Good morning Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.
But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)
The House of Representatives Secretly Used $150,000 of Taxpayer Money for Sexual Harassment Settlements
Not only is sexual misconduct clearly a problem on Capitol Hill, but according to the New York Times, the House of Representatives also used $150,000 of taxpayer money between 2008 and 2012 to settle sexual misconduct cases. While very little detail is available on which members of Congress were involved due to strict nondisclosure agreements as part of the settlement process, the settlement amounts ranged from $8,000 to $15,225, suggesting Congress settled *a lot* of cases.
The House of Representatives secretly paid $115,000 to settle 3 sexual harassment claims between 2008 and 2012 https://t.co/5YPiMxYZlR
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 19, 2017
The GOP Tax Bill Has Passed in the House…but They May Need to Vote on It Again
The controversial Republican tax bill, which will sharply reduce taxes on corporations, passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday in a 227-203 vote, BuzzFeed News reports. Except that, the House may actually need to vote on the bill *again* later this week. The bill will need some additional small changes in order to pass in the Senate under a rule that allows bills to pass with only 51 votes, meaning that once it (likely) does pass, the tweaked version will need to return to the House for another vote.
Factbox: What’s in the final Republican tax bill https://t.co/cPdcJ5kcqf pic.twitter.com/8tVR53RJHj
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) December 20, 2017
Twitter Is Currently Working on Purging Neo-Nazi Accounts (Finally)
The Twitter accounts of multiple white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the “alt-right,” have been deleted over the last two days following Twitter’s announcement of new rules implemented to decrease hate speech on the platform. The rules make an effort to “reduce hateful and abusive content,” by banning accounts that make “specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people,” as well as accounts that affiliate with organizations that do so. Those kicked off the platform so far include white nationalist Richard Spencer, and Jayda Fransen, the leader of Britain First, the anti-Muslim extremist group President Trump retweeted earlier this month.
Today, we are starting to enforce updates to the Twitter Rules and media policy to reduce hateful conduct and abusive behavior https://t.co/yNHAMFcVwG
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) December 18, 2017
What to look out for…
Humbug Day is tomorrow — so if you’re just not about all that holiday ~cheer~ and are completely and utterly tired of hearing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” everywhere you go, tomorrow is the day when no one is allowed to judge you for acting like a total grinch.