Democratic lawmakers propose anti-harassment bill after EEOC scraps guidance

Posted by News Room 23 February 2026
Democratic lawmakers propose anti-harassment bill after EEOC scraps guidance

Dive Brief:

  • Democratic senators and representatives have reintroduced a bill (S.B. 3865 and H.R. 7583) to address harassment and sexual orientation- or gender identity-based discrimination in the workplace, according to a press release from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., one of the sponsors of the legislation. 
  • The introduction of the bill, Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination in the Workplace Act of 2026, or the Be Heard Act, is in response to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s rescission of its harassment guidance in keeping with the Trump administration’s directives, per the release. 
  • The Be Heard Act includes provisions to end mandatory arbitration and pre-employment nondisclosure agreements and to extend time limits for reporting harassment, among other reforms.

Dive Insight:

EEOC’s rescission of its 2024 harassment guidance was long predicted after President Donald Trump’s second term began and Andrea Lucas was named acting chair and then chair of EEOC. 

Lucas early on made a pledge to “[roll] back the Biden administration’s gender identity agenda” and called for the rescission of the guidance to “protect the sex-based privacy and safety needs of women.” 

“Every worker should be safe and respected in their workplace, this shouldn’t be controversial,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement. “Under the Trump Administration, the EEOC is weakening protections and exposing workers to discrimination, harassment, and abuse at their jobs. The BE HEARD Act would take critical steps to confront workplace harassment and ensure workers can seek the accountability they deserve when their rights are violated.”

The Be Heard Act would require continued reporting on instances of workplace harassment and would provide workers with access to more information and training about what is harassment and what their rights are if they are harassed, according to a one-pager on the bill. 

The act also would aim to “[strengthen] civil rights protections for all workers and [make] clear that the Civil Rights Act protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the context of workplace discrimination,” per the document.