I call to order the committee on House Administration for todays committee markup. A quorum is present so we may proceed. The meeting record will remain open for five legislative days so members may submit any materials they wish to be included therein. We are here today to formally approve a Committee Resolution issuing regulations requiring members, officers, employees, including interns, fellows, and detailees of the house of representatives to complete a Training Program on workforce rights and responsibilities, including antidiscrimination and antiharassment training during each congressional session. This resolution will also serve to issue regulations requiring each house employing office post a statement of rights and protections provided to house employees under the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995. Let me first say thanks to Speaker Paul Ryan for his attention and commitment to this issue. I would also like to thank representative barbara comstock, who is a member of this committee, and representative speier, for their work on this resolution and this issue. Finally, i want to thank the Ranking Member, mr. Brady, for his commitment to work on this issue in a bipartisan and a strongly bipartisan way. I also would like to thank bradley burn for his work in serving as a member on this committee and also susan brooks, chairman of ethics. All of us working together are prepared to move forward with this. And as i have said throughout this committees comprehensive review, there is simply no place for Sexual Harassment in our society, and especially in congress. One case of Sexual Harassment is one case too many. I believe as members of congress, we must hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard that demonstrates that were worthy of the trust placed in us by our constituents and the american people. No one should ever fear physical or psychological harm in any workplace. And we must insure that the appropriate standards and rules apply to the Congressional Workplace to promote a safe and productive environment. There is really no place like the house of representatives. Its a special place. And we want it to be such for anyone who works here. And the first step to insuring a safe Congressional Workplace is requiring mandatory training and education for all members, officers, employees, including interns, fellows, and detailees of the house of representatives. As well as a posting of rights and protections, hres 630, these regulations were approving today with accomplish that goal. I would now like to recognize the Ranking Member, mr. Brady, for the purpose of providing an Opening Statement. I believe i support the regulation before the committee. As i said before, training is an important step, but just a first step. Theres more to do. I know our staff is working hard on Bipartisan Legislation to change the Congressional Accountability Act. This would not be possibility if it wasnt for the leadership of my colleague from california, jackie speier, who has been talking about these changes for years. This truly has been a bipartisan effort. Were working with representative burn, and i want to thank him as well. I hope you can consider the bipartisan proposal in early 2018 so that we can continue to make progress on changing the resolution process and the culture of our Congressional Workplace. Mr. Chairman, thank you again, and i kweyield back the balance my time. The gentleman yields back. Any other member wish to be recognized for the purposes of an Opening Statement . Now recognize the gentleman from maryland. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much, and mr. Brady, thank you also for your leadership and for giving me this opportunity to speak as we adopt regulations to require annual antiSexual Harassment and discrimination training in congress for members and staff. As a representative of the people, we have a unique obligation to lead by establishing a culture of zero tolerance for this egregious form of discrimination. Although the speech and debate clause provides members with broad immunity for legislative acts under the constitution, it can never be interpreted as a license to harass or diskimination against employees. We need to understand our rights and responsibilities for the promotion of a healthy work place environment. I am pleased that the regulations include the advice of outside experts who highlight the importance of inperson training with specific workplace examples to better foster a culture that rejects Sexual Harassment and discrimination. I can understand certain offices may have difficulty obtaining inperson training for their employees, it is my hope that the vast majority of members will adhere to the spirit of new requirements and seek out inperson interactive training for all employees whether they work for us in washington or in our district offices. This is an important start, but mandating annual Sexual Harassment training is not sufficient. We must continue to examine and reform the dispute resolution processes and insure that we build a system that promotes accountability, supports victims, and does not exacerbate existing power disparities. Im eager to continue working with my colleagues on the committee as well as representative speier, whose me too congress act has offered a perfect starting point for crafting more important comprehensive legislation. Im confident we can continue to Work Together in a continuing bipartisan way. I thank you for your leadership and hope we will indeed create model rules for the best workplace in america. The gentleman yields back. The chair will recognize the gentle lady from virginia, ms. Comstock. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I just wanted to thank you for the swiftness with which the committee has worked on these guidelines and staff and all the work they have put into this, and having the Climate Survey included here also, i think, is important because its something we have talked about in a lot of the hearings that will help us assess the best way to do our training going forward, so i think its important that we understand that this process will be adaptive and well be able to incorporate all kinds of good ideas that we get going forward. But i appreciate that were putting this in place quickly now and thank you. Jeptal lady yields back. I now call up and lay before the committee the resolution issuing regulations pursuant to hres630. Its dispensed with and the resolution is considered read and open for amendment at any point. Is there any debate . Are there any members woo want to offer an amendment to the resolution . If not, i move the committee to adopt the resolution. The question is on the motion. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed, say nay. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it and the motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. For all the matters considered here today, i would ask unanimous consent that the staff be authorized to make technical and informing changes if necessary without objection, so ordered. Without objection, the markup is adjourned. At the heart of this, too, is trying to make sure we move forward in a way that we dont deal with this issue in the future. We will hopefully file our bill to amend the Congressional Accountability Act as early as tomorrow evening. We could have that draft in the file. If not, i believe by thursday well finish the adjustments on it that were going through on our final day or two of review of that bill. With the idea being that when we come back in january, that we would have a markup of the bill amending the Congressional Accountability Act and then shortly after that, we could then have a vote on the house flo floor. Our goal would be to have that by midjanuary. Thank you. So nice to see you. How are you . Theres three now Sexual Harassment settlements listed and several others. Are you going to press for those to be made the lawmakerss offices to be made public . Whats your position on that . We dont have those official files or numbers there. Those are numbers from the ooc, the offense of compliance. Those are were confidential and nondisclosure agreements. We dont have that. That info that we can divulge without being in violation of that. Now, as chairman and Ranking Member, any settlement that comes through the office of compliance, thats presented to us, would come to the chairman of house admin, and the Ranking Member for their approval. So i have been chairman for almost a year. No files, no claims have been presented to me, and here we are, december 19th. So we havent had one that we have heard this year. What it does show is from 2008, 2012, we had it indicated there were three Sexual Harassment claims that were paid out for a total of 115,000. And we know this most recent five years that we have one that was paid out for 84,000. So were trying to get to the bottom of those numbers. I think thats why if were doing a Climate Survey on this issue, that gives us, i think, a real good idea where we are, kind of give us some insight there as we go forward. The idea of being, if theres one case of Sexual Harassment, thats one case too many. How are those going to be reviewed . Thats were in the process of deciding how thats going to be done and what needs to happen. So those the results wont be public . At this point, we know were going to do a survey. We dont have the parameters on that yet. So well certainly let you know as soon as we have gotten through that. We think its an important part of the picture. Barbara comstock has done a really great job of helping on this issue. And as you know, this was her resolution that we just did the markup of the regs on. And so the survey was a very important piece of this for her. And so we have appreciated her input, as we have in a bipartisan way from many members. Pleasure seeing you. Hi. How are you . [ inaudible ] members and staff treat each other with respect. Thats just part of what thats the most important thing of what were going to do here. Is there a cost associated with it . Certainly, if youre going to have annual training in person, particularly if you go with an outside entity to do that training, theres going to be that cost. If you do inhouse, well, then, youre going to have to increase staffing to scale that up to where you need to go. The situation is just what i said in the markup. One case of Sexual Harassment is one case too many. So we want to make sure for the future that people understand what the rules are, what the expectations are, and this should be the best place in the country to work. We still think it is. Even with some of these situations that weve heard about, thats unacceptable. And so if it takes inperson training, if it takes some consequences, making sure that were not using taxpayer dollars to pay for these claims, that the member would be personally liable is a step i believe in the right direction. And nobody, you know, there cant be retaliation. Thats not going to be acceptable. And we believe that the members are getting that message. And remember, the overwhelming majority of members are doing this properly. So weve got to make sure that thats understood. And ultimately, the voters in the respective districts will be the ones to ultimately decide much of this. I just have one more question. There have been a number of bills already introduced on this issue. I wonder if the legislation youre expecting later this week is kind of a packaging of all those to be one major harassment targeting bill or is this kind of a fresh take from the committee . Great question. It is a bill thats drafted by the committee on House Administration, but were aware and have reviewed all of the bills that have been filed that relate to Sexual Harassment, and were considering every one of those issues that are there. So some of it will be in there some may be a variant of that, and then well look at those and put that together to make a bill that puts us in the best possible place. We want to also make sure that as we make these changes to the Congressional Accountability Act that we dont make it more difficult for a staffer or employee who has a claim. So were trying to thread that needle in a way that increases the transparency, protects the taxpayer dollars, but also doesnt make it more difficult for somebody who has a claim. Right. Do you have commitments on that timeline you gave us from leadership . The speaker has charged us with this responsibility. We know this is something that we just cant ignore, and we havent. We have been working on this from the minute it was given to us. And we want to do it in as quick a fashion as we can. But we also want to get it right. And we think were in the best of both worlds right now, so were moving at a pretty swift fashion, but my goal, im not saying its from leadership, my objective is lets get this over in the right way and have it for a vote on the house by the middle of january. Thats not an unrealistic goal. Great. Do you have any words from senate rules on if theyre doing something similar or will your bill cover both chambers . We will have a bill that we think is going to be a very broad bill that we hope that the senate will look upon favorably. We plan to work with them very closely. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Merry christmas. Thank you. Live coverage from capitol hill as the House Administration committee wrapping up their meeting to consider a markup of a bill that would require each house member and employee to complete a workplace rights and responsibilities Training Program during each session of congress. This in the wake of a spate of harassment claims that have come to light recently. The house could bring the legislation to the floor for debate some time next month. This as usa today reports that between 2008 and 2012, more than 342,000 in taxpayer funds have been paid to settle discrimination and harassment complaints involving members of the house, and thats according to the chairman of the House Administration committee. According to a Previous Report from the office of compliance, more than 17 million has been paid out in settlements over a period of 20 years, from 1997 to 2017. You can see the rest of that story in usa today. As we head over to the house floor, live picture here as general debate has just gotten under way on the republicans tax reform plan. An hour of general debate and then votes early this afternoon. Should that bill be approved, it will move to the senate today for general debate and votes. Possibility of being an extended session in the senate, as Senate Lawmakers will consider the bill. Watch the house debate live on our companion network, cspan, and see the senate this afternoon on the companion network cspan2. Sunday, on cspans q a, Heritage Foundation distinguished fellow lee edwards chronicles his 60year involvement in the conservative movement. I met general mccarthy through my father, who was somewhat of 60 year v. In the conservative movement. I met general mccarthy through my father who was something of a confidant to him. He was a hale fellow well met. He liked to party. He looked a drink or two. As long as you didnt talk about communism you couldnt ask for a more fun guy to be with. But he was very serious about that, and he was also someone who did not take advice very well. And he consequently said things and even did things inthat hurt the cause of anticommunism for some time. Q and a sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Coming up next on American History tv, well hear from british house of lords member michael dobbs, create aror of house of cards and author of four novels about winston churchill. This keynote address at the International Churchill conference in new york city is 40 minutes. I would like to ask we have a guest speaker tonight, and i would like to ask the very beautiful, talented and brilliant lisa to come up tonight if you would. Lisa is a fantastic journalist. Seven years of fox news. Publishes foreign desk. And she has the privilege of no, actually, thats wrong. Lord dobbs has the privilege of being introduced by lisa. [ applause ]