NOAA Harassment and Assault Improvements Act

Full Title:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sexual Harassment and Assault Prevention Improvements Act of 2025

Summary#

This bill would change rules about sexual harassment, sexual assault, and equal employment for people who work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It updates existing law (a subtitle added to the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act) to add reporting, investigation, and privacy rules. The bill adds requirements for annual public reports, clarifies who must be notified about criminal referrals, and requires updates to restricted reporting systems. It also creates a mandatory reporting duty for the entity responsible for a NOAA-operated or contracted vessel to tell the Coast Guard about certain at-sea incidents, and it updates definitions of covered personnel to list observers, at-sea monitors, and some council members. The bill makes several clerical changes and adds a rule to bar certain people convicted of some sexual offenses from serving in the NOAA commissioned officer corps.

What it means for you#

  • If you are a NOAA employee, commissioned officer, covered personnel, or a fisheries/protected-species/endangered-species observer, the bill changes how harassment and assault cases are reported, documented, and handled.
  • Vessel operators or the responsible entity for a NOAA vessel must report incidents involving certain NOAA mariners or crewmembers to the Coast Guard quickly and by the fastest telecommunication method available.
  • Restricted reporting options must be updated so people can report confidentially without automatically triggering an investigation and without unnecessary sharing of personally identifying information, except in specified cases.
  • Annual reports to Congress or the public must include summaries and synopses of harassment, assault, and equal employment cases, plus data on transfers and denials and cases involving observers.

Expenses#

No publicly available information on costs or budgetary effects is included in the bill text or metadata provided.

Proponents' View#

No publicly available information.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information.