The congressional Office of Compliance reported this month that from 1997 through this year, more than $17 million in federal taxpayer dollars was paid to settle 264 cases.
The office said it could not say how many of those settlements involved sexual harassment because violations could include any one of 13 federal laws, including labor laws.
Just last week, BuzzFeed reported Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., paid a former staff member to settle her complaint in 2015 that he sexually harassed her. The House Ethics Committee has launched an investigation into Conyers, who has not given any indication he will resign his seat.
On Sunday, Conyers did announce he will step down as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.
“I do think all of this, as difficult as it is in some respects for our society, is really important because I think it will end up changing people’s attitudes and changing our culture,” Portman said. “So I am glad it’s being discussed.”
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Portman said it is “outrageous to me that over the years there has been taxpayer funding used for settlements without any notification or transparency, and also I think it’s wrong the way the victims are treated,” saying “they have to go a laborious process.
“It’s true that some victims would prefer to keep it private — that’s fine — they should have the right to do that. But they should also have an expedited process to be able to bring their complaints.”
As a member of the U.S. House in 1995, Portman and virtually every other lawmaker voted to require Congress be covered by 13 different federal laws, including Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights, which prohibits discrimination on race, religion, or gender – which includes sexual harassment.
The law required the U.S. Department of the Treasury to pay for any settlements reached.
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In addition, Portman criticized former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray for timing his resignation as director of a federal consumer agency “a week earlier than he was planning” in an effort to prevent President Donald Trump from naming an interim director to run the bureau.
Cordray, who is widely expected to seek next year’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination, tapped Leandra English, deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to be acting director. But Trump quickly named White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the consumer agency, which creates a conflict of who actually runs the bureau.
“My hope is … we won’t play those kind of games,” Portman said. “We’ll have an interim process here and that would be Mick Mulvaney or somebody else, the president chooses, and then Congress will get busy in confirming a new director.”
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