Sauce For The Gander:

“Discrimination is just as wrong in Congress as it is anywhere else.” That statement from California Democrat Leon Panetta may seem obvious, but it has taken the House almost a quarter-century to accept it. In legislating the 1964 Civil Rights Act and all other laws imposing obligations on employers, Congress made itself exempt. Why? Some members lamely asserted that, well, Congress is “different.” Others offered a legalistic excuse: having an executive agency regulate its employment practices would violate the separation of powers.

But the pressure became too great. Local TV was showing black congressional employees working in sweatshop conditions; Roll Call, a Capitol Hill weekly, was printing stories of sexual harassment of female workers. So last week the House finally applied the anti-discrimination laws to itself. It got around the separation-of-powers argument neatly by setting up an office staffed by its own members and employees to enforce the law — a solution that was just as readily available in 1964. The Senate is expected to follow suit next year.