WASHINGTON — Sweeping moves to address sexual misconduct at the Capitol may not be coming anytime soon, given the slow pace of change in Congress. But even “low-hanging fruit” could make a difference, some staffers say.

The Congressional Progressive Staff Association laid out some ideas in a letter sent to lawmakers on Tuesday.

“Staff safety is crucial,” reads the letter, which includes recommendations that range from creating a Senate version of the Office of Employee Advocacy to something even simpler — building “awareness of existing resources.”

“Almost every staffer we heard from was not aware of most of these resources” to report bad actors and hold them accountable, said CPSA spokesperson Michael Suchecki.

His group surveyed its members in the months after two lawmakers, Reps. Tony Gonzales and Eric Swalwell, resigned from Congress amid misconduct allegations, sparking calls for a broader reckoning around culture on the Hill.

“We didn’t want to put forward a naive, progressive wish list of how we would build this process from zero. We wanted to put together an actionable list sourced from the inside,” Suchecki said.

The CPSA was founded in 2021 and has championed workplace overhauls that Congress has been slow to adopt over the years, like parental leave and overtime for House staffers. But the group’s ideas haven’t always sat well with the rest of the congressional community. A proposal from the group last January asking lawmakers to consider a 32-hour work week in their offices saw significant blowback, for example. This time, the group hopes its in-the-weeds recommendations make for easier consensus.

The independent, nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct should get a boost, according to one of the recommendations, which urges lawmakers to codify the office and give it limited subpoena powers.

“Currently, the continued existence of this office is subject to biennial House rules packages, and congressional leaders have previously attempted to restrict its independence,” reads the letter, which is addressed to the chairs and ranking members of the House Administration Committee and Senate Rules and Administration Committee.

Shifting more responsibility to the independent office would take some pressure off the House and Senate Ethics committees. While those panels can and do investigate wrongdoing, some observers say they are inherently flawed, since lawmakers can’t be expected to truly police their own and have incentives to protect their colleagues.

As part of their research, the progressive staffers reached out to the Office of Employee Advocacy, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, the Office of House Employment Counsel, the Office of Employee Assistance and the ethics panels.

“We thought there were three or four different offices or bodies that we needed to talk to to get a sense of how reporting, seeking accountability works on the Hill,” Suchecki said. “I called all of them, and basically they all said it’s someone else’s job, and I’m like, OK, this is a good start.”

Short of changing existing laws and processes, making staffers aware of which office does what could help — which Suchecki said is the “bare minimum.”

The group is cautiously optimistic that they’ll see some results from a bipartisan partnership convened in May and led by the chairs of the Democratic and GOP women’s caucuses, Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., and Kat Cammack, R-Fla. The goal is to “identify reforms and solutions to make Congress a safer work environment for women and all survivors,” the pair announced.

“We’ll be deeply concerned and disappointed if the bipartisan partnership cannot at least deliver on that,” Suchecki said. “I have faith that they are having the right conversations and engaging with the right people on this to try to make change, but it still needs to be something that the institution buys into — and if the bipartisan partnership puts forward a proposal, and the speaker shoots it down, or if his office shoots it down, and he won’t bring it to the floor, that’s not worth anything.”

While “dozens” of the CPSA’s members filled out the survey the group sent around, he acknowledged it’s hard for people to want to weigh in when they’ve already experienced harm.

“A lot of people that have some of the most harrowing stories were turned away by engaging with the topic at all, and I think that’s something where we want to do more outreach to those folks, especially to get a better sense for where they fell off, what happened,” he said.

Looking forward, Suchecki said the group also wants to talk to people who have left the Hill because of harassment or abuse and make further suggestions based on what they may have missed in the initial survey.

“We are deliberately focused on the small things that might be achievable here, because every single one of these changes could catch someone from falling through the cracks, and could save someone who either doesn’t know where to turn, or doesn’t know if they want to stay in politics,” he said.

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