Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Author: shailender

Bad bosses on Capitol Hill could face reckoning under new anonymous staffer review platform

Bad bosses on Capitol Hill could face reckoning under new anonymous staffer review platform

Capitol Hill staffers typically rely on private conversations and faceless social media accounts to identify toxic offices — but a new platform is offering a verified place to anonymously rate and review members of Congress and the workplaces they run. Capitol CNCT, a program designed to centralize resources for congressional staffers, launched on July 20 a new tool called “The Scoop,” where verified staffers can share anonymous, but verified, reviews of the offices where they’re employed. Former staffer David Tennent told Fox News Digital he founded Capitol CNCT to modernize the experience for young people working in congressional offices in Washington, D.C. He said the idea of the new ranking system emerged due to growing frustration over the number of “bad bosses” and “toxic offices” in the halls of Congress. CAPITOL HILL SEX SCANDALS TRIGGER NEW PUSH TO REDRAW THE LINE FOR LAWMAKERS “I wanted to create something that gave a little bit more transparency to the process and help staffers find the best opportunities available,” he said in an interview detailing his inspiration for the new tool. Just a week after launch, verified reviews are already beginning to paint an early picture of workplace culture across Capitol Hill. While most offices still have only a handful of ratings, the highest-rated House offices so far are Reps. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, and Robert Garcia, D-Calif. Among Senate offices, the top five were Sens. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Todd Young, R-Ind., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. Across both chambers, the five lowest-rated offices were Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. The offices of Davis, Krishnamoorthi, Brownley, Van Hollen and Bennet did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on their rankings. ANGER SWELLS AFTER SWALWELL’S ‘OPEN SECRET’ WITH WOMEN WENT UNREPORTED FOR YEARS There is no centralized human resources department for members’ offices on the Hill — making it tricky for staffers to report toxic or abusive workplaces. “The Scoop” aims to offer a reliable place where people can leave and review feedback from staff who have gone through a verification process, which ensures anyone leaving a review actually works in the office they are rating. “We verify the office in which they’ve worked,” Tennent told Fox News Digital. “We sift through all reviews before they go live to our platform to make sure that staffer has actually worked in that office.” Reviews are only published if the user leaving feedback passes Capitol CNCT’s background screening to ensure they have at some point worked for the member of Congress they are commenting on. The process includes verifying House and Senate email addresses attached to the account are legitimate. “My biggest fear was just creating like a political retribution platform, right?” Tennent explained. “Where you can just go on and destroy people without any evidence or verification that you’ve been a part of that process.” Tennent revealed that Republican offices are almost twice as likely to be reviewed than Democrats’ offices so far. The launch last month comes amid heightened scrutiny of workplace culture on Capitol Hill after multiple offices faced misconduct allegations this year. REPUBLICAN LAWMAKER WELCOMES HOUSE ETHICS PROBE INTO SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST HIM Many members of Congress have either resigned or been under fire this year for allegations of inappropriate behavior with members of their staff. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, both resigned in April after staffers from their offices came forward with accusations of sexual misconduct — including rape accusations against Swalwell. “We happened to be able to launch it right in this timeframe where this congressional ethics or lack of morality discussion is really hitting its high pitch,” Tennent said. Tennent said that while the main purpose of the app is to give staffers, or those considering working on the Hill, verifiable reviews about what it is like working for certain members of Congress, he also hopes it will serve as constructive criticism for members and their offices “to create a better working Congress.” “We do want to provide like constructive criticism in this process,” Tennent said He continued, “Our hope is that if a chief of staff or a member sees that their office is very poorly rated, that over time they’re gonna go, ‘Oh, this is a wake-up call for me. Let me implement some strategies to boost office morale, to change how we communicate with each other.’”

WATCH: GOP senator unloads on ‘creature of Washington’ challenger in critical Senate showdown

WATCH: GOP senator unloads on ‘creature of Washington’ challenger in critical Senate showdown

MARYSVILLE, OH – The Ohio Senate race could very well decide the balance of power in the U.S. Senate in November and incumbent Republican Jon Husted is making the case that the reasons his Democratic opponent was voted out of office two years ago are still relevant today. “He’s spent 32 years in Washington, and he’s got nothing to show for it, the voters over here in Ohio know it,” Husted told Fox News Digital at the annual Summer Farm Fest on Sunday when asked about his race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. “That’s why they sent him packing two years ago. He was defeated by Bernie Moreno by over 200,000 votes. This is all he’s done. He’s been in an elected office since 1974. He hasn’t done anything in the private sector. He’s just been a creature of Washington and I think the voters finally are tired of it. That’s why they sent him packing. I don’t think they’re gonna have any enthusiasm for rehiring him for a job that he failed at.” After representing Ohio in the Senate for almost two decades after years of serving in the House of Representatives, Brown was defeated by Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024 in a blistering campaign that was one of the most expensive in U.S. history. Moreno consistently tied Brown to the unpopular positions of then-President Joe Biden, and Husted told Fox News Digital those concerns still exist, particularly on immigration. FOX NEWS POLL: COOL YOUR SERVERS! VOTERS REJECT DATA CENTERS “We had basically an invasion of 11 million people,” Husted said. “He supported amnesty for them. He supported Social Security payments for illegals, healthcare for illegals, COVID checks for illegals. The sanctuary cities he supported led to crime, fentanyl, human trafficking in our state, and it’s been terrible, and the voters know this.” “They know that he failed them. They know when he goes off to Washington with his comrades that he votes like a liberal, that he’s too liberal for Ohio, that he has a track record of voting with Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, and that’s out of step with where Ohio is.” Over the last few weeks, Brown has blanketed the airwaves with ads criticizing Husted on data centers, a hot-button issue in Ohio, arguing that Husted’s support of data centers over the years has resulted in higher energy prices for consumers. Husted, who was appointed to the Senate in January 2025 after the departure of now-Vice President JD Vance, pushed back on that assertion when asked about the ads. “He had 32 years in Congress, he did nothing about it, and I, in my, just briefly over a year there, have legislation to require data centers to build their own power, to pay their own way, and to give the benefits of their presence to the citizens of those local communities, rather than the way that Sherrod Brown has done it, where he’s failed,” Husted explained. DEM SENATE CANDIDATE SHERROD BROWN CLAIMS HE SUPPORTS ‘CLOSING THE BORDER’; GOP SAYS RECORD PROVES OTHERWISE Husted continued, “This is the problem with the guy, is that he does nothing, and then a problem comes out, and he says, blame that person… He didn’t do anything about it. He never does anything about it. He just waits for problems to happen. And then he says, well, it’s the other person’s fault. It’s time to hold him accountable.” Husted made the case that the policies Brown supported in Congress led to the high energy rates the country is seeing now. “He spent 32 years in Washington and didn’t do anything except raise our electricity prices because he and the radical climate change agenda shut 23 power plants in Ohio,” Husted said. “If we had those 23 power plants today, we wouldn’t have high energy prices.” Husted continued, “Him voting for Obamacare, which has doubled the price of health care insurance in the state of Ohio and around the country. He needs to be held to account for his failed policies.” While Ohio has historically been known as a bellwether swing state, President Donald Trump won the state convincingly in 2016, 2020 and 2024, shifting the Buckeye State to a reliably red stronghold. However, recent polling, including a Fox News poll in June, shows Husted trailing Brown as Republicans battle the historical headwinds of the party in power struggling in midterm elections. Brown, recruited back into politics in part by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, is looking to flip one of the four seats Democrats need to regain control of the Senate, with Ohio among the party’s top pickup opportunities alongside Alaska, Maine and North Carolina. With less than 100 days to go until the midterms, Husted says that Brown’s record will be front and center. “Just showing the contrast between 32 years of failure from Sherrod Brown and the fact that I’m an Ohio guy, I’ve fought for Ohioans, I’ve helped in state government to turn this state in the right direction,” Husted said. “We now have more jobs than we’ve ever had in our state’s history, the lowest unemployment rate, frankly, than we ever had in our states’ history. And we don’t need to send this guy back to Washington, Sherrod Brown, to continue the failed policies that have harmed the country and harmed our state. We need a guy like me who will fight for Ohio.” Fox News Digital reached out to the Brown campaign for comment.