House Votes 420-0 to Expose Lawmakers Who Used Taxpayer Funds to Settle Sexual Misconduct Claims
The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a resolution compelling the public disclosure of which lawmakers used taxpayer money to settle sexual misconduct claims.
On June 30, the House passed Rep. Thomas Massie’s privileged resolution, H.Res. 1399, by a 420-0 vote, with no member opposing the measure. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who has previously led her own transparency push on sexual misconduct settlements, was the lone lawmaker to vote “present.”
The resolution applies only to House procedures and does not require Senate or presidential action.
Massie’s resolution directs both the House Ethics Committee and the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights (OCWR) to compile and publicly release a consolidated list of all members who were involved in sexual harassment or sexual abuse cases that led to taxpayer-funded payouts. For each Member, Delegate or Resident Commissioner, the list must include the lawmaker’s name and the total amount of taxpayer money spent on settlements, awards, reimbursements or other financial arrangements tied to those matters. The offices must also publish aggregate totals of taxpayer-funded settlements in cases that did not involve sexual misconduct, as well as those involving employees of the House.
Any settlement or payment is treated as involving sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or sexual misconduct if those allegations were any part of the matter, even if the case was formally categorized or resolved under another type of claim. The Ethics Committee and OCWR have 60 days from the resolution’s adoption to make all of these records publicly available.
In March, a separate Mace resolution that would have preserved and publicly released more expansive investigation records, with victim names redacted, was referred to the Ethics Committee by a 357-65 vote. Since then, newly obtained documents have shown that taxpayers paid more than $300,000 over decades to quietly settle sexual harassment claims involving lawmakers and their offices.
