Bipartisan Women, Torres and Hinson Secures Provisions to Limit Judicial Sexual Harassment and Workplace Misconduct
Bipartisan Women of Subcommittee Fight to Stop Sexual Harassment at the Judiciary
Washington D.C. –– During the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee’s fiscal year 2025 funding bill markup, Congresswomen Norma J. Torres (CA-35) and Ashley Hinson (IA-02) – the only women members of the subcommittee – tout the inclusion of report language in the House-passed bill. The Congresswomen’s report language sets expectations about how the Judiciary must reform and work to improve its systems to prevent sexual harassment and workplace abuse. This is the first instance in which a Republican-led Committee has included strong, bipartisan report language concerning the need for the Judiciary to reform its systems to protect employees from sexual harassment and workplace misconduct. This report language holds the Judiciary accountable to reveal available data and why they have failed to implement needed reforms to prevent sexual assault, harassment, and abuse in workplaces. Simultaneously, the report language pushes the Judiciary to make several necessary improvements including adding additional monetary remedies into the employee complaint process and providing legal counsel to employees who have been victims of harassment.
“No American should suffer from sexual harassment, abuse, or assault in the workplace, especially within the halls of the U.S. judicial system where decisions about fairness and the law are carried out,” said Congresswoman Torres. “Reforms to ensure the judiciary, like all other federal workplaces, protects its own employees is long overdue and I am proud to see bipartisan agreement to make it a reality. My amendment will not only increase transparency within the federal judiciary, but also empower its employees to report instances of abuse previously left unchecked. No institution or individual should be above the law – even those who interpret it – and our democracy is stronger when our courts and its employees are protected from sexual harassment and abuse.”
Background: Congresswoman Torres’ report language:
- Directs the Judiciary to share the results of its national climate survey with Congress no later than 30 days after the enactment of this act. The Judiciary’s national climate survey was completed in early 2023.
- Sets Congressional expectation that the Judiciary must share more data with the Committee and implement several outstanding reforms it has thus far failed to execute.
- Endorses funding for the Judiciary to incorporate additional monetary remedies into the employee complaint process and provide free legal counsel to employees regarding workplace rights to the extent allowable by statute.
Full Report Language: Administrative Office of the Courts.—
The Committee awaits the Judiciary’s national climate survey results as consolidated by the Federal Judicial Center no later than 30 days after the enactment of this Act; the Committee expects that the Judiciary will implement the recommendations provided by the Government Accountability Office and the Judiciary’s Workplace Conduct Working Group to improve systems to prevent workplace misconduct, or report to the Committee on the insurmountable barriers to implementation that have prevented the Judiciary from completing these reforms. To facilitate these efforts, the Committee endorses funding for the Judiciary to incorporate additional monetary remedies into the employee complaint process and provide free legal counsel to employees regarding workplace rights to the extent allowable by statute. The Committee requests an update to the 1996 report requested by Public Law 104-1 on the application to the judicial branch of specified Federal labor laws.
To read Congresswoman Torres’ public letter to Judge Conrad concerning the Judiciary climate survey, click here.
###