2026年5月15日美国东部时间下午2:29 / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
劳伦·福克斯、埃利斯·金 报道
共和党众议员凯特·卡马克（左）与民主党众议员艾米莉亚·赛克斯
盖蒂图片社/美联社
当众议员艾米莉亚·赛克斯与民主党领导层就国会山普遍存在的性骚扰问题举行会谈时，她向哈基姆·杰弗里斯明确表态：这绝不能只是女性的问题。
“如果这些议员没有滥用职权，这一切本可以被杜绝，我们甚至都不会坐在这里讨论这个问题，”这位俄亥俄州民主党议员表示。“我们不能单打独斗解决问题。”
距离国会上次试图改革国会山性骚扰举报流程还不到十年，共和党和民主党妇女核心小组的领导人再次被赋予全面改革该流程的任务。其中两位议员——赛克斯和佛罗里达州共和党众议员凯特·卡马克——接受了美国有线电视新闻网的独家专访，详细介绍了她们的目标，透露了正在形成的战略思路，甚至承认了这项工作存在的局限性。
“我们已经看到，这是一个两党都存在的问题，这也是为什么它需要两党共同的解决方案。如果你是国会山的怪咖，我们在这里要对你说：这里不欢迎你，”卡马克说道。
这位议员承诺，“对于行为不端的议员，我们将看到更严厉的惩罚”，但她补充道，“我们希望在问题发展到那一步之前就将其制止。”
她们表示，计划快速推进这项工作，而在距离有争议的中期选举仅六个月、且两党立法谈判已举步维艰的国会中，这本身就是一项挑战。
她们的目标是设计一系列改革方案，能够更快地提交给众议院行政委员会，并以决议案形式通过。她们还在考虑一系列广泛的选项，希望能够改变让国会山成为性骚扰温床的文化氛围。
卡马克表示，其中一个正在考虑的想法是，要求曾有过性骚扰和解记录或被提起相关诉讼的议员进行新的信息披露。
虽然众议院规则禁止国会议员与自己办公室的工作人员发生恋情，但并没有类似规定禁止国会议员与其他办公室的工作人员发展关系。两位议员认为，这种情况会模糊界限，极易被滥用。
“从判断力的角度来看，这不是一个好主意，”赛克斯说。“这会引发太多潜在问题。我理解人们往往会在工作场所结识配偶或伴侣，但必须保持一定的判断力和周全考虑，不要让自己或他人陷入危险境地。”
目前，遭遇性骚扰并寻求帮助的工作人员可以求助于一系列机构，包括国会职场权利办公室、员工倡导办公室以及众议院道德委员会。但两位议员指出，每个机构的处理流程都界定模糊，而且往往没有向可能需要求助的工作人员充分宣传。
议员们指出，当指控提交给众议院和参议院道德委员会后，案件可能会搁置数月甚至数年，才有希望得到解决。
“如今，如果一名女性遭遇性骚扰，或者更糟糕的是被侵犯，真遇到这种情况时，她根本不知道该去哪里求助。相关培训严重不足，她会困惑‘我该和谁谈？该去哪里？’”卡马克说。“除此之外，还存在一种真正的、且合情合理的报复恐惧。人们付出了巨大努力才来到国会山工作，他们无休止地加班，却觉得如果举报就会遭到报复。”
她们认为，另一个亟需改革的领域是培训，尤其是针对议员的培训，这方面的培训尤为不足。
对于代表国会山年轻一代女性的卡马克和赛克斯来说，这个问题与她们切身相关。两人都表示，自己曾亲自出面制止过性骚扰行为。
“我想大家会发现，我和卡马克议员会当场指出不当行为，”赛克斯说。“但我们作为国会议员，有信心也有能力这么做。但这对我们来说是特例。”
“作为南方人，我数不清自己曾多少次不得不说‘愿上帝保佑你’（注：美国南方委婉表达不满的客套话），”卡马克说，并指出国会山的工作人员往往无法这么做。
“他们面临着真正的权力失衡问题，”她补充道。
杰弗里斯与众议院议长迈克·约翰逊于本周宣布成立两党专项工作组。此时，国会仍在从两名议员因性行为不端指控面临驱逐威胁而辞职的事件中缓过神来：德克萨斯州共和党众议员托尼·冈萨雷斯和加利福尼亚州民主党众议员埃里克·斯沃威尔。
此外，佛罗里达州众议员科里·米尔斯和北卡罗来纳州众议员查克·爱德华兹正因行为不端指控面临道德调查。两人均否认有任何不当行为。
“就米尔斯议员而言，他来自我的家乡州，我……一直公开表明我认为他滥用了职权，所以对我来说这不是党派问题，这真的是对与错的问题，”卡马克说。
但赛克斯和卡马克认为，虽然正当程序很重要，道德调查可能是该程序的重要组成部分，但议员们确实到了需要互相监督的时候了。
“我们自我监督非常重要，”赛克斯说。“有烟的地方通常就有火，这是每一位国会议员的责任。”
美国有线电视新闻网的艾米莉·康登为本报道贡献了内容。
‘Creeps need not apply’: How a team of bipartisan women plan to change Capitol Hill’s culture of harassment
2026-05-15 2:29 PM ET / CNN
By Lauren Fox, Ellis Kim
Republican Rep. Kat Cammack, left, and Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes
Getty Images/AP
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.”
The plan, they say, is to work quickly, a challenge in a body that is only six months out from a contentious midterm election and already struggling to pass bipartisan legislation.
They are aiming to devise a series of reforms that could move more expeditiously through the House administration committee and pass as a resolution. They also are entertaining a wide variety of options that they hope can shape the culture that has made Capitol Hill such a breeding ground for harassment.
One idea being considered, Cammack said, is new disclosure requirements for members who have ever settled sexual harassment claims or had cases brought against them.
And while it is against House rules for a members of Congress to enter into relationships with their own staff, there is no such rule barring a member of Congress from having relationships with staff from other offices. The pair argued this can blur boundaries and is ripe for abuse.
“As a matter of judgment, it’s not a great idea,” Sykes said. “It just creates so many potential issues, and I can understand folks tend to meet their spouses and their partners in their workplace, but there has to be a level of judgment and thoughtfulness so you’re not putting yourself or someone else in harm’s way.”
Currently, staffers facing harassment and seeking help can turn to a long list of entities from the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to the Office of Employee Advocacy to the House Ethics Committee. But the processes of each, the lawmakers argued, are ill-defined and often not well-publicized among the staffers who may need to access them.
When allegations reach the House and Senate Ethics Committees, the lawmakers pointed out, cases can languish for months and even years before any hope of resolution.
“Today if a woman was harassed or, God forbid, assaulted, if there was a situation, she wouldn’t really know where to go. The training is woefully inadequate, and she would wonder, ‘Who do I talk to, where do I go?’” Cammack said. “On top of that, there is this real fear, and it is a credible fear of retaliation. People work so very hard to get to Capitol Hill, they work endless hours and they feel like if they report that they will be retaliated against.”
Another area ripe for reform, they argue, is training, which they say is especially inadequate for lawmakers.
For Cammack and Sykes, who represent a younger generation of women on Capitol Hill, the issue is personal. Each said they have personally had to call out harassment.
“I think what you’ll find from Rep. Cammack and I is that we will call it out in the moment,” Sykes said. “But we are also members of Congress, and we have the confidence and the ability to do so. But that’s unique for us.”
“I can’t tell you how many times as a southerner I have had to bless someone’s heart,” Cammack said, noting that hill staffers can’t always do that.
“They are dealing with a real power dynamic imbalance,” she added.
The bipartisan task force, announced this week by Jeffries and House Speaker Mike Johnson, comes as Congress is still reeling after Reps. Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, and Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, resigned under threat of expulsion amid sexual misconduct allegations.
Additionally, Reps. Cory Mills of Florida and Chuck Edwards of North Carolina are facing ethics investigation for allegations of misconduct. Both men deny they have done anything wrong.
“In the case of Representative Mills, being from my home state, I have … been open about how I feel that he has abused his authority, and so for me this is not a partisan issue. It is truly an issue of right or wrong,” Cammack said.
But Sykes and Cammack argue that while due process is important and ethics investigations can be a significant part of that process, there does come a point at which members need to call out one another.
“It’s really important for us to police ourselves,” Sykes said. “Where there is smoke there is usually fire and so that’s the responsibility of every member of Congress.”
CNN’s Emily Condon contributed to this report.
发表回复