Sponsors (4)
The bill increases transparency, accountability, and explicit protections for NOAA personnel and fisheries operations—while clarifying coverage and strengthening enforcement—but does so at the cost of privacy risks for victims, added administrative burdens and compliance costs, and expanded criminal exposure that could chill lawful behavior.
NOAA employees, observers, and related federal workforce: public synopses and expanded annual reporting will make sexual‑harassment, assault, and EEOC outcomes more transparent and increase organizational accountability.
Observers, at‑sea monitors, catch monitors, Regional Fishery Management Council members, and other NOAA 'covered personnel': clearer statutory coverage and consistent definitions will ensure these groups are explicitly protected and subject to uniform rules.
NOAA employees and contractors (including vessel crews): the bill preserves and extends privacy and restricted‑reporting options—allowing confidential disclosures without automatic PII publication and enabling victims to authorize limited sharing—while requiring policy updates to modernize protections.
Victims, complainants, and NOAA personnel: public synopses and expanded reporting (including incident locations/operations) risk inadvertent identification and could deter reporting, undermining victim safety and disclosure rates.
NOAA, Coast Guard, and taxpayers: compiling, redacting, and publishing case synopses and expanded reports, plus implementing new definitions and screening rules, will create recurring administrative workloads and costs that divert staff time from operations.
Vessel crews, contractors, and victims: mandatory vessel reporting that requires names/contact information and 'as soon as' reporting via fastest channels may expose victims' PII, place operational burdens on small operators, and the exclusion of restricted reports may leave some incidents with less external oversight.
Based on analysis of 9 sections of legislative text.
Expands NOAA reporting, definitions, victim‑PII disclosure rules, vessel reporting duties, and bars certain sexual‑offense convictions from NOAA Corps service.
Official title: To amend the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 to address sexual harassment and sexual assault involving National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration personnel, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 27, 2025 by Suzanne Bonamici · Last progress March 27, 2025
Strengthens NOAA workplace protections by expanding reporting, transparency, definitions, and mandatory reporting for sexual harassment and sexual assault involving NOAA personnel, at-sea observers, and vessel crews. It requires broader annual reporting, authorizes limited disclosures of victim PII for specified purposes, updates restricted-reporting rules, clarifies criminal referral timing, and applies a Title 10 sexual-offense bar to the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps. The bill also updates statutory definitions to explicitly cover observers and Regional Fishery Management Council members, changes certain Magnuson‑Stevens Act language to broaden the scope of a prohibited act against authorized officers, and makes conforming edits across the subtitle to use the new term "covered personnel."