Reps. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene called on Congress Thursday to release the names of current and former members on a secret list of lawmakers that have used taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment claims.
“Congress has secretly paid out more than $17 million of your money to quietly settle charges of harassment (sexual and other forms) in Congressional offices,” Massie (R-Ky.) wrote on X.
“Don’t you think we should release the names of the Representatives? I do,” he added.
Massie’s suggestion was quickly endorsed by Greene (R-Ga.).
“Yes. I want to release the congressional sexual slush fund list,” the congresswoman wrote on X.
“Taxpayers should have never had to pay for that. Along with all the other garbage they should not have to pay for,” she argued.
Since 1997, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights has paid out more than $17 million in public money to settle nearly 300 cases of workplace disputes at the US Capitol – including claims related sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation and pay disputes.
The obscure office does not release the identities of those have a reached settlements and does not break down how much of the money disbursed over the last 27 years is specifically related to sexual harassment claims.
The office told Politico in 2017 that “a large portion of cases” it resolves involve workers not employed in the House or Senate, such as Library of Congress, Capitol Police and Architect of the Capitol employees.
Members of Congress that have settled sexual harassment claims outside of the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, like the late former Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) did in 2015, would not be included in the secret list.
Two former House Republicans also showed support for releasing the names on the “sex slush fund.”
“Massie is spot on,” former Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) wrote on X. “Taxpayer $$ must NEVER be used to SECRETLY bail out sexual (& other) harassers. A Capitol Hill harassing supervisor should foot the bill. THAT stops harrassment! In DC, taxpayers are last.”
“Yes. Taxpayers deserve to know,” former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) tweeted in support of Massie.
The demands from Massie and Greene follow the release of a House Ethics Committee report into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
In the aftermath of the controversial release of the report, which came after Gaetz resigned from Congress, the Florida Republican floated the idea of briefly returning to Capitol Hill for the sole purpose of exposing those on the secret list.
“Someone suggested the following plan to me,” Gaetz wrote on X last week. “1. Show up 1/3/2025 to congress 2. Participate in Speaker election (I was elected to the 119th Congress, after all…) 3. Take the oath 4. File a privileged motion to expose every ‘me too’ settlement paid using public funds (even of former members) 5. Resign and start my @OANN program at 9pm EST on January 6, 2025.”
Politico reported last week that some GOP lawmakers are already passing around a draft resolution that would do just that.
