The House Ethics Committee stated Thursday it has not been notified of a single taxpayer-funded sexual misconduct settlement involving a sitting member since 2018, when Congress amended the law, and said another office is responsible for carrying out the disclosure order passed by the House this week.
The committee emphasized that it does not handle such lawsuits or settlements and lacks the records sought by the resolution.
This statement followed two days after the House cleared House Resolution 1399 in a vote of 420-0, with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) voting present, directing both the Ethics Committee and the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to produce a consolidated public list of members linked to taxpayer-funded sexual harassment or abuse settlements within 60 days.
Chairing the ethics panel is Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.), who stated that while the committee champions transparency on misconduct, it does not oversee those settlements.
The committee cited the 2018 CAA Reform Act, which required automatic referrals to the committee whenever a member reimbursed the Treasury for a sexual harassment settlement.
This leaves the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights accountable for producing the records. The independent office publishes annual reports on settlements paid from the Treasury fund and holds responsive files.
The Ethics Committee affirmed its full support for releasing the information and called on OCWR to comply with the resolution.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who forced the vote, argued that a narrow definition of “covered claims” in the 2018 update may have allowed some lawmaker-linked settlements to escape reporting and reimbursement rules.
His resolution established a broader definition, encompassing any case involving sexual misconduct regardless of category and including staff-level claims tied to member offices.
Rep. Nancy Mace, who used a House Oversight Committee subpoena to obtain OCWR files earlier this year and released the documents in May, dismissed Tuesday’s vote as duplicative.
The Ethics Committee’s response designates the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights as responsible for producing the records sought under Massie’s resolution. The next 60 days will determine whether the expanded reporting standard reveals any cases not included in Mace’s May release.
By Jim Thomas
Thursday, 02 July 2026 04:21 PM EDT
