It’s Tuesday, the traditional day for elections and for our pause-and-consider newsletter on politics and policy.   

Photo by Tom Brenner/Reuters

A BURST OF BIPARTISANSHIP
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews ([link removed])
Correspondent

In the U.S. Capitol this week, a rarely seen political weather pattern is breaking out: bipartisan compromise. What’s more, the ice has melted on a pair of difficult-to-solve issues that don’t always make headlines.

Lawmakers have forged bipartisan(!) and bicameral(!) compromises on two usually intractable issues, which affect tens of millions of lives.
* A bill on track to becoming a new sexual harassment bill
* The U.S. Postal Service and its deep levels of red ink

Here’s a quick look at each.

THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT BILL

Last night, the House of Representatives passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act ([link removed]) overwhelmingly. Look at these numbers: The bill passed 335-97, with 113 Republicans voting yes alongside Democrats.

The bill is rare on a few levels. It is Congress’ most direct response to the #MeToo movement to date. And it is not a marginal step. The bill essentially *ends* a practice that advocates decried as harming victims and protecting companies that harbored sexual harassment in the workplace.

What does this do?

The bill addresses the system of “force arbitration.” In this, companies require employees, when they join the staff, to sign an agreement that they will not take any harassment claims to court, but will resolve them through a private mediator, or arbiter. The requirement can be part of standard – and sometimes lengthy – employment contracts, as it was for former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson. This has left roughly 60 million workers without a way to pursue their claims in court, according to a 2018 estimate ([link removed]) by the Economic Policy Institute.

Carlson and other survivors of workplace sexual harassment and assault made ending this system one of their most-sought changes ([link removed]) from Congress. Workers were awarded money in force arbitration cases just 1.6 percent of the time in 2020, The Washington Post reported ([link removed]) .

For Carlson and others, it meant a survivor’s claims could easily be kept out of the public eye, companies were protected from damage, and cultures of harassment could continue unabated and unaddressed.

What the bill does
Rep. Cheri Bustos (at lectern) speaks at a 2017 news conference on Capitol Hill, calling for an end to forced arbitration. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (second from right) greets former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson (R). Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

The bill would make it so no employee can be locked into arbitration as a way of resolving their sexual harassment claims. Once signed into law, any employee will have the right to address their claims in court.

It is a bipartisan breakthrough led by Democrat Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois. She and others have worked for years to get wide support.

What happens now?

The bill passed the House last night and is expected to clear the Senate ([link removed]) in the next few days. President Joe Bide has already indicated ([link removed]) he would sign it.

POSTAL SERVICE REFORM

As our Geoff Bennet reported ([link removed]) last week, the Postal Service has long been struggling with red ink, as well as up-and-down reforms that have affected its core mission – delivery. The agency has lost some $90 billion net since 2007 and is still hemorrhaging funds.

Republicans and Democrats have long disagreed over whether to help the Postal Service with large infusions of cash, essentially bailing them out, or whether to impose tough and strict changes in how the service operates and what it can do in order to cut back the losses.

A bipartisan compromise would do both. It passed the House tonight, and it already has more than enough Republicans in the Senate to pass that chamber as well.

The Postal Service Reform Act ([link removed]) was crafted by two lawmakers from opposite sides of the spectrum – House Oversight chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and the ranking Republican on her committee, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky.

It stops the heavy financial bleeding by transferring Postal Service retirees out of their current health care and into Medicare. That will cost Medicare, yes. But that, and other reforms in this bill, will save the Postal Service nearly $50 billion over 10 years.

The bill allows Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to carry out some – but not all – of the reforms he has sought. For example, the agency will place larger emphasis on package delivery, which is its most consistent and lucrative source of net revenue.

Also, this bill would require that the Postal Service continue 6-day delivery. Meaning, you will continue to get your mail on Saturdays. That has been in question as a possible cost-saving measure.

So, why this bipartisanship now?

In both cases, there have been years of quiet work to try to find common ground. And more recently, specific lawmakers who have influence in their parties have been doing more assertive work – and have also found a way to trust one another.

A MOMENT FROM THE HILL

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By Joshua Barajas, @Josh_Barrage ([link removed])
Digital Editor, Senior

Super Bowl 56 is this Sunday, but there’s been a range of stories involving the NFL the past week that aren’t related to “the Big Game.”

Tom Brady retired. The Washington Football Team are now the Commanders. Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a class-action lawsuit ([link removed]) alleging racism in the league’s hiring and recruitment practices.

And then, on Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform hosted a congressional roundtable with six former employees of the newly named Commanders, who detailed sexual harassment and abuse they experienced while employed by the team.

In 2020, The Washington Post first reported an array of harassment allegations from dozens of former employers on the team. NFL launched an investigation into the allegations that same year, but the probe’s findings have yet to be made public. During the roundtable, the six former employees described a toxic workplace culture where sexual misconduct was rampant.

Rachel Engleson, who worked for the team now called the Commanders for eight years, told lawmakers that she “can't recall a time that I didn't experience or fear sexual harassment.”

"It was just a pervasive part of the culture and an unavoidable rite of passage being a woman who worked there,” she told lawmakers. “I experienced many work firsts there: First bonus, first promotion, first office potluck, first employee hire, first threat of physical violence by a supervisor, first hostile work environment, first public humiliation, first sexual assault.”

Tiffani Johnston, an employee on the team until 2008, also brought forth a new allegation ([link removed]) against the owner, Dan Snyder. She said that Snyder harassed her at a work dinner by placing his hand on her thigh and then later pushed her toward his limo.

Following the roundtable, Snyder apologized for past misconduct on the team, adding that allegations leveled against him "are outright lies.”

What's next. After the roundtable, the committee called on the NFL to release the findings of its investigation. A spokesman for the league said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports ([link removed]) that the committee “has requested many documents which are clearly protected by the attorney-client privilege or are attorney-work product.”

“The League, and not the team, has and will determine which information it is in a position to produce,” the statement read.

The committee has set a Feb. 14 deadline for the NFL to provide the findings and other documents related to the investigation.

POLITICS AT PLAY AT THE OLYMPICS
Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Reuters

By Dan Cooney, @IAmDanCooney ([link removed])
Social Media Producer/Coordinator

The White House lit up in red, white and blue last week to support Team USA at the start of the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Weeks before the Games, the U.S. announced a diplomatic boycott, meaning no government officials would attend the competitions and ceremonies. The Biden administration said the boycott aims to protest China’s human rights abuses, including against Uighurs in the country's northwest Xinjiang province.

More on the politics amid the Olympics fanfare from our recent reporting:
* Watch: How China’s “Zero COVID” policy at the Games are designed to keep athletes safe – and are also silencing Beijing’s critics ([link removed]) .
* One Big Question: Could the U.S. have sent a stronger message to China? An expert weighs in on what the U.S. political boycott is likely to accomplish ([link removed]) .
* Explainer: Why are the 2022 Winter Olympics so controversial ([link removed]) ?
* One Quick Tidbit: The Chinese government has one of the largest surveillance operations ([link removed]) in the world. So much so that Team USA has advised its athletes to not bring their personal cell phones, recommending disposable or burner phones instead ([link removed]) .

#POLITICSTRIVIA
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews ([link removed])
Correspondent

The 2022 Games are underway in Beijing, lasting through Feb. 20, although some fans were already watching days before the opening ceremony last week. (Hi, curling fans!) Beijing is the first city to host both Winter and Summer Games and was the first country to win a gold medal at this year’s Olympics. And, as briefly touched on above, politics has always been a part of the Olympics.

Our question: Who is the only U.S. president to attend an Olympics on foreign soil while in office?

Send your answers to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.

Last week, we asked: Just six current senators – three Democrats and three Republicans – were in office when Stephen Breyer was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice in 1994. Who were the six senators? And how many of them voted in favor of his confirmation?

The answer: The six senators were:
1. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
2. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa
3. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
4. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
5. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
6. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.

All six of them voted yes on Breyer’s confirmation. (A few folks missed Sen. Murray.) Here's the vote tally. ([link removed])

Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, father of current Sen. Lisa Murkowski, was one of nine senators to oppose Breyer’s confirmation.

Congratulations to our winner: Barry Weinstein!

Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.
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