Congressional slush fund covers up sexual harassment cases

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Darmok
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28 Nov 2017, 10:49 am

In case you've missed the news, we now know that Congress has a private slush fund (taxpayer money) that's used to pay legal settlements for congressmen who have been accused of sexual harassment.

Congress Pressured to End Sexual Harassment Secret Payoffs as They Expect More Scandals

Minnesota Democrat Senator Al Franken. Michigan Democrat Representative John Conyers. Who is next? It could be anyone! A Washington Post report from a few weeks ago showed that the “Office of Compliance has paid more than $17 million for 264 settlements and awards to federal employees for violations of various employment rules” since 1997. This includes sexual harassment.

Congress returns to work after the Thanksgiving holiday to immense pressure not only to reveal the causes and people involved in these settlements, but to make the process more transparent.

The grueling process really came to light when BuzzFeed published its report on Conyers. He settled a wrongful dismissal claim in 2015 when a female employee claimed he fired her because she didn’t give into his sexual advances.


https://legalinsurrection.com/2017/11/c ... -scandals/


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ASPartOfMe
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28 Nov 2017, 11:36 am

Quote:
Without a human resources department, an employee must report sexual harassment to the Office of Compliance within 180 days. This will lead “to a lengthy process involves counseling, mediation, and requires the signing of a confidentiality agreement before a complaint can go forward.”

Once that ends, the employee may opt to take the case to federal district court or it can go to “an administrative hearing, after which a negotiation and settlement may follow.”


180 days? Many victims wait years or decades before getting the courage to speak up. Call it the "Cover Your Ass Slush Fund". And the experts are still clueless about the anger in "flyover" country(SMH).


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Darmok
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30 Nov 2017, 6:10 pm

And the hits keep coming:

NEW: Congress secretly paid close to $100,000 in taxpayer funds to settle sexual harassment claims from at least two young male staffers who worked for disgraced former Congressman Eric Massa.

https://twitter.com/JustinFishelABC/sta ... 2891683842

(His party isn't mentioned, so that's how you know he was a Democrat.)


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Darmok
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30 Nov 2017, 7:05 pm

Now there's a policy everyone should support, from Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R) of Tennessee:

@MarshaBlackburn
Using taxpayer dollars to settle sexual harassment claims against members of Congress is disgusting. We're going to release the names of those who used this hush fund, and these individuals will pay this money back to the American people with interest.


https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/sta ... 3817172993


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