Bill: Legislators will be liable for sex harassment
WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators including Bay Area Rep. Jackie Speier announced an agreement on legislation Wednesday to make senators and House members personally liable for sexual harassment claims, clearing the way for the bill to pass before the end of the year.
The breakthrough resolves a months-long standoff between the House and Senate, where lawmakers passed different versions of the legislation to govern how Congress handles harassment within its walls.
If the deal had not been struck by the end of the year, lawmakers would have had to start over in the new Congress.
“I feel great,” said Speier, D-San Mateo. She said the compromise will make Congress “safe for women and men to work without fear of sexual harassment or retaliation.”
Speier and her key co-sponsor on the House bill, Republican Bradley Byrne of Alabama, prevailed in their push to include a provision making lawmakers personally liable for paying out any legal judgments and settlements for harassment. Senate negotiators succeeded in keeping that liability from extending to discrimination claims.
At present, taxpayers pay legal judgments and settlements against members of Congress. Taxpayers have paid $17 million for discrimination and harassment claims since 1997, according to the congressional office that manages them. Since 2013, the House has paid out more than $100,000 specifically for sexual harassment and discrimination.
Speier helped craft her legislation after the #MeToo movement began to expose cases in which powerful men in fields including entertainment, politics and the media had engaged in long-running patterns of sexual harassment and abuse.
Speier said she and Byrne would try again on discrimination claims in the next Congress, as well as push to require independent investigations at the beginning of the claim process.
Speier said she expects the bill to speed through both chambers of Congress this week. It will start in the Senate, and could pass both chambers unanimously.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., one of the Senate negotiators, called the deal a “good combination” of the House and Senate bills.
“When the new Congress starts, everybody will understand their personal liability and their personal responsibility. And that will be a good thing,” Blunt told reporters.
“From the members’ point of view, it just creates one more potential liability that you really have less control over how it’s dealt with,” Blunt said. “But you certainly have control over whether you create the situation that creates a need to deal with it or not.”