Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I want to thank the chair and ranking member of the committee for bringing this bill forward at a time of national…”

“I want to thank the chair and ranking member of the committee for bringing this bill forward at a time of national crisis in the workplace on sexual harassment. When I chaired the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which was 15 years after the statute had been passed, sexual harassment had not even been defined as a form of workplace discrimination. We held hearings and so defined it, and the Supreme Court thereafter affirmed the EEOC guidelines. Congress, nevertheless, exempted itself until 30 years later when in 1995--prompted by a controversy involving Members of the Congress-- brought Congress under 13 major civil rights and labor laws. But mysteriously--and I still can't understand why--Congress exempted itself from the easiest provision, the provision we bring forward today for posting and training. I will never understand that failure, but we are trying to move forward today. There are other needed provisions, and I have introduced a bill to bring the comprehensive provisions that we now require of the legislative branch or the private sector forward, and I thank the Committee on House Administration for continuing to work on these issues, too. Congress failed in 1964. Congress failed again in 1995. Now, in 2017, it is impossible to justify exempting congressional offices and Members of Congress from the comprehensive provisions Congress now requires of private employers and Federal agencies.…”