The federal government does not have a mechanism for dealing with sexual-misconduct allegations against grantees.

When applying for a federal grant, universities must promise that their scientists will not engage in “research misconduct.” The government does not consider sexual misconduct part of that definition. In large part, that’s because sexual misconduct is covered by Title IX, the law that forbids sex-based discrimination in federally funded universities. But the government “has never banned a grantee, let alone an institution, for violating Title IX,” Witze reported in Nature. There’s a simple-sounding solution to that: The government could just start banning grantees if they were found to have violated Title IX. But as Scientific American reported in October, many women scientists feel let down by Title IX, because it gives universities control over any investigations into its scientists. Those same universities have an interest in finding no violation, because if they do, their reputation and funding suffers.