It’s Time for Rep. Leonard Lance to Come Clean on His Involvement in a Secret Sexual Harassment Settlement
Rep. Leonard Lance is serving on the House Ethics Committee, which is responsible for investigating sexual harassment and misconduct. He is also the Chair of the subcommittee that is investigating Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold for sexual harassment. This is a serious responsibility given all that we’ve learned about the egregious behavior of too many of our elected representatives whose sexual misconduct has been aided and abetted by the use of our tax dollars. In order to bring meaningful change to the culture in Washington that has enabled sexual harassment, we must ensure that those charged with investigating it are fully transparent and willing to truly hold their colleagues accountable.
Before entering Congress while serving as the New Jersey State Senate Minority Leader, Rep. Lance was involved in a secret sexual harassment settlement involving a Republican colleague, State Senator Anthony Bucco. This settlement has never been made public, and Senator Bucco was never held accountable, in fact, he was promoted to leadership roles. Moreover Rep. Farenthold, who is under investigation by Rep. Lance and the House Ethics Committee, has yet to repay the $84,000 in taxpayer funds that was used to settle his sexual harassment lawsuit despite promising to do so.
Rep. Lance hypocritically stated, “It is time for accountability and reform. The halls of Congress must be an environment free of sexual harassment, discrimination, and other terrible behavior. If a lawmaker commits such a terrible act and breaks the trust of the public that information must be public record and taxpayers should not be on the hook.”
I couldn’t agree more with these sentiments, which is why I am calling on Rep. Leonard Lance to make the secret settlement that he was involved in public. I am also calling on him to demand that Rep. Farenthold repay the taxpayers. Laws are meaningless if they are not enforced, and transparency and accountability must apply to all of our public officials, particularly those entrusted with ensuring that their fellow lawmakers are held accountable