Maryland legislature to start tracking harassment complaints

Maryland’s legislature is set to start tracking sexual harassment complaints against lawmakers and their staff members, as statehouses across the country confront mounting allegations of sexual misconduct and examine their policies for dealing with them.

The General Assembly plans to update its sexual harassment policy to require the legislature’s human resources director to keep track of the number and type of complaints and how they were resolved. Lawmakers would be briefed on this information every year — but would not be given the identities of the alleged harassers.

The changes are expected to win approval from a legislative policy committee meeting Tuesday, said Alexandra Hughes, chief of staff to Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel). The committee sets rules for the General Assembly.

“The speaker and the Senate president have tried to be ahead of the curve and have tried to make sure we have as professional of a workplace as we can,” Hughes said. “They felt this is an important step forward.”

More