March 2020
On March 19, the Government Accountability Office issued a report finding that federal agencies funding STEM research are taking actions to address sexual harassment, but that additional actions are needed to ensure compliance with Title IX.
The GAO report examined how five agencies respond to Title IX complaints, establish and communicate an overall plan on agency efforts to prevent sexual harassment to university grantees, and collaborate on efforts to prevent sexual harassment at the universities they support. The Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are included in this analysis.
The findings include:
The GAO provided 17 recommendations to agency to improve its efforts to communicate information to grantees and interagency efforts to share information. Two of the recommendations address NSF in its internal actions and in interagency work:
House Science, Space and Technology Committee chair Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and ranking member Frank Lucas (R-OK) requested the report as part of their oversight efforts. John Neumann, managing director of science, technology assessment, and analytics with the GAO, presented preliminary findings in front of the committee in June.