{"id":71671,"date":"2026-05-14T23:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/71671\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T23:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:09:13","slug":"kat-cammack-to-co-lead-bipartisan-effort-to-root-out-sexual-misconduct-in-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/71671\/","title":{"rendered":"Kat Cammack to co-lead bipartisan effort to root out sexual misconduct in Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Florida lawmaker will help head up a bipartisan effort to make Congress a workplace safe from sexual predators.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced a bipartisan effort to combat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2026\/05\/13\/house-launches-bipartisan-push-combat-sexual-misconduct-congress\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">workplace sexual misconduct<\/a>. U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack, a Gainesville Republican, will serve as one of the co-Chairs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Cammack, a founding leader of the <a href=\"http:\/\/cammack.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/congresswoman-kat-cammack-senator-katie-britt-announce-formation-republican\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Republican Women\u2019s Caucus<\/a>, will work with U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez, a New Mexico Democrat who chairs the <a href=\"https:\/\/fernandez.house.gov\/about\/committees-and-caucuses.htm\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Democratic Women\u2019s Caucus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cNo woman \u2014 regardless of party, title, or position \u2014 should ever feel unsafe in her workplace. Period,\u201d Cammack said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAs Chair of the Republican Women\u2019s Caucus, I am proud to be leading a bipartisan effort alongside the Democratic Women\u2019s Caucus to take a hard look at the systems, reporting mechanisms, and workplace culture on Capitol Hill surrounding sexual harassment and assault. This effort has the support of Speaker Johnson and Leader Jeffries because this issue transcends politics. It\u2019s about dignity, accountability, and ensuring that every person who comes to work in the People\u2019s House is treated with respect and protected from abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/votekirwan.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-760769 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/KIR25002-Web-Ad-3-e1760498324308.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The formation of the committee came after high-profile resignations by U.S. Reps.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c0700pd0xx1o\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Tony Gonzales<\/a>, a Texas Republican, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/04\/20\/congress-eric-swalwell-house-ethics-sexual-misconduct.html\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Eric Swalwell<\/a>, a California Democrat. Both had admitted inappropriate relationships with staffers, and stand accused of sexual assault or harassment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Cammack said it was critical staff felt safe coming forward with concerns about members of Congress.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe reality is that coming forward is extraordinarily difficult. Fear of retaliation, damage to careers, public scrutiny, and institutional pressure often silence victims long before justice has a chance to speak,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe cannot claim to support women while ignoring the very real barriers that prevent them from reporting misconduct in the first place. Yes, bad actors must be held accountable and removed when warranted. But if we are serious about fixing this problem, we also have to confront the environment that allowed the behavior to occur, persist, or be concealed. Accountability cannot begin and end with punishment after the fact. It must include prevention, transparency, education, and systems people can actually trust. Congress should set the standard \u2014 not lag behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The House Ethics Committee recently released a history of sexual misconduct investigations, totaling <a href=\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/archives\/791740-house-ethics-conducted-28-sexual-misconduct-investigations-in-50-years-with-4-florida-congressmen-targeted\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">28 cases<\/a> over 50 years.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chpk.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-746910 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/25JF-7.9.25-FL-Politics-Ads-728X90-V2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Notably, Cammack has been one of few Republicans to <a href=\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/archives\/767694-silence-is-not-an-option-kat-cammack-sides-with-constituent-who-obtained-restraining-order-against-cory-mills\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">condemn<\/a> fellow Florida U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, a New Smyrna Beach Republican on that list, though he has <a href=\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/archives\/796356-cory-mills-breaks-silence-on-scandals-ethics-probe-and-political-survival\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">argued<\/a> it\u2019s inappropriate to include him in a list with Gonzales and Swalwell.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Leger Fern\u00e1ndez said it\u2019s important lawmakers work across party lines to address the issue of sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt is sickening that Congressmen sexually harassed and assaulted women staff instead of treating them with the respect they deserved,\u201d Leger Fern\u00e1ndez said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe know these women are not alone \u2014 women across America have been sexually assaulted and harassed by men at work who think they will never face any consequences. We will continue to stand with survivors, break the silence, and fight for a future free of sexual misconduct \u2014 in Congress and everywhere across this country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida lawmaker will help head up a bipartisan effort to make Congress a workplace safe from sexual&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[1179,34517,41175,478,15338,16571],"class_list":{"0":"post-71671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mike-johnson","8":"tag-cory-mills","9":"tag-hakeem-jefffries","10":"tag-kat-cammacl","11":"tag-mike-johnson","12":"tag-sexual-misconduct","13":"tag-teresa-leger-fernandez"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116575454295573009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71671","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=71671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}