Federal Employee Antidiscrimination Act of 2019
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. CUMMINGS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Each bill, I am very glad to say, enjoys bipartisan sponsorship. These measures will strengthen protections for Federal employees and for congressional interns and enhance accountability and improve the Federal procurement and grant processes.
The first measure we are bringing today is H.R. 135, the Federal Employee Antidiscrimination Act. This bill is essentially identical to legislation that has passed the House in each of the two previous Congresses. In the 114th Congress, the measure passed by a vote of 403- 0; and in the last Congress, it passed by voice vote.
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleagues--Representatives Meadows, Norton, Sensenbrenner, and Jackson Lee--for working with me on this measure.
I thank them for their leadership and their commitment for improving our Federal equal opportunity programs.
Let me also thank Tanya Ward Jordan, Paulette Taylor, and all the members of the Coalition 4 Change, known as C4C, for their work on this measure and for their years of perseverance as we have worked to try to get this measure enacted into law.
One of my highest priorities as chairman of the Oversight Committee is to protect the right of every single Federal employee, every Federal job applicant, and indeed of every citizen, to equality of opportunity. While the clear majority of Federal workplaces are in compliance with the standards for a model Equal Employment Opportunity program promulgated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, sadly, some still are not. It is past time for these failures to be corrected.
During our committee's bipartisan investigations of several different agencies--including the Forest Service, the Park Service, and the Transportation Security Administration--we have seen firsthand the consequences that employees suffer when agencies fail to operate model EEO programs or when they do not handle complaints of harassment and discrimination in a fair, timely, consistent, and thorough manner.
We have also seen how employees who file complaints with their agencies' EEO programs can be victimized again if appropriate steps are not taken to prevent the disclosure of complainants' identities and personal information.
H.R. 135 would strengthen the management of Federal EEO programs by requiring that they operate independently of agencies' human resources and general counsel offices. H.R. 135 would require that the head of each agency EEO program report directly to the head of the agency. This policy is critical to ensuring that agencies prioritize their EEO programs at the highest levels and that their sole purpose is to ensure equal opportunity for all employees.
H.R. 135 would strengthen the accountability mechanisms that are central to effectiveness of the EEO process. The bill would also prohibit any forms, policies, or agreements that seek to prevent an employee from disclosing waste, fraud, or abuse to Congress, the Office of Special Counsel, or an Inspector General.
Madam Speaker, the provisions in this bill are very simple, and the entire House has repeatedly supported them on a bipartisan basis. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 135, and I urge the Senate to pass this bill as quickly as possible.
Let me be clear that while the measure before us is important to improving our Federal workplaces, many of those workplaces are shut down today, and they have been shut down longer than at any time in our great Nation's history. As the legislation before us proves, we can come together in a bipartisan manner to enact measures that will help the millions of Americans who work for the Federal Government.
As I have often said, our Federal employees do not want us, the government, to hurt them; they want us to help them. We ought to be able to come together on a bipartisan basis and take the simple step of reopening our government and ensuring that the programs and services on which our Nation depends are functioning and that the people who work for us get paid so they can take care of their families and take care of their bills, for they give their blood, their sweat, and their tears to keep our country together.
Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 135, the Federal Employee Antidiscrimination Act. H.R. 135 amends the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002, commonly referred to as the No-FEAR Act, to better identify and correct instances of discrimination throughout the Federal Government.
Specifically, H.R. 135 requires Federal agencies to establish a system to track Equal Employment Opportunity complaints from beginning to end. This system must also track any disciplinary action that resulted from a finding of a discriminatory act. If a disciplinary action is taken by an agency against an employee, both the disciplinary action and the reason for the action must be included in the employee's personnel record.
H.R. 135 implements notification and reporting requirements for instances of discrimination within Federal agencies. Agencies must post a notice on their website if the agency or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finds that a discriminatory or retaliatory act has occurred.
The bill also requires agencies to submit a report to the EEOC if a discriminatory or retaliatory act is found to have occurred. The report must include any disciplinary action initiated against an employee for discrimination or retaliation against another employee.
Lastly, the bill bars agencies from using nondisclosure agreements or policies to restrict Federal employees from reporting waste, fraud, and abuse to Congress, the Office of Special Counsel, and Inspectors General.
Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Cummings for his good work on this piece of legislation, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. CUMMINGS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I just want to associate myself with the words of the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia. So often what we see is our Federal employees often being criticized when it came to trying to find money when we have budgetary problems. It seems that there is an effort to constantly go in to the Federal employees and make them pay. And they do all kinds of jobs. I agree with the gentlewoman. This bill does not solve the problem with the shutdown.
At least I hope that we are sending a message to them that we care about them and that we understand and we feel their pain.
I agree with the gentlewoman. In some kind of way, we ought to be able to move from where we are to getting folks back to work, an independent group looking at, perhaps, the issues that confront the compromisers--that is, looking at this wall--and deal with that at some other time. But we need to get people back to work.
People are in pain. They are feeling it. Not only are the employees feeling it, but all the people who are coming into the various parks or whatever, who simply want to have a nice day, who simply want to have some reasonable entertainment that does not cost them a lot by going for a walk in the park; for getting the services that are needed; for making sure that our airplanes do not have folks on them carrying guns.
These folks who we saw in the airport over the weekend, they are the same ones who are coming in day after day and working for no pay. We are better than that, and I am praying that we will get this issue resolved.
The gentlewoman from the District of Columbia talked about the number of people who she has in her district who are Federal employees. We, in Maryland, have over 100,000 Federal employees, and we have so many people who work for the Federal Government through contracting. There must be a way to get this done.
I am going to close, but I will give the gentlewoman her opportunity, and then I will come back, Madam Speaker. Therefore, I reserve the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. CUMMINGS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I thank my colleagues who worked very hard on this bill: Congressman Meadows, Congresswoman Norton, Congressman Sensenbrenner, and Congresswoman Jackson Lee. All of them worked in a strong, bipartisan way to make this happen.
H.R. 135 is a simple, straightforward measure that would make a handful of changes to require the Federal agencies' equal employment opportunity programs conform to the model standards set forth by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and to strengthen accountability.
This bill has had overwhelming bipartisan support from the entire House of Representatives for years, and I urge the Senate to pass this measure as soon as possible.
As I close, I do not want to address extraneous issues that have previously arisen regarding this measure in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. I want to be crystal clear that I believe that the supervisors who engage in discriminatory or retaliatory actions must be held accountable. However, this can be accomplished without curtailing any existing due process rights for Federal employees, and I will continue to oppose efforts to roll back due process rights.
Madam Speaker, I urge the House to vote in favor of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source