Letter to the Honorable Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Ms. Vicki Christiansen, Iterim Chief of US Forest Service - Handling of Sexual Harassment and Misconduct at Government Agencies Is Focus of McCaskill's Bipartisan Inquiries

Letter

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, the top-ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, this week joined Republican Committee Chairman Ron Johnson to call for answers on the handling of sexual harassment and misconduct at government agencies.

McCaskill and Johnson's inquiry to the Department of Homeland Security focuses on a senior employee who, despite having been sentenced to prison for assaulting his then-spouse, may continue to work at the department and handle classified information. The senators' letter to the Forest Service focuses on pervasive sexual misconduct at the agency, including allegations against the Forest Service's former chief.

"Sexual harassment and misconduct are too often swept under the rug at government agencies," said McCaskill, a former sex crimes prosecutor. "I'm glad to work in a bipartisan way to push the Department of Homeland Security and the Forest Service to explain what they're doing to address recent disturbing reports that are coming to light."

McCaskill and Johnson called for answers from the Department of Homeland Security following reports that a senior agency employee--who was sentenced to 12 months in jail for a 2016 misdemeanor assault against his then-spouse--may continue to serve at the department and handle a "high volume" of classified information. The senators' letter asks for answers on the individual's employment status from 2015 to the present and for information on all agency employees with domestic violence or felony allegations and what actions, if any, have been taken against them.

The Senators also wrote to the Forest Service about its "efforts to address an apparent culture of sexual harassment and misconduct." Their inquiry focuses on the Forest Service's former chief's history of alleged, widespread sexual harassment and a Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General report showing internal distrust at how the agency handles sexual misconduct claims overall.

McCaskill has been a key voice in the Senate for targeting sexual misconduct, as well as better government accountability on this issue. The Senate recently passed McCaskill's landmark, bipartisan anti-sex trafficking legislation. Last month, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced her bipartisan bill to improve sexual violence data collection at key federal agencies. McCaskill's bipartisan fix to military law to better guard against "revenge porn" by making such conduct a standard offense across the military recently became law. In 2014, McCaskill announced the results of her unprecedented nationwide survey of how sexual assaults are handled on college campuses, which demonstrated a disturbing failure by many institutions in how they handle sexual violence against students.

Read McCaskill and Johnson's letter to the Department of Homeland Security HERE and the U.S. Forest Service HERE.

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