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Norton to Introduce Bill to Offer Congressional Employees Same Protections as Other Federal Workers and Private Sector Employees

July 31, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Following yesterday's release of the Office of Compliance's (OOC) annual report on the state of the congressional workplace, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a former chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, announced that she will introduce the Congress Leads By Example Act of 2015 to subject Congress and its agencies to federal health and safety standards and civil rights laws that currently apply to executive branch agencies and private sector employers, but not to Congress. In this year's report, the OOC recommended providing legislative branch employees with certain protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, which are included in Norton's bill. Norton first introduced this bill 2011 as a follow up to her 2010 hearings and investigation on safety violations in the U.S. Capitol complex that had endangered employees and visitors, as well as claims of workplace hazards by Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) employees.

"If Congress, our nationally elected legislature, is not yet a workplace where workplace laws are fully applied, how can Congress sit in judgment of public and private employers who must comply with the full complement of laws?" Norton asked rhetorically. "Despite the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, Congress continues to exempt itself from many of the civil rights, labor, and workplace safety and health laws that protect private sector and executive branch employees. Congress must come into the 21st century of employee protections as it steadily holds hearings to ensure others comply."