When the Eric Swalwell sexual assault and misconduct allegations broke (opens in new tab), Jackie Speier had one question: Why didn’t the accusers come forward sooner? Speier herself had been sexually assaulted when she was a congressional staffer in the 1970s. Decades later, as a Democratic member of Congress during the #MeToo era, she led efforts to reform the way Capitol Hill handled sexual misconduct cases. The legislation she shepherded through Congress in 2018 with Republican Rep.