Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina publicly escalated her campaign against what she calls Congress sexual harassment slush fund on Monday, directly naming lawmakers tied to confidential settlements and demanding full disclosure of past misconduct payouts.
According to The Western Journal, Mace used a post on X to announce that her investigation had forced long-hidden records into the open and to accuse Congress of shielding alleged abusers at taxpayer expense. The files are out. Our subpoena has uncovered settlements totaling $338,000 from Congresss sexual harassment slush fund, she wrote, framing the revelations as proof that leadership in both parties has preferred secrecy over accountability. Nine members named. Records before 2004 destroyed. 357 members of Congress voted to keep it hidden. Were leading the charge to release them despite their opposition, she added, underscoring her claim that a bipartisan majority is complicit in the cover-up.
Mace followed the post by listing the names of former lawmakers and the dollar amounts of their settlements, though she did not provide detailed context for each case or specify which allegations were tied directly to sexual harassment. Her decision to publish the list nonetheless marked a sharp break with the long-standing practice on Capitol Hill of quietly resolving such matters behind closed doors, often with little or no public scrutiny.
The South Carolina Republican has been pressing this issue for months, arguing that Congress should be held to at least the same standard as private-sector employers when it comes to workplace misconduct. In February, she introduced a resolution calling on the House Ethics Committee to release all information related to harassment and similar allegations against members of the House, insisting that secrecy only protects the powerful.
If you sexually harass someone in Congress you do not get to hide behind closed doors, Mace said at the time, making clear she views anonymity for accused lawmakers as an abuse of power. The American people deserve answers. Staff deserve answers. Women deserve answers. No more protection for predators in Congress. We are going to shine a light on every single one of them, she added, casting the fight as a matter of basic justice for victims and transparency for taxpayers.
Her resolution was defeated, a move she later blasted as a self-serving maneuver by the political class to shield itself from scrutiny. In an April news release, Mace said the measure was killed by 357 members on both sides of the aisle to protect themselves and their friends, a stinging indictment of the bipartisan establishment that resonates with conservatives frustrated by Washingtons habit of policing everyone but itself.
Refusing to let the matter drop, Mace turned to compulsory process to pry loose the records. The April release noted that in March she issued a subpoena to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights demanding the release of all awards and settlements paid pursuant to Section 415 of the Congressional Accountability Act prior to December 12, 2018, for misconduct by Members of Congress, a move that directly challenged the institutional instinct to bury embarrassing episodes.
For too long, Congress has swept this under the rug, protecting predators at the expense of victims and taxpayers. Those days are over, Mace declared, signaling that she intends to keep pressing until the full scope of the payouts is known. The American people have unknowingly been paying for this cover-up. We started this fight, we made the subpoena motion, and we will not rest until these names are released and every predator in Congress has no other choice but to resign, she added, aligning her effort with a broader conservative demand for smaller, more accountable government.
A CNN report, while acknowledging the subpoena and the settlement figures, attempted to narrow the scope of the controversy by stressing that the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights handles a range of complaints against members, not exclusively sexual harassment claims. The outlet reported that from Jan. 1, 1996, through Dec. 12, 2018, 349 settlements were approved, with 80 involving legislative offices and only seven explicitly tied to sexual harassment allegations, a distinction critics of Mace have used to downplay the scandal.
CNN further noted that the settlement language often followed a familiar formula, citing one agreement that said the deal was reached to avoid the inconvenience of protracted litigation and the expense to the parties and the taxpayers of such litigation. The network also pointed out that the Treasury Department account used to fund these settlements before 2018 has been closed and that none of the individuals Mace named are currently serving in Congress, a fact that raises questions about how far current members are willing to go to expose past abuses.
For conservatives, Maces push highlights a deeper problem: a Congress that routinely lectures Americans on ethics and equity while quietly using public money to make its own problems disappear. Whether or not every settlement involves sexual harassment, the existence of a taxpayer-backed fund to resolve lawmakers misconduct claims underscores the need for structural reform, full transparency, and an end to special protections for the political class that ordinary citizens would never enjoy.
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