Politico: Congress closes in on sexual misconduct reform, 4 years after its #MeToo moment

It’s a rare collaboration between conservatives and liberals that would end the forced use of arbitration for on-the-job harassment.

Four years after a national awakening to the pervasiveness of sexual misconduct shook Congress, lawmakers are the closest they’ve ever been to reforming private companies’ treatment of assault and harassment cases.

The Senate and House Judiciary Committees recently approved bipartisan legislation that would put an end to private employers’ use of forced arbitration — mediation between alleged victims and perpetrators that operates outside the traditional legal system — by allowing victims to decide whether they want to take their sexual harassment or assault claims to court instead.