WASHINGTON — In the absence of a central place on Capitol Hill to report workplace harassment, some female lawmakers have taken action themselves.
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Following the sexual misconduct scandals surrounding former Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who both resigned this week, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., publicly assured all Hill staffers they could come to her office with complaints if they did not feel comfortable going to their own bosses.
So far, she says she has received at least one unverified allegation involving a senator, which she flagged to Senate GOP Leader John Thune’s office. The matter has since been forwarded to the Senate Ethics Committee, Thune, R-S.D., said.
The ad hoc effort to create a safe space for staffers underscores how challenging it can still be to report sexual misconduct in Congress — an institution that has long struggled to police itself.
Recognizing the problem, Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., a member of the House Administration Committee, which oversees workplace issues on the Hill, last year launched a page on her own website where whistleblowers can report sexual harassment, assault or misconduct. She said her team has communicated to other offices that this is a place where staffers can report inappropriate behavior on Capitol Hill, including by members of Congress.
“The support for these victims is not where it needs to be,” said Torres, who added that her office has received complaints from both the judicial and executive branches as well.
”Each member of Congress runs their own office as your business and the support system should come from that office. And if it’s not there … they’re always welcome to come to my office,” she said.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., also encouraged any staffers who were experiencing harassment from a member of Congress to come to a female lawmaker, saying there are valid concerns about whether such sensitive matters can be handled internally.
“It should be more accessible for women to report any kind of mistreatment, sexual misconduct,” Boebert told NBC News. “It should be easier for them to notify someone … instead of shoving it into the Ethics Committee, which I don’t see a lot come out of.”
The House and Senate both have ethics committees, which investigate wrongdoing by members of Congress, but a number of lawmakers in both parties complain those panels are too slow — creating the potential for continued harassment — and that more needs to be done to protect young staffers in the workplace.
Boebert also encouraged her colleagues to “go to church” and “find Jesus.”
“Like I mean, why is everybody so horny here?” she said.
The dual resignations this week from Swalwell, who has been accused of sexual assault allegations that he denies, and Gonzales, who admitted to an affair with his staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, who died by suicide, are sparking new calls for an ethical reckoning and accountability reforms on both Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
“It’s just shocking. My wife said to me, ‘How the hell could this be happening in this day and age? What the hell is wrong? Why isn’t the system working here?’ And I don’t know the answers to all of that,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., a former Rules Committee chairman who has served in Congress for nearly 30 years. “There’s a feeling like, we got to do better here. This is unacceptable; it’s a stain on this entire institution.”
A former Gonzales staffer who accused him of sending her explicit text messages said in an interview Friday that she believes he would have “fired” her for other reasons had she reported him to her superior. (NBC News generally does not name victims of alleged sexual misconduct unless they have come forward publicly).
“I could handle it myself,” she said of the alleged harassment. “Now, do I wish that there was someone I could have gone to that would have listened and not labeled me the problem child? Yes. But I think more so for the Reginas out there that are younger, they’re not experienced in this atmosphere of bad boy behavior. They don’t know how to handle it.”
Some reforms were made in 2018 in the wake of the #MeToo movement, such as requiring more transparency around workplace harassment, annual training for members and their aides, and more disclosure of discrimination settlements in congressional offices, including which office was involved and the amount, though specific case details still remain shielded.
“Members who abuse their staff, they have to pay for their own defense, and they have to pay for the settlements themselves out of their own pocket — not campaign, not their budget, but their own pockets,” Torres of the 2018 reforms.
There is an existing code of official conduct for members and employees, which is written by Congress and up to them to enforce. There are also some existing channels to report potential misconduct: anyone, even members of the public, can file a complaint to the House Ethics Committee.
But there is no central human resources department on Capitol Hill, leaving offices largely on their own to develop and administer HR policies. And the current system isn’t working, members say.
Some point to Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., who has been under investigation by the Ethics Committee since November over what the panel says are allegations of “sexual misconduct and/or dating violence” and campaign finance violations. He has denied all wrongdoing and argued his case is different than Swalwell’s or Gonzales’ because he isn’t accused of an inappropriate relationship with any staff. Earlier this week, a group of lawmakers publicly called on the Ethics Committee to speed up its Mills investigation in light of the Swalwell allegations and fallout.
“For punishment to be a deterrent, it needs to be certain, swift and severe. The ethics process is anything but that,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who has authored bills to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.
Luna is advocating to impose a deadline on Ethics Committee investigations, revoke pensions for any lawmaker who resigns or is expelled over sexual misconduct, require even more disclosure of congressional harassment settlements and ban members from having sexual relationships with any congressional staff.
House rules ban lawmakers from engaging in a sexual relationship with staff in their own office or on committees on which they serve. But the rules don’t govern lawmakers’ relationships with other members’ staffers.
“Ethics needs an entire overhaul,” Luna told NBC News. “There also needs to be accountability for if other people knew about sexual misconduct. We can put into the rules: If you knew about it, didn’t do anything about it, why are you in a position of power?”
Rep. Laura Friedman, D-Calif., who led successful efforts to overhaul the California Legislature’s sexual harassment policies after the MeToo movement, agrees that members of Congress should not have sexual relationships with employees of other members.
“You still have a power imbalance with senior staff and members of Congress being able to basically pursue relationships with staff in other people’s offices. I think that that could lead to problems,” Friedman said in an interview. “Certainly it’s worse if it’s your own, but you still have the same dynamics at play of an unfair balance of power, potentially leading to people preying on other people’s staff.”
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., agrees.
“If you think your job is to come to Congress to get laid, you don’t belong here. If you think your job is to come here to cheat on your spouse, you don’t belong here,” Lawler said. “And I think it’s long past time for there to be a reckoning.”
It’s unclear whether there’s a wider appetite on Capitol Hill to make any substantial changes. Any updates to the rules in the middle of the year would likely need to go through the House Administration Committee.
When asked if he thinks there needs to be reforms to how workplace harassment gets reported in Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said, “We’re looking at all that” and that the House Ethics Committee is “very busy.”
“We have to maintain decorum; we have to maintain the dignity of our offices,” Johnson said. “We need members to do that and act in accordance with those principles. And if there needs to be reforms, we’ll be looking at that. But you know, look, I think the result of these members resigning is right in light of the horrific things they’ve been accused of.”
Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., a vocal advocate of survivors of sexual assault and harassment, said there is a simple solution to curb sexual misconduct by lawmakers: “Elect more women.”
“This is a good old boys club where bad behavior by male members of Congress was the norm for over 200 years of the history of this country. It wasn’t until the 1990s that we even had a women’s bathroom near the House floor,” Stansbury said.
“I think it is part of the evolving need to continue to clean this place up, to expand opportunity and diversity within the body,” she continued, “and to make it a safe place for both women to serve and women to staff.”
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