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The Congressional Office of Compliance (OOC), now in the spotlight amid a wave of sexual harassment complaints on Capitol Hill, said last month that in total it has paid out more than $17 million in taxpayer dollars over 20 years to settle workplace complaints in Congress and the legislative branch.

Yet there is still so much data the office will not provide, including the total amount of taxpayer dollars it used to settle accusations of sexual harassment specifically, or the identities of those lawmakers involved.

\"Under current law, the OOC is not authorized to release information about individual awards and settlements,\" the office said in a statement.

The OOC can, however, release some limited information to its oversight committees, as it did today in the House of Representatives. That explains why Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., was rejected when he made a similar request for information on December 6th asking for details on all sexual harassment claims made against senators, members of their personal and committee staff, as well as the total settlement amounts.

Laura Cech, a spokesman for the OOC, said the compliance office released some responsive information to its oversight committee (in this case the Senate Rules Committee, not Sen. Kaine's office) and said \"it’s up to the committees to determine whether to release the information.\" That information, according to the response the Congressional Office of Compliance sent to Kaine, includes a statistical breakdown of settlement amounts involving Senate employing offices from 1997-2017.

\"I think the Senate Rules Committee has the information I'm asking for and so now I've got to go to the Rules committee and try to get it out,\" Kaine told ABC News today.

ABC News has reached out to the Rules committee and requested they release that information.

Meanwhile, the Office of Compliance suggests that if members of Congress wants to make settlement data public, they need to change the law.

Today Chairman Harper told the New York Times there are plans to introduce a bipartisan bill this week that would, among other things, require members to reimburse the taxpayer for settlements made on their behalf.

ABC's Ali Rogin and Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.

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