WASHINGTON — Congress on Thursday passed bipartisan legislation banning the use of forced arbitration to address sexual assault and harassment claims in the workplace, and sent President Biden a measure to end a secret practice which is often used to protect perpetrators from full and public accountability.
The Senate passed the measure by one vote, passing the bill three days after it passed the House by an overwhelming majority. It could revolutionize the way companies deal with sexual abuse allegations, and it has been hailed by employment lawyers as one of the most significant changes to employment law in decades. The White House has indicated that Mr. Biden will sign it.
The bill’s swift passage was also the latest sign of an attempt by Democratic leaders in Congress, after a series of legislative failures at central elements of their domestic agendas, to recalibrate their approach to focus on smaller issues that are bipartisan. generate support.
“The differences between the parties are real and cannot be ignored,” New York Democrat and majority leader Senator Chuck Schumer said before the bill was passed. But he added that lawmakers also “couldn’t ignore the real opportunity for progress when both sides agree to make progress on certain issues.”
On Tuesday, the House passed the most sweeping overhaul of the postal service in nearly two decades, as well as an emergency bill to prevent a government shutdown. And on Wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators tabled new legislation to re-approve the Violence Against Women Act, which they said was close to finding the 60 votes it would take to pass in the Senate.
“We now have a series of bipartisan bills moving forward,” said Mr. Schumer, who did Thursday to put the postal revision to a vote in the Senate.
The forced arbitration bill brought together an unlikely coalition of liberals and conservatives. It would give survivors of sexual harassment and assault the option to sue their abusers in a state, tribal or federal court, even if a survivor had signed an employment contract prohibiting such lawsuits and misconduct claims had to be settled by arbitration.
An estimated 60 million American workers are subject to such agreements, which have drawn attention in the years since the #MeToo movement as a major reason that it is difficult to punish sexual abusers for their violations. The secret arbitration process could weigh heavily in favor of protecting abusers, denying victims a chance to account, advocates of the bill said.
“We’re giving these workers a new path to justice,” said New York Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who proposed the bill in 2017 with South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
“The bill will help fix a broken system,” she said at a news conference after its adoption.
Graham said the measure would force companies to “up their game”, comparing sexual harassment and assault in the workplace to an employee losing a finger at work.
“I am a Republican with limited government, but there is a place for government when it comes to our daily lives,” Mr Graham said after the vote.
He said he hoped the legislation would set a model for more bipartisan work in the Senate. “There are plenty of things we can do that are so meaningful,” he said.
During the press conference, Mr. Graham and Mr. Schumer congratulated a tearful Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News host whose lawsuit against Roger Ailes, the former Fox News chairman, brought public attention to the issue of forced arbitration.
“You started it,” Mr. Schumer told her. “You had courage.”
Some Republicans opposed the bill, arguing that the federal government had no place to enter into and invalidate employment contracts. But the legislation gained such widespread support that none of them insisted on officially registering their objections, leaving the legislation passed without a registered vote.
Such a result is a rarity in today’s Senate, where the two parties have bitterly sparred over policy and Republicans have used the filibuster to block much of Mr Biden’s agenda.
The wave of legislative activity this week follows a torturous few months on Capitol Hill for the president and his party. Democrats saw their push for voting rights legislation thwarted by a Republican blockade, and they failed to reach consensus within their ranks to push a $2.2 trillion social safety net and climate change package across the united Republican opposition.
