The US House voted 420-0-1 on June 30 to direct the House Ethics Committee to preserve and publicly release records of monetary settlements involving sexual harassment or misconduct by current and former members — a reversal from a similar effort the chamber blocked three months earlier.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, used a procedural tool called a privileged resolution to force a vote within two days, skipping the usual committee process entirely. No member spoke against it. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, cast the lone “present” vote, calling it redundant with settlement records she had already subpoenaed and released earlier this year.
The resolution directs the Ethics Committee and the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to compile a single list naming every member, delegate, or resident commissioner tied to a sexual harassment investigation or settlement, along with the total taxpayer cost.
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The committee has two months from adoption to make its findings public, putting the deadline around late August. Because it’s a House-only resolution, no Senate vote is needed.
Massie said gaps in reporting requirements enacted in 2018 may still let taxpayer-funded settlements stay hidden, noting no member has been reported repaying a settlement since that law took effect. The vote came on the House’s last day before an early start to recess.
The outcome contrasts with March, when the House voted 357-65 to refer a broader Mace resolution to the Ethics Committee rather than act on it directly, effectively shelving the measure after the Ethics Committee warned that public disclosure could retraumatize victims and discourage witness cooperation.
That push followed revelations that Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, had sent lewd texts to a staffer who later died by suicide.
Mace had separately subpoenaed settlement records through her seat on the House Oversight Committee and released them in May.
Fox News reported that release showed more than $330,000 paid out in federal sexual harassment settlements since the early 2000s. The Washington Times, describing an overlapping set of records, put House-specific payouts since 2007 at more than half a million dollars and named seven former members involved, including Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, and Patrick Meehan, R-Pennsylvania, both of whom resigned in 2018 amid ethics probes.
