A bipartisan group of United States senators called on Wednesday for a special committee to investigate how U.S.A. Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee handled sexual abuse of athletes.

If passed by the full Senate, a resolution sponsored by Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, and Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, would establish a special committee to determine the extent to which U.S.A. Gymnastics and the U.S.O.C. “were complicit in the criminal or negligent behavior of their employees relating to sexual abuse.”

The committee would also be charged with identifying “solutions to the systemic failures” that allowed such abuse to continue unchecked for decades, and with recommending ways to increase transparency and athlete safety.

“We’re introducing this resolution to establish a special committee entirely focused on investigating how this abuse was allowed to go on for so long and why leaders of the U.S.O.C. and U.S.A. Gymnastics failed to protect these young women,” Ms. Ernst said at a news conference. “We have the opportunity to stand up for the brave survivors who came forward.”