Senate compliance office rejects Kaine’s request for harassment records

The Senate’s Office of Compliance on Monday rejected Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) request for information about sexual harassment settlements in Congress, citing the Congressional Accountability Act’s confidentiality rules.

Earlier this month, Kaine asked the office to provide data about sexual harassment claims and settlements against members of the Senate and their staffers, with the intention of making the data public.

But in a letter to Kaine, reported by Politico, the office’s director, Susan Tsui Grundmann, wrote that the Congressional Accountability Act prevented the office from providing the detailed information he sought due to confidentiality requirements.

“The [Office of Compliance] shares your concern over the issue of sexual harassment in Congressional workplaces, and we stand ready to work with Members, Committees, and other employing offices to promote awareness and prevention of this problem,” Grundmann wrote.

In the letter, Grundmann said that her office  does not have “investigatory authority” over discrimination claims, including sexual harassment.

“The [Office of Compliance] does not possess reliable information regarding the number of sexual harassment claims that have been filed or settled, the identities or positions of the individuals alleged to have committed sexual harassment, or why the parties reached settlements,” she wrote.

Kaine submitted his request on the day that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) announced his resignation from the Senate after multiple women alleged that Franken had groped or forcibly kissed them in the past. In the same week, Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) also stepped down over sexual misconduct accusations.

{mosads}The office had previously released data that showed more than $17 million in taxpayer dollars had gone to paying settlements involving Capitol Hill employees, but it was not clear how much of that was related to sexual harassment violations.

Grundmann noted that claims are filed against offices, not individuals, so it would be impossible to provide data that would distinguish between claims filed against members and those against staffers.

Kaine said in a statement that he was “disappointed” in the result of his inquiry and would “keep pushing” for the public release of the data.

“If Congress truly wants to fix a broken system, we need to understand the scope of the problem,” he said.