Norton Calls on Republicans to Bring to Floor Bills to Protect Interns from Workplace Discrimination and Harassment

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a former chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), today at an Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on sexual harassment at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) called on her Republican colleagues to cosponsor bills placing interns in the public and private sectors under the jurisdiction of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Norton cited the anti-discrimination bills at the OGR hearing focusing on the EPA's alleged retaliation against employees who manage or receive sexual misconduct allegations and determining the steps the EPA has taken to address sexual misconduct issues. Norton asked EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy whether she would support current bills to protect interns, who have no federal protections from sexual harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, age, disability and other factors. McCarthy said she would have her counsel look at the legislation and get back to the Committee.

Norton cited her experience at the EEOC, which she chaired at a time when sexual harassment itself was not yet covered as a form of sex discrimination. As EEOC chair, Norton issued guidelines that declared sexual harassment to be a violation of the sex discrimination provision of Title VII, later approved by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the lower federal courts have thus far interpreted the Civil Rights Act to only cover paid employees.

"Our interns have become an essential part of the nation's workforce in Congress and in virtually every large workplace across the nation," Norton said. "Members know well that interns here often similar tasks as paid employees. Particularly given the surge in the use of interns, they have become the most vulnerable to workplace discrimination and harassment. There should be no question that discrimination in all its forms against interns should be just as illegal as it is for employees. My Republican friends badgered EPA Administrator McCarthy to the point of congressional harassment on this issue, although the alleged misconduct occurred before she was appointed, and she has taken considerable action since then. If my Republican colleagues are as serious about sexual harassment as their comments seem to indicate, I hope they will join me and other Democrats in bringing to the floor the Unpaid Intern Protection Act or the other two similar bills that are pending."

The three bills that Norton cosponsored are the Unpaid Intern Protection Act, the Federal Intern Protection Act and the Congressional Intern Protection Act. These measures would protect unpaid interns who work at federal agencies, in Congress, and with states and private sector entities.