LEGAL/POLITICS: “A key Senate committee on Thursday [12-21-17] night publicly released data about workplace settlements reached and paid out in the Senate since 1997, totaling some two dozen cases amounting to $1.45 million.
The breakdown, which the Senate Rules and Administration Committee said was information provided by the Office of Compliance, included 13 settlements for claims involving Senate offices. They totaled close to $600,000 over a span of 20 years. The descriptions for the complaints included discrimination based on sex, age and disability, but there was no explicit mention of sexual harassment. There were also 10 additional settlements involving claims against non-member-led Senate offices, totaling $853,000…
Not all settlements are handled through the Office of Compliance. For instance, one of the cases related to Rep. John Conyers, who resigned earlier this month, was settled outside of the compliance office process.
The information released Thursday night had not previously been made public. This lack of disclosure came to light this week following Kaine’s formal request earlier this month to the Office of Compliance. Kaine asked for a release of records detailing the scope of sexual harassment complaints filed against Senate offices over the years.”
-MJ Lee and Sunlen Serfaty, “Senate committee releases settlement details from cases since 1997,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Dec. 22, 2017 10:35am