WASHINGTON _ The Senate has kept a clean slate over the last two decades with regard to sexual harassment settlements, newly released data shows.
The Congressional Office of Compliance paid nearly $600,000 from its taxpayer-funded Awards and Settlement Fund to senator-led office employees for 13 settlement cases _ but none of those cases appear to involve sexual harassment claims, according to OOC data made public Thursday by the Senate Rules and Appropriations committees.
In senator-led offices, only one settlement, worth $14,260.25, involved sex discrimination.
Even though the statistical breakdown Thursday did not reveal any taxpayer-funded settlements over sexual harassment, the senators responsible for the release issued statements condemning the offense.
"Harassment in the workplace should not be tolerated under any circumstances, but particularly not in the United States Senate," Rules Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby said in his statement.
"Harassment of any kind is unacceptable," Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran said. "The Senate should hold itself to the highest standards of professionalism and respect."
Speculation on what the data contained loomed large after OOC executive director Susan Tsui Grundmann wrote in a letter to Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia on Monday that the office had shared its data with the Rules Committee.
Pressure mounted on Shelby throughout the week to release the information.
Shelby ostensibly withheld the information for as long as he did because he was "concerned with the reliability of the data," Rules Committee spokeswoman Blair Bailey Taylor said in a statement to NBC Thursday. Shelby also worried it could "implicate the various confidentiality requirements of the Congressional Accountability Act," Taylor said.
As late as Thursday, Cochran's office was withholding the settlement statistics, it said because it was still trying to get clarity on the data from the OOC.
"While the Rules Committee has been eager to provide this information in a transparent manner, it has been our priority to protect the victims involved in these settlements from further harm," Shelby said in a statement after the release Thursday. "I am pleased that we have received assurances from Senate Legal Counsel that the release of this data does not violate confidentiality and as such, are able to make it public."
On the House side, Chairman Gregg Harper has released two sets of similar data dating to 2008 that show House offices have spent $199,000 of taxpayer money on four sexual harassment settlements through the OOC Awards and Settlement Fund.
One of those offices belonged to Texas GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold, whose office paid $84,000 in 2014 to settle sexual harassment allegations. Farenthold will not run for re-election in 2018.
