Senator Murray forcefully opposed Andrea Lucas’s nomination and Trump’s illegal firings of Commissioners Burrows & Samuels; In July hearing, Murray grilled Andrea Lucas on EEOC’s shocking dismissal of discrimination cases under her tenure—MORE HERE
Murray, former HELP Chair, released a major report on workplace harassment and secured confirmation of pro-worker Commissioners at EEOC; Murray leads comprehensive legislation to prevent workplace harassment
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement on U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Chair Andrea Lucas’s move to rescind the EEOC’s Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace.
The comprehensive anti-harassment guidance, issued in April 2024, was the EEOC’s first update on harassment since 1999. The 2024 guidance made much-needed and long-overdue updates to better reflect Congress’s intent, including addressing online harassment, and responding to the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County recognizing that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on gender orientation and sexual discrimination. Senator Murray applauded the updated guidance when it was issued under the Biden administration.
“This is a senseless betrayal from an administration doing everything it can to make working people’s lives harder at every turn. While this move doesn’t change the underlying law, this administration is turning back the clock decades by abandoning robust enforcement of sexual harassment in the workplace—this hurts everyone and helps no one. Andrea Lucas is openly waging war on the independence and basic mission of the EEOC—and this move will leave the Commission enforcing guidance from a time when gay marriage was illegal and most people didn’t have internet at home.
“Whether it’s protecting sexual predators in the Epstein files, promoting alleged abusers to the highest offices in government, or getting rid of basic standards to protect workers against harassment, this administration has proven time again and again that they couldn’t care less about workers, women, or victims of abuse. Under Trump, the EEOC is taking the side of abusers over working people just trying to do their jobs. We can’t let this get swept under the rug.”
Andrea Lucas has served as a member of the EEOC since she was first nominated by President Trump in 2020 and was appointed as Chair in November after being confirmed to a second term on the Commission in July (Senator Murray forcefully opposed her confirmation.) Earlier this year, Ms. Lucas served as Acting Chair after President Trump illegally fired EEOC Commissioners Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels at the beginning of his term. Under Ms. Lucas, the EEOC has retreated from longstanding civil rights enforcement work, attacked law firms over their diversity efforts, and targeted the rights of trans workers in particular. At a HELP Committee hearing in July on Andrea Lucas’s nomination, Senator Murray grilled Ms. Lucas on EEOC’s shocking and indiscriminate dismissal of discrimination cases involving people who are nonbinary.
As the top Democrat on the Senate Labor Committee from 2015-2022 and a champion of gender equality her entire career, Senator Murray has long been a leader when it comes to fighting workplace harassment. In 2018, Senator Murray spearheaded a historic report on how workplace harassment is impacting workers in industries across the country. She pressed the Secretaries of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services under the Trump administration on what they were doing to prevent harassment at their workplaces and pressed trade associations representing industries with some of the highest rates of sexual harassment to be more transparent and accountable. Murray was also a lead advocate for the confirmation of Kalpana Kotagal and Jocelyn Samuels as EEOC Commissioners, delivering a pro-worker majority on the EEOC for the Biden administration. When President Trump illegally fired EEOC Commissioners Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows at the beginning of his term, Senator Murray forcefully condemned the move, led Senators in a letter demanding their immediate reinstatement, and continued to press the issue publicly at every opportunity.
Senator Murray also leads the Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination (BE HEARD) in the Workplace Act, comprehensive legislation to prevent workplace harassment, strengthen and expand key protections for workers, and support workers in seeking accountability and justice.
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