Senate

Senators push mandatory sexual harassment training for members, staff

by Jordain Carney - 11/07/17 7:29 PM ET

Senators are pushing for changes to the Senate’s sexual harassment policy, including making training mandatory.

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced a resolution on Tuesday to require members, staff, interns, fellows and detailees to complete the training.

The resolution calls for the Senate Rules Committee to issue rules for sexual harassment training, including requiring training within 60 days once a member or Senate staffer starts their position, and would also give 60 days for anyone who has not previously undergone training to complete it.

“Today, I’m introducing a bipartisan resolution to ensure that the Rules Committee has the authority necessary to ensure that every member of this chamber, every employee on the Senate payroll, and every unpaid Senate intern receives anti-harassment training,” Grassley said in a prepared statement.

{mosads}Grassley previously asked the Rules Committee, overseen by Klobuchar and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), to make training mandatory, but was told that the Senate would likely need to pass a resolution giving them that authority.

Klobuchar reiterated that she believes sexual harassment training should be mandatory.

“I look forward to working with Senator Grassley and my Rules Committee colleagues to pass and implement this important update to Senate policy,” she said.

The resolution would also require offices to turn over information on who has completed sexual harassment training and pitches change to the Senate’s training program including having “practical examples aimed at instructing supervisors in the prevention of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.”

It would also require the Senate’s sergeant at arms to develop and conduct an “anonymous survey of Members, officers and employees of the Senate relating to the prevalence of sexual harassment in the Senate during the previous Congress.”

In addition to Grassley’s previously letter, Gillibrand said late last week that she was working on her own legislation.

“What you see time and again in institutions all around the country is a culture where power and fear keep sexual assault and sexual harassment in the shadows. Congress is no different. Congress should never be above the law or play by their own set of rules,” Gillibrand added on Tuesday.