Sponsors (11)
The bill substantially expands federal protections, leave, benefits eligibility, and enforcement for survivors of domestic, sexual, and technology‑enabled harms—improving safety, access to care, and remedies—while imposing meaningful compliance, administrative, and litigation costs on employers, insurers, and governments that may be passed on to consumers or reduce funding flexibility for services.
Survivors of domestic, sexual, and technology‑enabled violence (including nonconsensual images/deepfakes) and their families gain comprehensive new federal protections — including job‑protected leave (up to 40 days, with at least 10 paid if elected), workplace safety/accommodation rights, anti‑retaliation remedies, and preserved health coverage during leave — improving safety, recovery, and income
People who are survivors cannot be denied, canceled, or charged premium surcharges for health coverage; those leaving an abuser’s plan get continuation/conversion options (18 months) and privacy protections, with federal enforcement and statutory damages to deter insurer misconduct
Individuals asserting claims under certain titles keep access to federal courts (no forced arbitration or delegation clauses), preserving public adjudication, jury trials, and consistent federal interpretation of rights
Employers (especially small businesses), insurers, and state/local agencies face substantial new compliance, administrative, and reporting costs (paid leave, accommodations, recordkeeping, privacy policies, notices, training, UI changes) that could be passed to consumers, employees, or taxpayers
The law increases litigation exposure (fee‑shifting, statutory damages, §1981a damages) and will divert many disputes from arbitration into federal courts, raising legal costs for defendants and potentially swelling federal caseloads and delays
Certification, verification, and certain disclosure requirements (even with confidentiality limits) may force some victims to reveal sensitive information or obtain documentation they lack, creating privacy and safety risks and potentially delaying access to benefits or accommodations
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Creates federal safe-leave and workplace-accommodation requirements for survivors, bans certain arbitration clauses, expands UI eligibility for victims, and bars insurers from penalizing victims.
Official title: Promote the economic security and safety of survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 21, 2026 by Patty Murray · Last progress May 21, 2026
Creates a set of federal protections for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and related harms. It requires employers to provide up to 40 workdays of “safe leave” (at least 10 paid days by employee choice), mandates reasonable workplace safety accommodations, expands unemployment eligibility for people who leave jobs because of qualifying violence, bars insurers from penalizing victims, limits certain arbitration clauses, and strengthens grant program administration to support workplace response and survivor services.