‘Creeps need not apply’: How a team of bipartisan women plan to change Capitol Hill’s culture of harassment

By Lauren Fox, Ellis Kim, CNN

(CNN) — When Rep. Emilia Sykes met with Democratic leaders about the pervasiveness of sexual harassment on Capitol Hill, she made one thing very clear to Hakeem Jeffries: this could not just be a women’s issue.

“This could all be eliminated and we wouldn’t even be here if these members were not abusing their power, and so we need to get to the root cause,” the Ohio Democrat said. “We cannot do this alone.”

Not even 10 years on from Congress’ last attempt to reform the process for reporting sexual harassment on Capitol Hill, leaders from the Republican and Democratic Women’s Caucuses have been tasked with overhauling the process again. Two of them — Sykes and Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack — sat down exclusively with CNN to detail their goals, provide insight into a forming strategy and even acknowledge the limitations of that work.

“We have seen where this is a bipartisan problem, which is why it is requiring a bipartisan solution. And if you are a creep on Capitol Hill, we’re here to say that creeps need not apply,” Cammack said.

The congresswoman promised that “we’ll see additional repercussions for members that have acted inappropriately,” but, she added, “we want to see this stop before it ever gets to that point.”

The plan, they say, is to work quickly, a challenge in a body that is only six months out from a contentious midterm election and already struggling to pass bipartisan legislation.

They are aiming to devise a series of reforms that could move more expeditiously through the House administration committee and pass as a resolution. They also are entertaining a wide variety of options that they hope can shape the culture that has made Capitol Hill such a breeding ground for harassment.

One idea being considered, Cammack said, is new disclosure requirements for members who have ever settled sexual harassment claims or had cases brought against them.

And while it is against House rules for a members of Congress to enter into relationships with their own staff, there is no such rule barring a member of Congress from having relationships with staff from other offices. The pair argued this can blur boundaries and is ripe for abuse.

“As a matter of judgment, it’s not a great idea,” Sykes said. “It just creates so many potential issues, and I can understand folks tend to meet their spouses and their partners in their workplace, but there has to be a level of judgment and thoughtfulness so you’re not putting yourself or someone else in harm’s way.”

Currently, staffers facing harassment and seeking help can turn to a long list of entities from the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to the Office of Employee Advocacy to the House Ethics Committee. But the processes of each, the lawmakers argued, are ill-defined and often not well-publicized among the staffers who may need to access them.

When allegations reach the House and Senate Ethics Committees, the lawmakers pointed out, cases can languish for months and even years before any hope of resolution.

“Today if a woman was harassed or, God forbid, assaulted, if there was a situation, she wouldn’t really know where to go. The training is woefully inadequate, and she would wonder, ‘Who do I talk to, where do I go?’” Cammack said. “On top of that, there is this real fear, and it is a credible fear of retaliation. People work so very hard to get to Capitol Hill, they work endless hours and they feel like if they report that they will be retaliated against.”

Another area ripe for reform, they argue, is training, which they say is especially inadequate for lawmakers.

For Cammack and Sykes, who represent a younger generation of women on Capitol Hill, the issue is personal. Each said they have personally had to call out harassment.

“I think what you’ll find from Rep. Cammack and I is that we will call it out in the moment,” Sykes said. “But we are also members of Congress, and we have the confidence and the ability to do so. But that’s unique for us.”

“I can’t tell you how many times as a southerner I have had to bless someone’s heart,” Cammack said, noting that hill staffers can’t always do that.

“They are dealing with a real power dynamic imbalance,” she added.

The bipartisan task force, announced this week by Jeffries and House Speaker Mike Johnson, comes as Congress is still reeling after Reps. Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, and Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, resigned under threat of expulsion amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Additionally, Reps. Cory Mills of Florida and Chuck Edwards of North Carolina are facing ethics investigation for allegations of misconduct. Both men deny they have done anything wrong.

“In the case of Representative Mills, being from my home state, I have … been open about how I feel that he has abused his authority, and so for me this is not a partisan issue. It is truly an issue of right or wrong,” Cammack said.

But Sykes and Cammack argue that while due process is important and ethics investigations can be a significant part of that process, there does come a point at which members need to call out one another.

“It’s really important for us to police ourselves,” Sykes said. “Where there is smoke there is usually fire and so that’s the responsibility of every member of Congress.”

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CNN’s Emily Condon contributed to this report.