Nancy Mace names lawmakers behind $338,000 in taxpayer-funded sexual harassment settlements
Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) claimed Monday that over $300,000 in taxpayers' money was used to settle sexual harassment claims involving House members and their offices since 2004. Her statement is based on records she received through a subpoena approved by the House Oversight Committee, requiring the release of all settlements for member misconduct before December 2018.
Mace said the documents show that $338,000 in taxpayer money was used to settle sexual harassment claims from 2004 to 2018. "You, the American people, paid for this. Taxpayer dollars were used to silence victims of sexual harassment by Members of Congress," the GOP lawmaker said in a post on X. She named deceased lawmakers Blake Farenthold and John Conyers, Democrat Eric Massa and Carolyn McCarthy, and Republicans Rodney Alexander and Patrick Meehan.
The results of my subpoena of Congress’s sexual harassment slush fund are in.
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) May 4, 2026
Nine members. One thousand pages.
All records prior to 2004 were destroyed - which tells you everything you need to know about how long this has been buried.
We are reviewing every page. We will name… pic.twitter.com/S4QizDJuFt
Mace pointed out that while these names have appeared in past reports, the official records now confirm Treasury funds were used to settle the claims, and added that many more names will be revealed once the victims' names have been redacted in the over 1,000 pages of dossiers. "To every predator in office abusing their power, abusing staffers, abusing women, you should be scared. We are on a mission to expose it all, and we are just getting started. Sunlight is the best disinfectant," she said on X.
To every predator in office abusing their power, abusing staffers, abusing women, you should be scared.
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) May 4, 2026
We are on a mission to expose it all and we are just getting started. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
If you haven't already, read our piece in the New York Times:… pic.twitter.com/M8UsQ74l6L
Mace also claimed that many records from before 2004 were destroyed. She called the missing files a "cover-up." However, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights (OCWR) has said before that about 23 case files were destroyed according to a record retention policy set in 2013. In March, the House voted 357-65 to set aside Mace's House Resolution 1072, which would have required the House Ethics Committee to release all materials from sexual harassment investigations.
"The American people have unknowingly been paying for this cover-up," Mace said in a press release last month. "For too long, Congress has swept this under the rug, protecting predators at the expense of victims and taxpayers. Those days are over."
In a statement on April 20, 2026, the Ethics Committee explained its opposition to the resolution. The Committee said it does not handle financial settlements, which are managed by the OCWR. They also noted that, since the 2018 Congressional Accountability Act Reform Act, any member of Congress who settles a sexual harassment claim must now personally pay the Treasury.
