Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says training "not enough" to prevent sexual assault on Capitol Hill
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, said Thursday that the issue of sexual assault on Capitol Hill is a pervasive one that needs to be changed.
"What we have right now is a process that's opaque, difficult to navigate and most survivors don't even know where to report," said Sen. Gillibrand on "CBS This Morning."
Gillibrand and Rep. Jackie Speier, D-California, introduced the "Me Too Congress Act" on the Hill on Wednesday in response to growing concerns of sexual misconduct at the nation's capitol.
She says the bill will make the reporting process "transparent, make it more accountable and we'll actually have a survey so that way every person who works here can fill out a climate survey of whether they feel safe or not."
The bill would also eliminate mandatory non-disclosure agreements on behalf of an assault survivor, makes mediation and counseling optional and requires members of Congress to repay any discrimination settlements.
She says similar legislation proposed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, however, is not strong enough.
"I don't know what his bill will say, but it's more than just having training, he said he wants to do training, that's not enough, we need training, number one, but we also need to change the process so that it's possible for someone to get justice today," Gillibrand said.
She added, "if you have someone harassing you at your office you'll have to go through a mediation process for months before you can even make your case, that's not something that's conducive to someone reporting or ending harassment in the workplace."
Gillibrand said that while Speier alluded to two current members of Congress, one Democrat and one Republican, being accused of harassing women, she said it's up to the survivors to name the lawmakers.
"A survivor might not want to have to be in the middle of a story for the next number of months, she might want to continue with her career, she might not want to be discriminated against or somehow retaliated against," the senator said.
She added, "the way I wrote my bill is to make sure the survivor has choice whether or not she wants to take issue public or he, because right now, they don't have that option, they have to actually sign an agreement not to disclose what happened to them."
Gillibrand spoke as more allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. While more lawmakers continue to pull their support from Moore, including many Republican leaders calling for him to step aside, Gillibrand said if Moore was elected to the senate, she'd vote against him being seated.
Asked about a potential write-in campaign for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to take back his vacant seat which Moore is running for, Gillibrand said while there's a "great candidate who's running on the Democratic line who I support", if she had to choose a Republican candidate, she'd pick Luther Strange.
