Reps. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene referred to as on Congress Thursday to launch the names of present and former members on a secret checklist of lawmakers which have used taxpayer cash to settle sexual harassment claims.
“Congress has secretly paid out more than $17 million of your money to quietly settle charges of harassment (sexual and other forms) in Congressional offices,” Massie (R-Ky.) wrote on X.
“Don’t you think we should release the names of the Representatives? I do,” he added.
Massie’s suggestion was shortly endorsed by Greene (R-Ga.).
“Yes. I want to release the congressional sexual slush fund list,” the congresswoman wrote on X.
“Taxpayers should have never had to pay for that. Along with all the other garbage they should not have to pay for,” she argued.
Since 1997, the Workplace of Congressional Office Rights has paid out greater than $17 million in public cash to settle practically 300 instances of office disputes on the US Capitol – together with claims associated to sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation and pay disputes.
The obscure workplace doesn’t launch the identities of these have reached settlements and doesn’t break down how a lot of the cash disbursed over the past 27 years is particularly associated to sexual harassment claims.
The workplace instructed Politico in 2017 that “a large portion of cases” it resolves contain employees not employed within the Home or Senate, equivalent to Library of Congress, Capitol Police and Architect of the Capitol staff.
Members of Congress which have settled sexual harassment claims exterior of the Workplace of Congressional Office Rights, just like the late former Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) did in 2015, wouldn’t be included within the secret checklist.
Two former Home Republicans additionally confirmed assist for releasing the names on the “sex slush fund.”
“Massie is spot on,” former Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) wrote on X. “Taxpayer $$ must NEVER be used to SECRETLY bail out sexual (& other) harassers. A Capitol Hill harassing supervisor should foot the bill. THAT stops harrassment! In DC, taxpayers are last.”
“Yes. Taxpayers deserve to know,” former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) tweeted in assist of Massie.
The calls for from Massie and Greene comply with the discharge of a Home Ethics Committee report into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use in opposition to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
Within the aftermath of the controversial launch of the report, which got here after Gaetz resigned from Congress, the Florida Republican floated the thought of briefly returning to Capitol Hill for the only objective of exposing these on the key checklist.
“Someone suggested the following plan to me,” Gaetz wrote on X final week. “1. Show up 1/3/2025 to congress 2. Participate in Speaker election (I was elected to the 119th Congress, after all…) 3. Take the oath 4. File a privileged motion to expose every ‘me too’ settlement paid using public funds (even of former members) 5. Resign and start my @OANN program at 9pm EST on January 6, 2025.”
Politico reported final week that some GOP lawmakers are already passing round a draft decision that may do exactly that.
