Measure Aims to Bill Lawmakers for Sexual Harassment Claims
Lawmakers are working on legislation to make members of Congress liable for settlements over sexual harassment claims against them.
The efforts to overhaul the sexual harassment settlement payment process comes after the Congressional Office of Compliance (OOC) released data this month that revealed at least four cases in which offices used a total of $199,000 of taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment claims.
GOP House Administration Chairman Gregg Harper of Mississippi hopes to file a sweeping bill Wednesday evening that would overhaul the system for reporting and handling sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill. It would put legislators in charge of footing their own bills for sexual harassment claims against them.
Members should reimburse the government for such payments, Harper told reporters Tuesday.
“There’s no doubt that members have made it clear that taxpayer dollars should not be used for the purposes of settling a sexual harassment claim," he said.
What’s unclear is exactly how the bill’s language will shake out with regard to Congressional offices as a whole: Will lawmakers still be able to dip into the OOC Awards and Settlement Fund — the taxpayer pool that’s been used for years — to handle cases against their office that do not contain allegations against the members themselves? How personally liable will they be for previously unknown bad apples within their office? And how about settlement cases in which the office does not admit liability?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/measure-aims-to-bill-lawmakers-for-sexual-harassment-claims/ar-BBH4WFe?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=edgsp
