United States Office of Special Counsel - Scott J. Bloch

Scott J. Bloch

On June 26, 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Scott J. Bloch for the position of Special Counsel at the Office of Special Counsel; he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 9, 2003. On January 5, 2004, he was sworn in to serve a five-year term. Bloch was a lightning rod for controversy. His first major actions as head of the Office were to choose as deputy a lawyer who had publicly taken a position against the "homosexual agenda," and to hire young lawyers from Ave Maria School of Law, the conservative school founded by Domino's Pizza billionaire Tom Monaghan.

On May 6, 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation served warrants on Special Counsel offices in Washington D.C. and in Texas, as well as Mr. Bloch's home, seizing computers. It was alleged that when Bloch's refusal to follow up on cases of discrimination based on sexual orientation was leaked to the press, he retaliated against career employees by creating a field office in Detroit. He was removed as Special Counsel on October 23, 2008. He was subsequently found to have obstructed the investigation by removing material from his computer. He pled guilty to criminal contempt of Congress but then successfully withdrew his plea upon learning that he would be sentenced to prison.

During the Bloch era, the OSC was criticized for (1) very rarely recognizing legitimate whistleblowers, typically only when the whistleblower had already prevailed elsewhere, (2) taking too long to investigate meritorious cases, (3) using a conservative litmus test in hiring, (4) discouraging federal whistleblowers from using their legal protections, and (5) generally siding with the federal administration instead of with the whistleblowers it was supposed to protect.

On March 22, 2007, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (Democrat, Hawaii), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, held a hearing on "Safeguarding the Merit System Principles." In his opening statement, Sen. Akaka stated, "organizations that help whistleblowers claim that OSC has gone from being their first option for relief to their last choice since OSC no longer works with agencies to achieve informal relief and the percentage of corrective actions and stays has been cut in half since 2002."