense’s
(DoD) “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is scheduled to
be argued before the Supreme Court this session. The 1996 Solomon Amendment
provides for the government to deny federal funding to institutions of higher
learning if they prevent military recruitment on campus. “The Solomon
Amendment establishes that for military recruiting…to be done, the schools
have to provide [DoD] at least the level of cooperation that they give to other
employers," said Bill Carr, the deputy undersecretary of defense for military
personnel policy. However many colleges, which forbid discrimination based
on sexual orientation, take issue with the military's policy that prohibits
homosexual conduct and forbids servicemembers from revealing homosexual orientation.
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Union, Congressmen Want Work Kept In-House
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), along with 55 members
of Congress, is urging the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to
abandon its plans to outsource the country’s federal Lock and Dam operations
and replace federal workers with private contractors. Instead, the unions and
members of Congress want the Lock and Dam operations declared “inherently
governmental” and remain in the hands of federal workers. The USACE has
declared Lock and Dam operations as eligible for privatization under the Federal
Activities Inventory Reform Act. In a letter to Secretary of the Army Francis
Harvey, congressional members led by Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill., said, “We
believe that the USACE operators and maintenance workers are ‘essential
duty personnel.’”
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