Congress: secretive, abusive to both public and employees

  In addition to abusing and mistreating the public, it appears now that many members of Congress also mistreat their employees. Although the Drudge headline highlights the million dollars paid out by taxpayers to the harassed employees, even more interesting is the fact that these records are not made public. These are taxpayer dollars. Not one dime is paid by the harasser. Why aren't these records public information? Salaries are. Budgets are SUPPOSED to be, when Congress does its job and actually passes one.
  This Congress has avoided passing a budget this year so that the vast debts they have accrued will not be a matter of public conversation through hearings. This Congress cut off conversation about the health care debate, manipulating numbers and procedures and even studies that revealed the actual cost of Obamacare. To avoid controversy, Obama appointed a man without vetting or hearings who favors greatly rationing of health care to lead the Medicare division of the government and control more money than any division of the government.
  Now it appears that the Congress not only does not encourage its staffers to report abuses and harassments, in fact Congress will not release the information on who has been abused, who did the abusing, and how many tax dollars were paid out in retribution for the offense. Politico:

Congress has exempted itself from having to inform employees about their workplace rights by posting notices in offices — a practice required by law in the public and private sectors. Congress is also not required to keep records that would show a paper trail of lawmakers’ past misbehavior. [SNIP]

In the meantime, the process of settling workplace complaints remains secretive and byzantine, allowing members of Congress to quietly agree to cash payouts to settle cases and to keep potentially career-ending scandals under wraps.