Revealed: Staggering amount secretly paid out to settle House sex harassment claims

[cbabe]

https://www.rawstory.com/harassment/

Revealed: Staggering amount secretly paid out to settle House sex harassment claims

Daniel Hampton
May 4, 2026 8:13PM ET

The federal government quietly paid out more than $338,000 to settle sexual harassment allegations against House members and their offices since 2004 — nearly double what lawmakers were told during the last period of intense scrutiny in 2017, according to a new report based on data released Monday by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).

Mace, a member of the House Oversight Committee, released a list of nine payments made before Congress banned taxpayer-funded harassment settlements in 2018. The offices implicated include former Reps. Eric Massa (D-NY), John Conyers (D-MI), Blake Farenthold (R-TX) and Patrick Meehan (R-PA) — all previously linked to misconduct — as well as two new revelations involving the late Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and former Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA).

…

The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights confirmed that 30 of the settlements involved members who either committed the misconduct themselves or knew about it.

…

The revelations come as Congress faces renewed scrutiny over how it handles sexual misconduct allegations, following the recent resignations of two lawmakers over inappropriate behavior with staff — and amid an ongoing ethics probe into Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) over separate sexual harassment accusations.

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[Irish_Dem]

1. We pay these guys to abuse women and then pay for the cover up.

[BlueTsunami2018]

2. While even one dollar is too much, that's hardly a "staggering" amount of money.

The pattern of behavior is certainly disturbing, it seems to have been going on for decades if not centuries at this point. The whole “dead girl, live boy” axiom is a thing for a reason.

I thought the settlements would be a lot more than $15k a year over 22 years. Imagine what has been gotten away with in just that time let alone since the founding.

There’s a serious problem in the halls of power.

[Intractable]

3. Yup! Democrats do it, too.

Damn them.

[MerryBlooms]

4. Interns in every capacity are abused by jerks.

I was an intern in 1980, high school, in a realtor office. I lasted a month, and bailed. The harassment was awful. I ended up in a pear packing job, not much better.

No matter where you ty to intern, you get this harassment. Difference here, our tax money is paying these jerks! Don't get me started on the insider trading perks we're paying for, on top of the other shit going on.