Congressional Office Silent For Now On Taxpayer Funds Doled Out For Lawmakers’ Sexual Misconduct Settlements
The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights (OCWR) provided no information on whether it has undisclosed information regarding taxpayer funds used to pay out lawmakers' sexual misconduct settlements.
The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights (OCWR) provided no information on whether it has undisclosed information regarding taxpayer funds used to pay out lawmakers’ sexual misconduct settlements.
The House passed Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie’s resolution on June 30 that directed the OCWR and House Ethics Committee to release a list of congressional members subject to sexual misconduct investigations and disclose cases that resulted in taxpayer-funded monetary settlements. The OCWR told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday it will fully comply with the resolution, though they refused to provide further comment.
“We fully intend to comply with the provisions of H. Res. 1399 within 60 days of passage, as directed by the resolution. We will have no further comment until then,” the OCWR told the DCNF.
From Jan. 1, 1996, to Dec. 12, 2018, the OCWR approved 349 awards or settlements “to resolve complaints against legislative branch offices,” its general counsel told Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer in a letter, according to CNN. Eighty of those cases were settled by a House or Senate office.
The payments used taxpayer money from a Treasury account that no longer exists as an option for lawmakers, CNN reported.
The resolution directed the Ethics Committee and OCWR to provide “the total amount of taxpayer funds included in all settlements, payments, reimbursements, awards, or other financial considerations paid in connection” to these sexual misconduct investigations. Before its passage, Massie said the resolution was about transparency.
“I would urge my colleagues to vote for this in the interest of transparency and openness,” Massie said. “We need to know what’s been going on here in the House of Representatives in order to convince the people and ensure the people that we are conducting the people’s business with the utmost integrity and treating the officers and the employees of this institution with the respect that they deserve.”