House Dems: Interior’s sexual harassment policy has ‘major deficiencies’

Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee say the Interior Department has a lot of work left to do in its fight against sexual harassment and assault among workers.

The report released by the leading Democrats on the panel found that while the National Park Service (NPS) has robust policies that cover important areas like maintaining confidentiality and prohibiting retaliation, other agencies within the department do not.

The findings come shortly before the other Interior agencies, like the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service, are due to submit revised sexual misconduct policies following Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s request for changes.

{mosads}

“The report shows conclusively that one of the first steps in addressing harassment is to implement a strong anti-harassment policy and make all staff aware of it, a step some agencies have yet to take,” Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and A. Donald McEachin (D-Va.) wrote in a piece in The Hill about the report.

“Such policies cannot stop at an often counterproductive ‘zero tolerance’ statement of purpose, as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s comments on the issue have frequently done,” they wrote. “They need to lay out a clear mechanism for reporting incidents of harassment, create a meaningful and predictable process for investigating claims, protect the confidentiality of complainants and explicitly prohibit retaliation against those who come forward.”

Grijalva is the ranking member of the committee, and McEachin is the ranking member of the panel’s oversight subcommittee.

The Obama administration started making strides on sexual harassment in its final years after multiple women started to speak out about their experiences.

Zinke came to the job last year promising to make fighting misconduct a top priority. He released survey results finding that 38 percent of NPS workers and 35 percent of the department as a whole had similar experiences.

“All employees have the right to work in a safe and harassment-free environment,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement last month.

“I’ve already fired a number of predators who other administrations were too afraid to remove or just turned a blind eye to.”