[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6371 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 6371
To prohibit certain uses of automated decision systems by employers,
and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 3, 2025
Ms. Bonamici (for herself, Mr. Deluzio, and Mr. Moylan) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and
Workforce, and in addition to the Committees on House Administration,
and Oversight and Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit certain uses of automated decision systems by employers,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``No Robot Bosses Act''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
For purposes of this Act:
(1) Automated decision system.--
(A) In general.--The term ``automated decision
system'' means a system, software, or process that--
(i) uses computation, in whole or in part,
to determine outcomes, make or aid decisions
(including through evaluations, metrics, or
scoring), inform policy implementation, or
collect data or observations, including such a
system, software, or process derived from
machine learning, statistics, or other data
processing or artificial intelligence
techniques; and
(ii) is not passive computing
infrastructure.
(B) Passive computing infrastructure.--For purposes
of this paragraph, the term ``passive computing
infrastructure'' means any intermediary technology that
does not influence or determine the outcome of a
decision, make or aid in a decision (including through
evaluations, metrics, or scoring), inform policy
implementation, or collect data or observations,
including web hosting, domain registration, networking,
caching, data storage, or cybersecurity.
(2) Automated decision system output.--The term ``automated
decision system output'' means any information, assumption,
prediction, score, recommendation, decision, evaluation,
metric, conclusion, inference, or profile generated by an
automated decision system.
(3) Candidate.--The term ``candidate'', with respect to an
employer, means an individual who applies, or applied, to be
employed by, or otherwise perform work for remuneration for,
the employer.
(4) Covered individual.--The term ``covered individual'',
with respect to an employer, means an individual--
(A) who is employed by, or otherwise performing
work for remuneration for, the employer, including such
an individual who is--
(i) any individual performing work for
remuneration for an employer described in
clauses (i)(I) and (ii) of paragraph (6)(A);
(ii) any individual performing work for
remuneration for an entity described in
paragraph (6)(A)(i)(II);
(iii) any individual performing work for
remuneration for an employing office described
in paragraph (6)(A)(i)(III);
(iv) any individual performing work for
remuneration for an employing office described
in paragraph (6)(A)(i)(IV); or
(v) any individual performing work for
remuneration for an employing agency described
in paragraph (6)(A)(i)(V); or
(B) who is a candidate with respect to the
employer.
(5) Employ.--The term ``employ'' has the meaning given such
term in section 3 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29
U.S.C. 203).
(6) Employer.--
(A) In general.--The term ``employer'' means any
person who is--
(i)(I) a covered employer who is not
described in any other subclause of this
clause;
(II) an entity employing a State employee
described in section 304(a) of the Government
Employee Rights Act of 1991 (42 U.S.C. 2000e-
16c(a));
(III) an employing office, as defined in
section 101 of the Congressional Accountability
Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1301);
(IV) an employing office, as defined in
section 411(c) of title 3, United States Code;
or
(V) an employing agency covered under
subchapter V of chapter 63 of title 5, United
States Code; and
(ii) engaged in commerce (including
government), or an industry or activity
affecting commerce (including government).
(B) Covered employer.--In subparagraph (A), the
term ``covered employer''--
(i) means any person engaged in commerce or
in any industry or activity affecting commerce
who employs, or otherwise engages for the
performance of work for remuneration, 11 or
more covered individuals;
(ii) includes--
(I) any person who acts, directly
or indirectly, in the interest of a
covered employer in relation to any
individual performing work for
remuneration for such covered employer;
(II) any successor in interest of a
covered employer;
(III) any public agency; and
(IV) the Government Accountability
Office and the Library of Congress; and
(iii) does not include any labor
organization (other than when acting as an
employer) or anyone acting in the capacity of
officer or agent of such labor organization.
(C) Public agency.--For purposes of this paragraph,
a public agency shall be considered to be a person
engaged in commerce or in an industry or activity
affecting commerce.
(D) Definitions.--For purposes of this paragraph,
the terms ``commerce'', ``person'', and ``public
agency'' have the meanings given the terms in section 3
of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C.
203).
(7) Employment-related decision.--The term ``employment-
related decision'' includes a decision by an employer with
regard to--
(A) hiring a covered individual (including any
decision with regard to recruiting, screening,
interviewing, or selecting a candidate);
(B) firing, retaining, taking a disciplinary action
against, demoting, or reassigning duties of a covered
individual; or
(C) any other term, condition, or privilege of
employment or work of the covered individual, such as
relating to pay, scheduling, health care or long-term
care coverage, benefits, or hours worked or promoting a
covered individual.
(8) Government entity.--The term ``government entity''
means--
(A) a Federal agency (as such term is defined in
section 3371 of title 5, United States Code);
(B) a State or political subdivision thereof;
(C) any agency, authority, or instrumentality of a
State or political subdivision thereof; or
(D) a Tribal government or political subdivision
thereof.
(9) Indian tribe.--The term ``Indian Tribe'' means any
Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village,
community, component band, or component reservation
individually identified (including parenthetically) in the list
published most recently as of the date of enactment of this Act
pursuant to section 104 of the Federally Recognized Indian
Tribe List Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 5131).
(10) Labor organization.--The term ``labor organization''
has the meaning given the term in section 2(5) of the National
Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 152(5)), except that such term
shall also include--
(A) any organization composed of labor
organizations, such as a labor union federation or a
State or municipal labor body; and
(B) any organization which would be included in the
definition for such term under such section 2(5) but
for the fact that the organization represents--
(i) individuals employed by the United
States, any wholly owned Government
corporation, any Federal Reserve Bank, or any
State or political subdivision thereof;
(ii) individuals employed by persons
subject to the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C. 151
et seq.); or
(iii) individuals employed as agricultural
laborers.
(11) Predispute arbitration agreement.--The term
``predispute arbitration agreement'' means any agreement to
arbitrate a dispute that has not yet arisen at the time of the
making of the agreement.
(12) Predispute joint-action waiver.--The term ``predispute
joint-action waiver'' means an agreement, whether or not part
of a predispute arbitration agreement, that would prohibit, or
waive the right of, one of the parties to the agreement to
participate in a joint, class, or collective action in a
judicial, arbitral, administrative, or other forum, concerning
a dispute that has not yet arisen at the time of the making of
the agreement.
(13) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Labor.
(14) State.--The term ``State'' means each of the several
States of the United States, the District of Columbia, or any
territory or possession of the United States.
(15) State attorney general.--The term ``State attorney
general'' means--
(A) with respect to a State, the attorney general
or chief law enforcement officer of the State, or
another official or agency designated by the State to
bring civil actions on behalf of the State or the
residents of the State; and
(B) with respect to a Tribal government, the
attorney general or chief law enforcement officer of
the Tribal government, or another official or agency
designated by the Tribal government to bring civil
actions on behalf of the Tribal government or the
Indian Tribe of the Tribal government.
(16) State privacy regulator.--The term ``State privacy
regulator'' means--
(A) the chief consumer protection officer of a
State; or
(B) a State consumer protection agency with
expertise in data protection.
(17) Tribal government.--The term ``Tribal government''
means the recognized governing body of an Indian Tribe.
SEC. 3. USE OF AN AUTOMATED DECISION SYSTEM BY AN EMPLOYER.
(a) Employment-Related Decisions.--
(1) In general.--An employer--
(A) may not rely exclusively on an automated
decision system in making an employment-related
decision with respect to a covered individual; and
(B) may not use an automated decision system output
in making an employment-related decision with respect
to a covered individual unless--
(i) the automated decision system used to
generate such automated decision system output
has had pre-deployment testing and validation
with respect to--
(I) the efficacy of the system;
(II) the compliance of the system
with applicable employment
discrimination laws, including--
(aa) title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.
2000e et seq.);
(bb) the Age Discrimination
in Employment Act of 1967 (29
U.S.C. 621 et seq.);
(cc) title I of the
Americans with Disabilities Act
of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12111 et
seq.);
(dd) title II of the
Genetic Information
Nondiscrimination Act of 2008
(42 U.S.C. 2000ff et seq.);
(ee) section 6(d) of the
Fair Labor Standards Act of
1938 (29 U.S.C. 206(d));
(ff) sections 501 and 505
of the Rehabilitation Act of
1973 (29 U.S.C. 791; 793); and
(gg) the Pregnant Workers
Fairness Act (division II of
the Consolidated Appropriations
Act, 2023 (Public Law 117-
328));
(III) the lack of any potential
discriminatory impact of the system,
including discriminatory impact based
on race, color, religion, sex
(including pregnancy, sexual
orientation, or gender identity),
national origin, age, or disability and
genetic information (including family
medical history); and
(IV) the compliance of the system
with the Artificial Intelligence Risk
Management Framework released by the
National Institute of Standards and
Technology on January 26, 2023, or
successor framework;
(ii) such automated decision system is, not
less than annually, independently tested for
discriminatory impact described in clause
(i)(III) or potential biases and the results of
such test are made publicly available;
(iii) the employer has provided the
disclosure required under paragraph (2) with
respect to such use of an automated decision
system output;
(iv) such use is designed for purposes of
making such an employment-related decision;
(v) the employer independently
corroborates, via meaningful oversight by a
human with appropriate and relevant experience,
such automated decision system output;
(vi) not later than 7 days after making
such an employment-related decision, the
employer provides full, accessible, and
meaningful documentation in plain language to
such covered individual (at no cost to such
covered individual) on the automated decision
system output, including--
(I) a description of the automated
decision system used to generate such
automated decision system output;
(II) a description and explanation,
in plain language, of the input data to
such automated decision system used to
generate such automated decision system
output and a machine-readable copy of
such data;
(III) a description and explanation
of how such automated decision system
output was used in making such
employment-related decision; and
(IV) the reasoning for the use of
such automated decision system output
in such employment-related decision;
and
(vii) the employer enables the covered
individual to, after receiving such