Senate Misconduct Settlements Have Totaled At Least $600K In Last 20 Years

The Capitol is seen during a heavy rain as lawmakers begin their August recess, in Washington, Friday, July 28, 2017.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
In this July 28, 2017 photo, the Capitol is seen during a heavy rain in Washington. Harvey has scrambled the equation for Congress as lawmakers return to Washington Tuesday. Having accomplished little in the first si... In this July 28, 2017 photo, the Capitol is seen during a heavy rain in Washington. Harvey has scrambled the equation for Congress as lawmakers return to Washington Tuesday. Having accomplished little in the first six months of the year they now face a daunting workload, but the immediate need to send aid to help Texas and Louisiana recover from the massive storm damage takes center stage, and pushes other disputes to the side. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

The Senate Rules Committee on Thursday revealed that, over the last 20 years, at least $600,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent in settlement agreements involving misconduct allegations against senators’ offices, according to several reports.

Politico and NBC News reported, citing data the panel released jointly with the Senate Appropriations Committee, that the figure was paid out from the Office of Compliance’s fund that is designated for handling workplace misconduct. The total does not reflect any payments that lawmakers may have made from their office budgets, which are also funded by taxpayers.

According to Politico, two of the claims settled using the fund involved racial discrimination, three involved disability discrimination, eight involved age discrimination and one involved a claim of sex discrimination, though it was not clear whether harassment or other misconduct was involved.

The data also reflected settlements paid by Senate offices not led by a member, according to Politico. Those have totaled $853,225 for 10 claims since 1997, according to the data, and included three claims of sex discrimination.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. This list is incomplete. I happen to know about $1.5 trillion in misconduct that the Senate approved just last week.

  2. That is a lot of dicks out of a lot of pants.
    Paid for by the taxpayer
    Talk about adding insult to injury

  3. Hard to imagine any business that could afford to pay for its employees, literal fuck ups, like that.

  4. Fox News: Is that all? We paid out more than that last week.

  5. Avatar for theod theod says:

    When will the list of sexy perps in the House & Senate be made transparent and very very public? It is not likely to have been sealed with the JFK Assassination Files.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

8 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for fgs Avatar for old_curmudgeon Avatar for theod Avatar for nellieh Avatar for sickneffintired Avatar for arc_of_the_universe Avatar for dickweed Avatar for mrf Avatar for georgeh Avatar for professorpoopypants Avatar for eisenst

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: