33 U.S.C. § 894
Verified against govinfo.gov as of June 20, 2026View official text on govinfo.gov ↗
- (a)Not later than 1 year after December 23, 2016, the Secretary of Commerce shall, acting through the Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere, develop a policy on the prevention of and response to sexual harassment involving employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, members of the commissioned officer corps of the Administration, and individuals who work with or conduct business on behalf of the Administration.
- (b)The policy developed under subsection (a) shall include—
- (1)establishment of a program to promote awareness of the incidence of sexual harassment;
- (2)clear procedures an individual should follow in the case of an occurrence of sexual harassment, including—
- (3)establishment of a mechanism by which—
- (4)a prohibition on retaliation and consequences for retaliatory actions.
- (c)In developing the policy required by subsection (a), the Secretary may consult or receive assistance from such State, local, and national organizations and subject matter experts as the Secretary considers appropriate.
- (d)The Secretary shall ensure that the policy developed under subsection (a) is available to—
- (e)The Secretary shall designate out of existing staff at least 1 employee of the Administration who is tasked with handling matters relating to equal employment opportunity or sexual harassment at each marine and aviation center of the Administration.
- (f)
- (1)Not less frequently than 4 times each year, the Director of the Civil Rights Office of the Administration shall submit to the Under Secretary a report on sexual harassment in the Administration.
- (2)Each report submitted under paragraph (1) shall include the following:
- (A)The number of sexual harassment cases, both actionable and non-actionable, involving individuals covered by the policy developed under subsection (a).
- (B)The number of open actionable sexual harassment cases and how long the cases have been open.
- (C)Such trends or region-specific issues as the Director may have discovered with respect to sexual harassment in the Administration.
- (D)Such recommendations as the Director may have with respect to sexual harassment in the Administration.