Capitol Hill spurred into action
Lawmakers long ignored calls for harassment training
WASHINGTON – Congress was warned seven years ago by its own office that handles sexual harassment complaints that lawmakers were not doing enough to prevent harassment on Capitol Hill.
In regular reports to Congress since then, the Office of Compliance has urged Congress to require training for all offices, a recommendation that was never adopted.
Now, with high-profile sexual harassment allegations spreading across the country — including two sitting members being named in sexual misconduct cases — congressional leaders are finally promising to impose the mandatory harassment training.
“Finally somebody’s hearing us,” said Susan Tsui Gundmann, executive director of the Office of Compliance. “This is great, that after seven years of making recommendations to Congress that we have been heard and they are undertaking the training. The training is the floor. What really needs to change is the culture, and that comes through time.”
The efforts come with the growing number of allegations of sexual misconduct and assault by powerful figures such as producer Harvey Weinstein and CBS News host Charlie Rose.
Capitol Hill has been rocked by its own allegations of harassment involving Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and the suggestion by some lawmakers that there are other harassers among them. Conyers denied a report Tuesday by BuzzFeed that he made sexual advances on staff members, but he acknowledged he had settled a harassment claim.
“Sometimes it does takes scandals of this nature to wake up any institution, not just Congress,” said Bradford Fitch, president & CEO of Congressional Management Foundation, which trains congressional staffers. “The journalistic community right now is dealing with its own demons, so to speak, so it’s going to take a lot of these institutions time.”
This month, the Senate approved a resolution requiring mandatory training on sexual harassment prevention for members and their staffs. Last week, the House Administration Committee held a hearing to review its policies on sexual harassment, including whether to require training. Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said there’s bipartisan support for mandatory training. The change requires legislative action.
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who has led the push to require the training, said at the hearing that she knew of at least two members of Congress who had been involved in sexual harassment. Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., said she was told of a staffer who quit after a lawmaker asked her to bring work material to his house, then exposed himself. They declined to identify the members.
The next day, Speier, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and others introduced a bill that would include manda- tory training and change the complaint process at the Office of Compliance. Some lawmakers said the process can be confusing and long and doesn’t do enough to protect accusers.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who told the administration committee to review the chamber’s policies, has said he supports mandatory training, and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has said she does, too. Ryan said the committee was reviewing additional changes to workplace policies.
“People who work in the House deserve and are entitled to a workplace without harassment or discrimination,” Ryan said in a statement Tuesday in response to the news about Conyers.
Speier said she hopes the House will act by the end of the year.
“Sometimes it does takes scandals of this nature to wake up any institution, not just Congress.” Bradford Fitch president and CEO, Congressional Management Foundation