Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) released the following statement after Senator Al Franken’s announcement that he will resign:
“I am extremely disappointed in Senator Franken. The experiences shared by the brave women who have come forward show a disturbing pattern of behavior.
“Throughout my career as a prosecutor and Nevada’s Attorney General, I’ve stood up to support survivors of sexual violence and misconduct. My time working with these survivors has shown me that the epidemic of sexual harassment and sexual assault is bigger than one Senator and that the culture of the United States Congress must change. That begins with reforming the Ethics process to clearly set the highest standards of conduct for Members of Congress and to enforce severe sanctions for Members and staff that engage in this inappropriate conduct. The United States Senate must undertake a comprehensive effort to conduct the ethics process in an open, swift, and thorough manner.
“This revised process must restore the faith of the American people in this institution. I am working with my colleagues on the Rules Committee on bipartisan solutions to fix this broken and outdated process. We must stop using taxpayer dollars to settle sexual harassment claims. We must create an environment where every woman or man feels empowered to come forward. We must reform the Senate’s outdated rules and practices to reflect a higher standard of conduct for Members and staff, and protect the survivors that break their silence.”