Public Law P.L. 104-1 — CAA 1995 §§414-416 — settlements, Treasury payment, confidentiality, enacted 1995-01-23. Every recorded vote below is cited to the official government record.
Taxpayers paid Hill settlements in secret — the law that let congressional offices settle workplace claims routed the money through a public Treasury account and sealed the process, so for twenty-three years the public paid for outcomes it was never told about. Reformed in 2018, going forward only.
Enacted · amended · The official record
| Section | What it does | Official text |
|---|---|---|
| 414 | Permits the executive director, and the parties, to settle a complaint at any stage, with the settlement approved by the Office. The settlement is the terminal event; no publication step follows it in the enacted text. | The text |
| 415 | "Except as provided in subsection (c), only funds appropriated to an account of the Office in the Treasury of the United States for the payment of awards and settlements may be used for the payment of awards and settlements under this chapter." Subsection (c) excludes GAO, GPO, and the Library, which pay from their own appropriations. The effect is that the money is public money, drawn from a general account, and the individual employing office that generated the liability bore no visible cost. | The text |
| 416 | Makes all counseling confidential, all mediation confidential, and the deliberations of hearing officers and the Board confidential, permitting release of the record only where required for judicial review. Confidentiality attaches to the process, and by practice to its outcome. | The text |
| Stage | The question | Date | Tally | What we could not get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senate floor | On passage | |||
| House floor | On passage | |||
| House floor — related vote | On Passage |