New York Democratic Representative Sean Patrick Maloney said that the House Administration Committee would not allow him to buy tampons for his office. Maloney took to Twitter on Thursday to post a video of him signing a personal check for $37 to cover the purchase of personal hygiene products for his female employees.
“We discovered that feminine hygiene products can’t be covered and we made the mistake of including those in our office purchases recently,” Maloney said in the posted video.
“And I just got notified by the powers-that-be around here that I have to write a personal check to cover feminine hygiene products.”
My office bought tampons for female visitors and our staff. Then we got an email from @HouseAdmnGOP telling us we couldn’t use funds to purchase a necessary hygiene product. That’s ridiculous. More info: pic.twitter.com/8jyX3O4PeS
— Sean Patrick Maloney (@RepSeanMaloney) June 28, 2018
In the video, he explains how he is able to use funds that are a part of the Members’ Representational Allowance to buy necessary things like tissues, hand sanitizer, and a first aid kit. Maloney also mentions how other members use their budget to purchase “crazy” items for their offices. The MRA is an annual allowance that is given to each congressional office to pay staff, cover official travel, and the purchase of office supplies and other necessities. This basically means that the funds are supposed to cover personal hygiene products.
Maloney said that he wanted to have feminine hygiene products available for his female employees and visitors.
According to a House Administration spokeswoman they, “did not send an email or provide any guidance to Rep. Maloney’s Office.”
“We wish Rep. Maloney’s Office would have contacted the Committee for guidance before falsely claiming they: one, contacted the Committee at all for assistance; and two, received guidance from the Committee rejecting their purchase,” the spokeswoman said in a statement on Thursday. She also called for him to retract his “incorrect statement”.
“However, it is absolutely permissible to purchase necessary health and safety products t have in the office, especially in case of an emergency,” the spokeswoman told Roll Call.
Later on Thursday evening, Maloney responded to the statement with a video on Twitter to read an email he received on Tuesday from an official at the Office of Finance. According to the congressman, the Office of Finance enacts the rules created by the House Administration Committee.
“The House Administration Committee, which makes all these rules and is controlled by the Republicans, is lying about it and saying that’s not their policy and I’m making it up. And they’ve even called for me to retract what we said,” Maloney said in the video.
UPDATE: earlier this wk, my office got an email saying that we couldn't use our funds to buy tampons (even though we have female constituents and staff). When we called out the committee that makes the rules, they denied the rule exists in the first place. They're full of it. pic.twitter.com/IyZ8aHf0dY
— Sean Patrick Maloney (@RepSeanMaloney) June 29, 2018
The New York Democrat also wrote a House Administration Chairman Gregg Harper asking him to reverse the committees policy that “bars the use of funds for another necessary hygienic product."
“I couldn’t believe it when I found out about this – we use our office funds to pay for other necessary health products and there no damn good reason they can’t be used for this purpose,” said Maloney in a statement. “This is an important part of a larger discussion about how women are treated in the workplace her in Congress and across the country. It’s time for Congress to lead on these issues.”
