House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries appointed a bipartisan task force that can work to reform the best way sexual harassment claims are dealt with in Congress.
The effort shall be lead by Republican Rep. Kat Cammack and Democratic Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez. Each of the ladies is their celebration’s respective ladies’s caucus chair.
The announcement comes amid elevated scrutiny over how Congress handles allegations of sexual misconduct and rising frustration even among the many establishment’s personal members in regards to the arduous and difficult reporting process for victims. It additionally comes after two House members — Eric Swalwell, a Democrat, and Tony Gonzales, a Republican — resigned after each males confronted threats of expulsion from Congress.
Congress has lengthy struggled to police itself even after there was a significant overhaul to the best way it handled sexual harassment and different office points within the wake of the #MeToo motion in 2018.
Since that point, the House Ethics Committee, the one entity with the facility to make suggestions to punish members of the House, has additionally come beneath the microscope as members have criticized the panel for taking generally years to supply suggestions.
“Together, we will push for bipartisan changes to make the reporting process faster and more accessible and increase education and training resources, prioritizing staff and survivors at every step. This effort builds on the work of members of the DWC, who have pushed for better support and protections for survivors for years. We bring that expertise and dedication to this partnership,” Leger Fernández mentioned in an announcement.
“This effort has the support of Speaker Johnson and Leader Jeffries because this issue transcends politics. It’s about dignity, accountability, and ensuring that every person who comes to work in the People’s House is treated with respect and protected from abuse,” Cammack mentioned in an announcement. “The reality is that coming forward is extraordinarily difficult. Fear of retaliation, damage to careers, public scrutiny, and institutional pressure often silence victims long before justice has a chance to speak. We cannot claim to support women while ignoring the very real barriers that prevent them from reporting misconduct in the first place.”
The effort comes as each Johnson and Jeffries have had to navigate the political implications of dropping members of their caucuses to resignations following allegations of sexual misconduct.
“To state the obvious, all women should feel comfortable and safe working in the halls of Congress. As a father who has two daughters working on Capitol Hill — this is as personal to me as it is to anyone,” Johnson mentioned in an announcement. “I am happy that Reps. Cammack and Leger Fernández, the respective chairs of the Republican and Democratic Women’s Caucuses, will lead this bipartisan partnership to find ways we can continue to make Capitol Hill safer for women and all staff.”