Congress Members Want HHS Investigation of Bias Against Chaplains

Today's Washington Post reports that 14 members of Congress have written Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt urging him to have HHS's Inspector General investigate claims by HHS chaplains of anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish bias. The charges come from chaplains in the spiritual ministry department of NIH's clinical center in Bethesda, Maryland. HHS is already conducting an investigation through a panel of outside experts, but the House of Representative members want assurances that NIH will investigate Rev. O. Ray Fitzgerald, former head of the spiritual ministry department who was demoted after the EEOC upheld a claim of anti-Catholic bias filed against him. (See prior posting.) Rep. Steven R. Rothman (R-N.J.), has placed language in the Department of Labor-HHS appropriations bill authorizing an investigation by HHS's inspector general.