IB 
Union Calendar No. 115 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 36 
[Report No. 116–153] 
To provide for research to better understand the causes and consequences 
of sexual harassment affecting individuals in the scientific, technical, 
engineering, and mathematics workforce and to examine policies to re-
duce the prevalence and negative impact of such harassment, and for 
other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 3, 2019 
Ms. JOHNSON of Texas (for herself and Mr. LUCAS) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 
JULY 12, 2019 
Additional sponsors: Mr. LIPINSKI, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. BISHOP of 
Georgia, Mr. VEASEY, Mr. LAWSON of Florida, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. 
LEWIS, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Ms. SEWELL of Alabama, 
Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Ms. BONAMICI, Ms. 
SPEIER, Mrs. DEMINGS, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. BEYER, Mr. DANNY K. 
DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. RICHMOND, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Ms. NORTON, Mr. 
FITZPATRICK, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. COHEN, 
Ms. KUSTER of New Hampshire, Mr. LAMB, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, 
Ms. HAALAND, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. SOTO, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. PORTER, 
Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. LEVIN of Michigan, Mr. KILMER, Ms. ROY-
BAL-ALLARD, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. RUSH, 
Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. MOORE, Mr. CASTEN of Illinois, 
Mr. MCNERNEY, Mr. HIMES, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, 
Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. LUJA´N, Ms. SHERRILL, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. 
DEAN, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. NEGUSE, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. PALLONE, 
Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. BERA, Mr. CASE, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. FOSTER, 
Mr. POCAN, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. HILL of California, Ms. HOULAHAN, 
Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. SIRES, Mr. 
WELCH, Mr. MICHAEL F. DOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. HARDER of Cali-
fornia, Mr. SHERMAN, Ms. STEVENS, Miss RICE of New York, Mr. 
GARCI´A of Illinois, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. COX of California, Mr. CART-
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WRIGHT, Ms. MUCARSEL-POWELL, Mr. PAPPAS, Mr. SWALWELL of Cali-
fornia, Ms. OMAR, Mr. GONZALEZ
of Ohio, Mr. YARMUTH, Mr. 
MOULTON, Mr. LEVIN of California, Mr. TONKO, Ms. WEXTON, Miss 
GONZA´LEZ-COLO´N of Puerto Rico, Mr. PERLMUTTER, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. 
BALDERSON, Mr. MARSHALL, Mrs. FLETCHER, Ms. KENDRA S. HORN of 
Oklahoma, Mr. WALTZ, Mr. SARBANES, Ms. DELAURO, and Mr. TED 
LIEU of California 
JULY 12, 2019 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on January 3, 2019] 
A BILL 
To provide for research to better understand the causes 
and consequences of sexual harassment affecting individ-
uals in the scientific, technical, engineering, and mathe-
matics workforce and to examine policies to reduce the 
prevalence and negative impact of such harassment, and 
for other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Combating Sexual Harassment in Science Act of 2019’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings. 
Sec. 3. Definitions. 
Sec. 4. Research grants. 
Sec. 5. Data collection. 
Sec. 6. Responsible conduct guide. 
Sec. 7. Interagency working group. 
Sec. 8. National academies assessment. 
Sec. 9. Authorization of appropriations. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) According to the report issued by the Na-
tional Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medi-
cine in 2018 entitled ‘‘Sexual Harassment of Women: 
Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic 
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’’— 
(A) sexual harassment is pervasive in insti-
tutions of higher education; 
(B) the most common type of sexual harass-
ment is gender harassment, which includes 
verbal and nonverbal behaviors that convey in-
sulting, hostile, and degrading attitudes about 
members of one gender; 
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(C) 58 percent of individuals in the aca-
demic workplace experience sexual harassment, 
the second highest rate when compared to the 
military, the private sector, and Federal, State, 
and local government; 
(D) women who are members of racial or 
ethnic minority groups are more likely to experi-
ence sexual harassment and to feel unsafe at 
work than White women, White men, or men 
who are members of such groups; 
(E) the training for each individual who 
has a doctor of philosophy in the science, tech-
nology, engineering, and mathematics fields is 
estimated to cost approximately $500,000; and 
(F) attrition of an individual so trained re-
sults in a loss of talent and money. 
(2) Sexual harassment undermines career ad-
vancement for women. 
(3) According to a 2017 University of Illinois 
study, among astronomers and planetary scientists, 
18 percent of women who are members of racial or 
ethnic minority groups and 12 percent of White 
women skipped professional events because they did 
not feel safe attending. 
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(4) Many women report leaving employment at 
institutions of higher education due to sexual harass-
ment. 
(5) Research shows the majority of individuals 
do not formally report experiences of sexual harass-
ment due to a justified fear of retaliation or other 
negative professional or personal consequences. 
(6) Reporting procedures with respect to such 
harassment are inconsistent among Federal science 
agencies and have varying degrees of accessibility. 
(7) There is not adequate communication among 
Federal science agencies and between such agencies 
and grantees regarding reports of sexual harassment, 
which has resulted in harassers receiving Federal 
funding after moving to a different institution. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ACADEMIES.—The term ‘‘Academies’’ means 
the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and 
Medicine. 
(2) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means the 
Director of the National Science Foundation. 
(3) FEDERAL SCIENCE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Fed-
eral science agency’’ means any Federal agency with 
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an annual extramural research expenditure of over 
$100,000,000. 
(4) FINDING
OR
DETERMINATION.—The term 
‘‘finding or determination’’ means the final disposi-
tion of a matter involving a violation of organiza-
tional policies and processes, to include the exhaus-
tion of permissible appeals, or a conviction of a sex-
ual offense in a criminal court of law. 
(5) GENDER HARASSMENT.—The term ‘‘gender 
harassment’’ means verbal and nonverbal behaviors 
that convey hostility, objectification, exclusion, or sec-
ond-class status about one’s gender, gender identity, 
gender presentation, sexual orientation, or pregnancy 
status. 
(6) GRANTEE.—The term ‘‘grantee’’ means the 
legal entity to which a grant is awarded and that is 
accountable to the Federal Government for the use of 
the funds provided. 
(7) GRANT PERSONNEL.—The term ‘‘grant per-
sonnel’’ means principal investigators, co-principal 
investigators, postdoctoral researchers and other em-
ployees supported by a grant award, cooperative 
agreement, or contract under Federal law. 
(8) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.—The 
term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the mean-
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