When Rep. Emilia Sykes met with Democratic leaders about the pervasiveness of sexual harassment on Capitol Hill, she made one thing very clear to Hakeem Jeffries: this could not just be a women’s issue.
“This could all be eliminated and we wouldn’t even be here if these members were not abusing their power, and so we need to get to the root cause,” the Ohio Democrat said. “We cannot do this alone.”
Not even 10 years on from Congress’ last attempt to reform the process for reporting sexual harassment on Capitol Hill, leaders from the Republican and Democratic Women’s Caucuses have been tasked with overhauling the process again. Two of them — Sykes and Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack — sat down exclusively with CNN to detail their goals, provide insight into a forming strategy and even acknowledge the limitations of that work.
“We have seen where this is a bipartisan problem, which is why it is requiring a bipartisan solution. And if you are a creep on Capitol Hill, we’re here to say that creeps need not apply,” Cammack said.
The congresswoman promised that “we’ll see additional repercussions for members that have acted inappropriately,” but, she added, “we want to see this stop before it ever gets to that point.”
