Oregon Capitol sexual harassment training canceled due to federal shutdown

Oregon lawmakers and staff will not receive their scheduled sexual harassment training before the 2019 legislative session begins due to the federal government's partial shutdown.

Legislative leadership offices said they will reschedule the training as soon as possible after the federal government reopens. The legislative session begins Jan. 22.

"This is a world class training, we need it, and we were all set up to have it," Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said in a statement. "As soon as the federal government is back up and running we will reschedule this training. We will cancel committees, we will cancel floor session, we have got to get this done."

The Senate was supposed to receive four hours of instruction Tuesday morning, courtesy of trainers from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that enforces workplace discrimination laws.

The House was scheduled for Wednesday.

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In previous years, harassment training was handled in-house, but having more robust training became one point of emphasis since sexual harassment complaints against former Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, became public in fall 2017.

In the intervening months, more complaints and detailed reports painted the Capitol as an unsafe workplace for staff, interns and members alike.

The Oregon Law Commission was tasked by the Legislature to take a look at its harassment policies, and one of the work group's suggestions was better training.

The EEOC training focuses on preventing and reporting harassment. Trainers go over acceptable conduct in the workplace, tools for responding to harassment, intervention techniques and respectfulness.

Word was sent around the Capitol Monday afternoon that both training sessions were canceled and would be rescheduled. There was some inkling among top legislative staff toward the end of last week that the training was at risk because of the shutdown.

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"It's distressing to see the federal government continue to be shut down, and this is one way it's having an impact," said Danny Moran, spokesman for Speaker of the House Tina Kotek, D-Portland. "This is still obviously a really high priority."

The government shutdown entered its 25th day Tuesday. Both sides remained at an impasse as President Donald Trump continued to demand billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico boarder and Democrats refused to give it to him.

Contact Connor Radnovich at cradnovich@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6864, or follow him on Twitter at @CDRadnovich

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