[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 86 (Thursday, May 24, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2907-S2909]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CONGRESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 1995 REFORM BILL

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, Senator Blunt and I were here on the 
floor earlier to talk about the bill that was just passed through the 
Senate unanimously. That is the bill dealing with sexual harassment and 
other harassment rules of the Congress. This was a joint effort, and I 
wish to take this opportunity, first of all, to thank everyone who was 
involved in this.
  First and foremost is Senator Blunt, who has been a true partner. We 
have worked on everything together, from adoption to tourism. Last 
month, when he took over from Senator Shelby's able leadership of the 
Rules Committee, he and I worked together on changing the Senate rules, 
for the first time in the history of the Senate, to be more family 
friendly. We worked with Senator Tammy Duckworth so that her baby will 
be allowed on the floor, as will other children of male and female 
Senators going forward.

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  The world is changing, and the Senate needs to change with it, and I 
would argue that the Senate should be in the lead.
  It is no surprise, then, that we have had a number of women staff 
members take the lead and work with us on this bill. First is Lizzy 
Peluso, who is my lead and the ranking member's staff director of our 
Rules Committee. She was my chief of staff for a number of years and 
moved over to be our lead on the Rules Committee. She has done a 
tremendous job ushering in this legislation by listening to Members' 
concerns and working with people on the legislation.
  There is also Stacy McBride, who has the same role working for 
Senator Blunt and has worked with him on this. We thank her for her 
help as well.
  I also want to mention Erin Sager Vaughn, who works with Senator 
Schumer and has really done a lot of work on this bill.
  It just was a team effort.
  To John Abegg, from Senator McConnell's office, thank you for your 
help as well.
  I want to thank Travis Talvitie from my office for his work on this 
bill.
  This was a bill that was a long time in coming. I notice that there 
has been some excellent work over in the House. We want to thank 
Representative Speier and others who have been involved in their bill. 
We know it is a little different than our bill. We look forward to 
hearing them out and working with them as we move forward.
  I did want to thank our colleagues in the Senate who supported this 
bill and worked with us. That would be Senator Gillibrand, who has been 
such a leader on this issue, Senator Murphy, Senator McCaskill, and 
Senator Harris. Also, I want to thank our Rules Committee working 
group: Senator Feinstein, Senator Cortez Masto, Senator Capito, and 
Senator Fischer. All are women who serve on the Rules Committee and 
know we had to change the rules.
  I would say about this bill what Senator Enzi would always say about 
his work with Senator Ted Kennedy: You have to start with the 80 
percent that you agree on.
  We found a lot to agree on when it came to reforming the process in 
the Senate, which was literally staff against victims. It didn't 
include interns. It didn't include a number of people who had worked in 
the Senate. It was a very difficult process for people to bring claims.
  Of course, our goal here is a safe workplace, not only in the Senate 
and in the House, not only in all of the Federal Government, but really 
across the country. So as much as this debate has been focused on 
people who serve in positions of power--as it well should be--we also 
have to remember the nurse on the frontline in the hospital and the 
factory worker on the poultry line in Minnesota, and we should have 
protections in place at all workplaces. I know this discussion is going 
on across America, and we are more than ready to be part of that 
discussion.
  So what is the problem? First of all, we have a situation where we 
had a 30-day forced counseling period. If someone were to bring a 
harassment claim in the Senate, they had to go through 30 days of 
forced mediation, even if they didn't want to mediate the claim. We had 
a 30-day forced cooling-off period before they could have access to a 
court. They could have been forced into a nondisclosure agreement. 
Interns had no protection at all, and there was no actual transparency 
around awards or settlement. It was literally set up to muzzle the 
victims in these cases.
  So what have we done? First of all, Senator Grassley and I worked on 
this last fall, along with Senator Shelby and others, and on mandatory 
training. I appreciate the leadership of Senator McConnell and Senator 
Schumer in working with us on this and getting this done quickly so 
that every staff member in the Senate, including every Senator, now 
goes through sexual harassment training. That had to happen for the 
first time by the end of January, and that happened.
  We also were concerned that victims weren't reporting incidents. 
After all, 75 percent of individuals who experienced sexual harassment 
at work didn't report it. So we wanted to make sure we improved the 
process so that would change.
  What does this legislation do? First of all, as I mentioned, it 
overhauls the process. That was our first and major goal--to make it 
easier for victims. It allows a victim to immediately pursue an 
administrative hearing or file a civil action--none of these cooling-
off periods that are mandatory. It maintains the option for an employee 
to go into mediation.
  Secondly, there are immediate protections for staff. The bill that 
just passed the Senate provides employees with immediate access to a 
dedicated advocate who would provide consultation and assistance and 
figure all of the options that they have and work with them on that.
  As I mentioned, it covers interns, detailees, and others who work in 
the Senate as unpaid staff. It provides opportunities for employees to 
work remotely or request paid leave without fear of retribution, after 
they have made a complaint. It requires that a notification of rights 
of employees be posted within every employing office of the legislative 
branch, including State and district offices. There are a number of 
other provisions, which I will put in the Record, that are put in to 
immediately protect staff.
  Last, there is accountability for Members. This bill holds Members of 
the House and Senate personally liable by requiring them to repay 
awards and settlements stemming from acts of harassment that they 
personally commit and ensures that Members who leave office would still 
be responsible for repaying the Treasury, including garnishing 
nongovernment wages and retirement annuities to ensure repayment.
  It requires public reporting of awards and settlements, including 
identifying if a Member of the House or Senate was personally liable. 
It also requires claims to be automatically referred to the Committee 
on Ethics for investigation or further action when there is a final 
award or settlement.
  Those are the top lines of the bill, but I think we know that it is 
more than words on a page. It is more than going back and forth about 
which provision would be better. This is really about the cases that we 
have seen in the Senate and the House--that they be handled correctly, 
and that we have a new and improved workplace going forward so that all 
people feel safe, so that the culture here feels safe, and so that we 
can be true leaders for workplaces across the country.
  Again, this wouldn't have happened without the decision of many 
Members who work here to, one, go out of their comfort zone and, two, 
decide they were more interested in getting something done than having 
a messaging bill. That is what every Senator here decided--that it was 
more important to change this process.
  A year from now--once we get this passed through the House, and we 
work with them and we get this done--I believe we are going to come 
back and have a different story to tell about the workplaces that we 
work in.
  I wish to thank my colleagues for making that decision to concretely 
get something done instead of just pointing fingers at each other.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Klobuchar for 
her work on this. I think the Senate has done good work today.


                      TRIBUTE TO LORENZO D'AUBERT

  Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, I rise just for a few minutes to do 
what we don't do often enough around here, and that is to recognize the 
extraordinary work of the people who actually labor in the trenches of 
the Senate.
  Back in September of 2008, a young man came to work in my office as 
an intern. Now, almost 10 years later, he is an essential part of my 
life.
  I am not sure that people understand what the beating heart of a 
Senate office is, but everything revolves around the schedule. This 
young man, Lorenzo d'Aubert, who came to work for me in 2008, worked 
his way up from intern to staff assistant, which means you answer the 
phones when everybody is upset. Then he became a legislative 
correspondent, and then he worked as a systems analyst and on all of 
the computer stuff in my office. Eventually, his talent was so obvious, 
that I said: Please come sit outside my office and make everything work 
right, and that is what he has done.

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  It is a really hard job because when you are the executive assistant 
and the scheduler, you have to say no to a lot of people, and you have 
to say it nicely. You have to make everyone happy, even when you are 
telling them that the schedule will not allow that to happen. You have 
to manage phone calls from all seven of my children and my husband, who 
is upset, and manage the birth of grandchildren, the birthdays, the 
schedule of when I can get there and when I can't. Is the plane 
delayed, or is it not? Can you get on Southwest? No, maybe you can make 
the American flight. On top of it all, he gets me to a million meetings 
and a million places all at the same time, with a smile on his face, 
with kindness in his heart, with a whip-sharp intellect, and with a 
work ethic that is astounding.
  I am really upset because he has the nerve to leave and go to law 
school. I am proud of him for his determination to seek a degree in 
law. I know he will be an amazing lawyer because he has that touch, 
where even when he is giving you bad news, you know that he is 
delivering it with kindness. We need much more of that in the legal 
profession.
  Lorenzo is really important to me, and I will miss him terribly. I 
think it is important that all of us around here--who crave the lime 
light, who want all the attention, and who want everybody to think that 
we are moving mountains--know that it is the people around us who are 
moving the mountains. We are just lucky to be on the ride.
  We will all miss you, Lorenzo. Congratulations to you and to your 
parents, Linda and Sergio. I know they are here today. I know how proud 
they are of you. We will miss you terribly, and we will be really mad 
at you if you don't stay in touch.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.

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