General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBe prepared for hits to come on the House of Rep. Progressive Caucus
Link to tweet
The first one just dropped.
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva quietly arranged a severance package in 2015 for one of his top staffers who threatened a lawsuit claiming the Arizona Democrat was frequently drunk and created a hostile workplace environment, revealing yet another way that lawmakers can use taxpayer dollars to hide their misbehavior on Capitol Hill.
While the Office of Compliance has been the focus of outrage on Capitol Hill for hush-money payouts in sexual harassment cases, the Grijalva payout points to another office that lawmakers can use to sweep accusations under the rug with taxpayer-funded settlements negotiated by the House Employment Counsel, which acts as the attorney for all House offices.
The employment counsel negotiated a deal for taxpayers to give $48,395 five additional months salary to the female aide, who left her job after three months. She didnt pursue the hostile workplace complaint further.
The arrangement appears to run contrary to House rules that constrain severance packages, and it caught the eye of watchdogs who were already demanding answers about payouts in the wake of harassment complaints.
More: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/27/raul-grijalvas-secret-deal-exposes-second-hush-fun/
Mr. Smith seems to have some connectiona in the media and frequently knows what it coming in advance. His tweet was 4 days ago.
MelissaB
(16,420 posts)and Conyers was the first?
List: https://cpc-grijalva.house.gov/caucus-members/
saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)Oh NO, not Grijalva, that is heart breaking for me. Ok, to be pretend media, where is the outrage over Republicans in Congress who have similar issues? I can't help control the news cycles when Democrats do not behave with honor, honesty and integrity.
nycbos
(6,034 posts)doesn't make them worthy of our support.
Compliments like this against members shouldn't come from tax payer funds period.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)If all of them were made public, we'd have a lot of sudden vacancies in Congress, I think. No single group, other than almost all of the women in Congress, would escape from such public exposure, I think.
Progressives, conservatives, blue dogs, yellow dogs, they'd all show up in such a list of pay-offs.
In my opinion, it all should be exposed to public scrutiny. Let the chips fall where they may. Let the elections sort it all out, once the information is known.
And that's my opinion.