Loading the Audio Player…<\/p>\n
House leaders launched a bipartisan effort on Wednesday to draft reforms to prevent sexual misconduct within Congress and make Capitol Hill a safer working environment for women, specifically. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries charged leaders of the Democratic and Republican women\u2019s caucuses to work together in identifying institutional reforms. As a father of two daughters who work on Capitol Hill, sexual misconduct within Congress strikes a personal note, Johnson said<\/a>. <\/p>\n The initiative comes weeks after embattled Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., resigned<\/a> from office while several women accused him of sexual misconduct. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, also ended a reelection bid in March after admitting<\/a> to an affair with a former staffer. <\/p>\n Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez, D-N.M., and Kat Cammack, R-Fla., released Wednesday statements insisting that no woman should feel unsafe at work. Fern\u00e1ndez blamed<\/a> procedural and cultural issues for pervasive sexual misbehavior within Congress. Cammack characterized<\/a> the sexual impropriety as an issue above politics that was rooted in dignity and accountability. Perpetrators must be held accountable, but the environment that allowed the behavior to occur and continue must be confronted as well, she said. <\/p>\n How will they come up with reforms? The bipartisan leaders planned to reexamine Capitol Hill\u2019s mechanisms for reporting misconduct and the overall workplace culture, according to Cammack. Accountability isn\u2019t just punishment after the fact, so prevention, transparency, and education must be included, she said. This bipartisan effort will push for streamlining the reporting process, increasing education and training, and prioritizing staff and survivors at every step, Fern\u00e1ndez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n House Administration Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis.,and ranking member Joseph D. Morelle, D-N.Y., planned to eventually take the initiative\u2019s proposals to their panel overseeing workplace issues in Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loading the Audio Player… House leaders launched a bipartisan effort on Wednesday to draft reforms to prevent sexual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[12785,477,1700,7453,1733,10959,486,485,961,2512,506,14912,5231,1076,494,14271],"class_list":{"0":"post-71284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hakeem-jeffries","8":"tag-abuse","9":"tag-congress","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-crimes","12":"tag-democrat","13":"tag-democratic","14":"tag-democrats","15":"tag-hakeem-jeffries","16":"tag-house","17":"tag-legislation","18":"tag-party","19":"tag-representatives","20":"tag-republican","21":"tag-republicans","22":"tag-senate","23":"tag-women"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116574129087513304","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}