Home lawmakers doled out greater than $338,000 in taxpayer funds from a so-called “sexual harassment slush fund” between 2007 and 2017, in accordance with information launched by Rep. Nancy Mace this week.
The determine is larger than beforehand identified, however a a lot decrease portion of the $18 million complete paid out in response to office complaints on Capitol Hill than had been rumored.
On Monday, Mace (R-SC) confirmed the names of 4 former legislators whose workplaces made funds: Reps. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), Eric Massa (D-NY), John Conyers (D-Mich.), and Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.)
All 4 had been beforehand identified to have confronted sexual misconduct accusations.
Farenthold’s workplace paid out $84,000 in 2014, Massa’s paid out $115,000 over a number of events in 2010, Conyers’ workplace paid out $50,000 in 2010 along with a $27,111.75 severance cost in 2017, and Meehan’s workplace spent $39,250 in 2017.
All 4 had been additionally included on the Home Ethics Committee’s listing, launched final month, of all 28 publicly disclosed sexual misconduct probes of members courting again to 1976.
Two workplaces on Mace’s listing weren’t beforehand identified to have made funds: Former Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), who paid out $15,000; and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), who reached an $8,000 settlement.
Alexander has since claimed the payout was associated to habits by a former staffer who was fired after the previous rep realized in regards to the allegation. McCarthy died final 12 months.
Again in 2018, on the peak of the “#MeToo” motion, Congress handed a regulation banning the federal authorities from footing the invoice for lawmakers’ sexual harassment instances, ending the observe of taxpayer-funded settlements.
Mace obtained the names after the highly effective Home Oversight Committee subpoenaed the data earlier this 12 months.
“One thousand pages,” Mace posted on X with a binder full of data. “All information previous to 2004 had been destroyed – which tells you the whole lot it’s good to learn about how lengthy this has been buried.”
“We’ll launch the total 1,000 pages – as soon as we affirm that personally identifiable data of victims and witnesses has been correctly redacted,” she added. “Accountability shouldn’t be a menace. It’s a promise.”
Mace’s colleague, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) had demanded transparency in regards to the greater than than $18 million paid out to settle near 300 office complaints involving congressional workplaces, the Capitol Police, the workplace of the Architect of the Capitol, and the Library of Congress between 1997 and 2019.
These settlements lined points together with discrimination, harassment, pay disparity, and retaliation.
Hypothesis had mounted {that a} very giant chunk of the $18 million paid out, as cited in a 2019 Workplace of Congressional Office Rights report, went to sexual misconduct claims.
“$18 million of your taxpayer {dollars} was used to payout sexual harassment settlements by the congressional slush fund,” Luna claimed on X final month.
The Put up contacted Luna’s workplace for remark.
Congress has confronted a reckoning over sexual misconduct following the rape accusations that emerged in opposition to disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) final month.
Swalwell in the end dropped his bid for California governor and resigned from Congress. Now he’s going through probes from the Manhattan District Legal professional’s Workplace, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division, and the Justice Division. The California Dem denied wrongdoing however acknowledged “errors in judgment,” together with extramarital affairs.
Former Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) was additionally pressured into resigning final month after the married dad of six was caught sexting subordinates, together with one who fatally lit herself on fireplace after dousing herself with gasoline with gasoline final 12 months.
