Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks at a hearing on July 12, 2022. Grassley wants to know how much money agency OIGs have spent to settle sexual harassment complaints. Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
Senator wants info on inspectors general office sexual harassment settlements
Grassley wrote that whistleblowers informed his office that the financial agreements required complainants to sign non-disclosure agreements.
Agency inspectors general offices have until Tuesday to comply with a request from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to provide information about how much money they’ve spent to settle sexual harassment complaints against OIG employees.
“My oversight is aimed at strengthening trust with federal watchdogs to ensure justice for victims of sexual harassment,” Grassley said in a statement. “Even the watchdog needs to be watched.”
The senator on Nov. 5 sent letters to 76 OIGs, asking for the total amount of payments each office has used to settle sexual harassment complaints against IG employees for the past five years as well the funding sources for the payments.
Grassley also requested the number of Equal Employment Opportunity complaints against each office’s employees that involved sexual harassment during the same period and if any non-disclosure agreements included anti-gag whistleblower provisions.
In the letters, the senator wrote that whistleblowers alleged to his office that these settlements often require complainants to sign NDAs.
“Unless the NDAs include the legally required whistleblower caveats, they effectively turn taxpayer money into hush-money to cover up sexual harassment,” he wrote.
The Treasury Department publicizes some information about judgments and settlements against the federal government, including the amount paid out by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s Judgment Fund and which agency was involved. However, agencies can only access the fund if they aren’t legally allowed to pay settlements from their own appropriations or if another funding source does not exist.
Judgment Fund data does cite settlements paid by some agency OIGs, but sexual harassment is not a specifically denoted reason for a complaint in the dataset. Rather, it falls under “discrimination in federal employment” as part of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which covers discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin.