House Bills - 110th Congress

H. R. 3514 —The Gender Bias Elimination Act of 2007

On September 10, 2007, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) introduced H.R. 3514, the Gender Bias Elimination Act of 2007, to eliminate gender bias against women in careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Provisions would require the Director, NIH, to carry out a program, in cooperation with scientific and professional societies and organizations, to host mandatory national meetings that educate members of review panels, university department chairs and agency program officers about methods that minimize the effects of gender bias in evaluations. The agency would also be required to (1) enforce the Federal anti-discrimination laws at universities and other higher education institutions through regular compliance reviews and prompt and thorough investigation of discrimination complaints; (2) collect, store and publish composite information on demographics, field award type and budget request, review score, and funding outcome for all funding applications; (3) establish policies for extending grant support for researchers who take a leave of absence due to care giving responsibilities; and (4) provide both descriptive and evaluative reports to the House Committee on Science and Technology and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Similar provisions are included for the Departments of Energy and Defense, the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.