Bills
| 3.23.22

Changing How Federal Agencies Deal With Workplace Discrimination (H.R. 702)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 702?

(Updated March 22, 2018)

This bill would seek to prevent discrimination in federal agencies by creating new procedures for handling it. It sets up an independent Equal Employment Opportunity program in every federal agency, tasked with resolving discrimination and retaliation issues. They would report directly to the head of the agency.

This bill also sets up new procedures for handling EEOC issues. If the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found a case of discrimination or retaliation in a federal agency, that agency would have 30 days to create a notification on their website detailing what happened, the laws that were broken and the day that the EEOC ruled on it. The agency would also have to put a link to this notification on their website’s homepage and leave it up for a year. The agency would also have to report to the EEOC on how the employee that made the violation was disciplined. EEOC rulings would also be reported to the Office of the Special Counsel.

Federal agencies would also have to initiate a tracking process for complaints of discrimination or retaliation. Employees that were subject to discriminatory action would have this noted in their personnel file. Finally, the bill bans non-disclosure agreements within federal agencies.

Argument in favor

This bill increases federal agencies’ ability to take action against discrimination and retaliation. Everyone deserves to feel safe in the workplace, especially when they are reporting instances of discrimination or retaliation.

Argument opposed

Discrimination and retaliation in the workplace are bad things, yes. But there are already departments tasked with enforcing these rules in the federal government. Creating more bureaucracy isn’t the answer.

Impact

Federal agencies.

Cost of H.R. 702

The CBO estimates that enacting this bill would increase administrative costs by less than $500,000 per year.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) introduced this bill to strengthen protections for federal employees:

"The Federal Employee Antidiscrimination Act will help ensure that federal employees can report discrimination without suffering retaliation and that such reports will be thoroughly, fairly, and timely investigated and adjudicated. The bill would also prohibit policies, forms or agreements that seek to prevent employees from disclosing waste, fraud, or illegal actions to the Congress."

This legislation passed the House Oversight & Government Reform committee on a voice vote, and has the bipartisan support of two Republican and two Democratic cosponsors in the House. A previous version passed the House by voice vote during the last Congress but wasn't considered by the Senate.

Of Note: You probably know what discrimination is, and more or less what it would look like in the workplace — sitting through HR videos is part of the human condition. But what about retaliation? The retaliation that this bill refers to is when one person at an agency takes a hostile action against another person after being reported for an infraction. 

For example, in April 2015, a prison employee had her office moved to a converted cell when she reported a superior for trying to move their staff office closer to his house. In 2011, the EEOC said that it was their number-one complaint from federal employees.


Media:

Summary by James Helmsworth and Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: Flickr user USDAgov)