Bill aims to overhaul harassment response

The Office of Compliance, meanwhile, released data that shows that the government has paid more than $17 million in taxpayer money over the past 20 years to resolve such claims.

WASHINGTON — As numerous allegations of sexual harassment target men in positions of power, a U.S. representative from California wants Congress to change how it handles complaints as reports surface of settlements involving its employees.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said this week that over the past 20 years, Congress has settled 260 complaints of workplace discrimination “at a cost to taxpayers of this country of $15 million,” reiterating a figure she quoted on NBC on Tuesday. It’s unclear how many of those complaints were related to sexual harassment, versus racial or other forms of discrimination, because Congress doesn’t release that information, nor is it subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.

The Office of Compliance, meanwhile, released data that shows that the government has paid more than $17 million in taxpayer money over the past 20 years to resolve such claims.

Speier and a handful of other Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate are pushing to make that information public as part of new legislation they unveiled Wednesday. The Member and Employee Training and Oversight on Congress Act would overhaul the system for reporting harassment via the compliance office.

“Congress created the Office of Compliance to protect itself from being exposed,” Speier said at the news conference. “And it has been very successful.”

But on Thursday, the compliance office released 21 years worth of data “based on the volume of recent inquiries regarding payment of awards and settlements reached,” Susan Tsui Grundmann, the office’s executive director, said in a statement.

The office doesn’t break the figures down, meaning there’s no way to determine how many of the 264 settlements and awards dealt specifically with cases of sexual misconduct brought by legislative branch employees. The office, which was created in 1995 by the Congressional Accountability Act, said the cases may involve violations of multiple statutes.

Speier’s bill, among other things, would require the Office of Compliance to publicly identify the offices that have paid settlements for discrimination violations, the amount of money paid, and the number of allegations lodged against each office. The agency would also have to submit a report on those details to members of Congress.

Save for the figures the office recently released, members of Congress don’t have access to the office’s information. The Ethics committees in the House and Senate can access records from the office. But per House rules, the only lawmakers who are allowed to review the settlements are the chairman and ranking member of the House Administration Committee, which oversees the chamber’s internal operations.

The funding for the settlements comes from a Treasury Department account dedicated to court judgments and settlements against the federal government.

The proposal released Wednesday would allow parties to settle harassment or other discrimination complaints without approval from the House Administration Committee or other congressional panels, although they would still have the authority to set ranges for settlement payouts. In addition, members of Congress could not use taxpayer funds to pay for any settlement for a complaint against them, personally. That would have to come from their personal funds.

The legislation, which New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand is sponsoring in the Senate, would also get rid of a requirement in the current law that forces victims to sign a nondisclosure agreement to pursue a discrimination complaint through the Office of Compliance.

The move to shine more light on Congress’ record on sexual harassment could face resistance from within. Capitol Hill has been slow to respond to the #MeToo movement that emerged on social media after revelations accusing Hollywood mega-producer Harvey Weinstein of predatory behavior toward women.

While female legislators, staff and lobbyists in California and elsewhere have called out political leaders for tolerating a culture of harassment, female members of Congress have been much slower to share their stories of past harassment and assault in Washington.

Last week, more than 1,500 former congressional aides signed a letter calling for an overhaul of Capitol Hill’s handling of sexual harassment. But few current staff members have come out to disclose harassment.

Speier testified at a House Administration Committee hearing on sexual harassment on Tuesday that she has heard from dozens of fellow survivors since she shared her story on Twitter of being assaulted as a congressional staff member in the 1970s. That includes two who were harassed by current members of Congress. But she declined to identify those lawmakers Wednesday, explaining, “The victims are the ones who do not want this exposed.”

On Thursday, the Office of Compliance released statistics showing that U.S. taxpayers paid out more than $900,000 in the most recent fiscal year to settle claims on Capitol Hill, the highest amount in 10 years.

Eight cases were settled for nearly $935,000 in fiscal 2017, which ended Sept. 30, the agency reported.

A large portion of the cases “originate from employing offices in the legislative branch other than the House of Representatives or the Senate,” Tsui Grundmann said in her statement.

The claims range from sexual harassment complaints and allegations of religious and racial discrimination to overtime pay disputes, according to the office. The money was paid out between 1997 and 2017.

The largest number of settlements, 25, occurred in 2007, when just over $4 million was paid out, according to the figures. The money comes from an account in the U.S. Treasury.

The only other year to come close to the fiscal 2007 total was fiscal 2002, when 10 cases were settled for just under $4 million. The timing for that figure corresponds with claims related to anthrax attacks in 2001, when congressional offices received letters laced with deadly anthrax spores.