{"id":26619,"date":"2017-12-02T04:06:27","date_gmt":"2017-12-02T04:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26619"},"modified":"2017-12-02T04:06:27","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T04:06:27","slug":"public-shouldnt-foot-the-bill-for-these-settlements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26619","title":{"rendered":"Public shouldn&#8217;t foot the bill for these settlements"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/blake.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-26620\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/blake-300x163.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/blake-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/blake-768x416.png 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/blake-1024x555.png 1024w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/blake.png 1160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This one not only doesn&#8217;t pass the smell test, it is downright putrid in the extreme.<\/p>\n<p>A Texas congressman reportedly paid an $84,000 settlement to a former staffer who sued him for sexual harassment. Where did Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, get the dough to pay the settlement? From your pocket. And from mine.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s right. Rep. Farenthold reportedly dipped into a taxpayer funded cash drawer to settle a dispute brought against a member of Congress who allegedly mistreated a female staff member.<\/p>\n<p>Does it stink? Like a dirty dog!<\/p>\n<p>According to Politico:\u00a0<em>House Administration Committee Chairman Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) told GOP lawmakers in a closed-door Friday morning meeting that only one House office in the past five years had used an Office of Compliance account to settle a sexual harassment complaint. Harper said in that one instance, the settlement totaled $84,000.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In a statement for this story, Farenthold would neither confirm or deny that his office was responsible for that $84,000 payout.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Let me venture a guess. Farenthold paid the settlement with the public&#8217;s money.<\/p>\n<p>If I were King of the World, I would strip Congress of that Office of Compliance fund and force any member of Congress to pay any such settlement out of his or her pocket.<\/p>\n<p>I am aware that Farenthold denies sexually harassing his former press aide. The Office of Congressional Ethics sided with Farenthold.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2017\/12\/01\/blake-farenthold-taxpayer-funds-sexual-harassment-274458\">See the Politico story here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Still, if there&#8217;s going to be a settlement in a complaint filed against a member of Congress, I happen to dislike intensely the notion of dipping into taxpayers&#8217; pockets to pay the bill.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This one not only doesn&#8217;t pass the smell test, it is downright putrid in the extreme. A Texas congressman reportedly paid an $84,000 settlement to a former staffer who sued him for sexual harassment. Where did Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, get the dough to pay the settlement? From your pocket. And from mine. That&#8217;s right. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26619\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Public shouldn&#8217;t foot the bill for these settlements<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13,14],"tags":[1112,7448,3653,4237],"class_list":["post-26619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","category-national-news","category-political-news","tag-congress","tag-congressional-ethics","tag-politico","tag-sexual-harassment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26621,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26619\/revisions\/26621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}