--- title: Congress Spent $115,000 in Taxpayer Money to Settle Sexual Harassment Claims description: At least three claims of sexual harassment and retaliation between 2008 and 2012 were settled for $115,000, according to data released Tuesday canonical: https://time.com/5071216/congress-sexual-harassment-settlements-2/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-19T17:02:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:37:55.834Z article:section: Politics og:title: Congress Spent $115,000 in Taxpayer Money to Settle Sexual Harassment Claims og:description: At least three claims of sexual harassment and retaliation between 2008 and 2012 were settled for $115,000, according to data released Tuesday og:url: https://time.com/5071216/congress-sexual-harassment-settlements-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a9bc7a45b16dddf/6988f5ba656a3f215fbd2e8e/shutterstock_editorial_9292659a_huge.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3340 og:image:height: 1879 og:image:alt: Farenthold, Washington, USA - 13 Dec 2017 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Congress Spent $115,000 in Taxpayer Money to Settle Sexual Harassment Claims twitter:description: At least three claims of sexual harassment and retaliation between 2008 and 2012 were settled for $115,000, according to data released Tuesday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a9bc7a45b16dddf/6988f5ba656a3f215fbd2e8e/shutterstock_editorial_9292659a_huge.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Congress Spent $115,000 in Taxpayer Money to Settle Sexual Harassment Claims > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 19, 2017 5:02 PM UTC  Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, arrives for a House Committee on the Judiciary oversight hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington Farenthold, Washington, USA - 13 Dec 2017 Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, arrives for a House Committee on the Judiciary oversight hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington Farenthold, Washington, USA - 13 Dec 2017Harnik/AP/REX/Shutterstock—Harnik/AP/REX/Shutterstock by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 19, 2017 5:02 PM UTC Member offices in the House of Representatives settled at least three claims of sexual harassment and retaliation between 2008 and 2012 for $115,000, according to data released Tuesday by the [Congressional Office of Compliance. ](http://time.com/5055450/susan-brooks-theodore-deutch-sexual-harassment-congress/)Another five cases of sex discrimination were settled during that same period. The largest sexual-harassment settlement cost taxpayers $85,000, while the other two cases of sexual harassment and retaliation were settled for $10,000 and $20,000\. The sex discrimination settlements ranged from $8,000 to $15,225\. In all, $342,225.85 worth of settlements were paid between 2008 and 2012\. The Office of Compliance revealed these details to the Committee on House Administration, which is conducting a review of the issue within Congress. That effort was sparked by both [reports of sexual harassment within member offices](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/30/house-committee-harassment-policy-244330) and complaints about the [arduous and secretive process victims](http://time.com/5023347/jackie-speier-barbara-comstock-sexual-harassment-congress/) have to go through when they come forward with workplace complaints on the Hill. The information released Tuesday follows an earlier [report that revealed an $84,000 settlement was paid in 2014](http://time.com/5045238/congress-sexual-harassment-settlements/) to settle a compliant against Rep. Blake Farenthold, a Texas Republican. While Farenthold denied wrongdoing, the Republican Congressman [announced last week](https://www.facebook.com/ElectBlakeF/videos/10155229018036818/) that he would not seek re-election. The data the Office of Compliance sent to the committee includes no names, and the office provided no information about the substance of the claims or complaints. [That’s largely by design. ](http://time.com/5055450/susan-brooks-theodore-deutch-sexual-harassment-congress/)Earlier in December, the Committee [held a hearing on possible reforms to the 1995 law](http://time.com/5055450/susan-brooks-theodore-deutch-sexual-harassment-congress/) that dictates how complaints are handled. That hearing showed just how difficult it is to glean specific information about sexual harassment. “The way the law is written, the strict confidentiality not only binds the parties, but it specifically binds our office from discussing those claims,” Susan Tsui Grundmann, the office’s executive director, testified. In a Dec. 15 letter to Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.), the chairman of the Committee on House Administration, Grundmann said that because there are no “charging documents” created during the mandatory counseling period that victims are required to undergo, there is no documentation on the specific complaints that employees raised during the follow-up mandatory mediation period. In addition, Grundmann said, because settlements are conducted under strict non-disclosure provisions the Office also does not know what led to the settlement or why the parties agreed to settle in the first place. The OOC has traditionally treated sexual harassment claims as a form of sex discrimination, Grundmann said, and has not necessarily separated claims of harassment from other forms of sex-based mistreatment like pregnancy discrimination. In some instances all forms of discrimination were labeled as “civil rights” cases. “Thus, we have claims classified in the category of ‘civil rights’ that may or may not contain an allegation of sex-based discrimination,” Grundmann writes. “And we have claims classified as sex discrimination that might—but do not necessarily—involve allegations of sexual harassment.” In a statement Tuesday, Harper said he would continue pressing the Office of Compliance for more information. “As I have stated from the beginning of this review, one case of sexual harassment is one case too many,” Harper said, in part. “We will continue to investigate the OOC’s record keeping practices as part of our extensive review.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5071216/congress-sexual-harassment-settlements-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5071216/congress-sexual-harassment-settlements-2/"},"headline":"Congress Spent $115,000 in Taxpayer Money to Settle Sexual Harassment Claims","datePublished":"2017-12-19T17:02:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:37:55.834Z","description":"At least three claims of sexual harassment and retaliation between 2008 and 2012 were settled for $115,000, according to data released Tuesday","url":"https://time.com/5071216/congress-sexual-harassment-settlements-2/","keywords":["Congress","sexual harassment","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a9bc7a45b16dddf/6988f5ba656a3f215fbd2e8e/shutterstock_editorial_9292659a_huge.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a9bc7a45b16dddf/6988f5ba656a3f215fbd2e8e/shutterstock_editorial_9292659a_huge.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Farenthold, Washington, USA - 13 Dec 2017","caption":"Farenthold, Washington, USA - 13 Dec 2017","creditText":"Harnik/AP/REX/Shutterstock—Harnik/AP/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5071216/congress-sexual-harassment-settlements-2/","name":"Congress Spent $115,000 in Taxpayer Money to Settle Sexual Harassment Claims"}}]}] ```