Complaint: Feminine hygiene products missing on Capitol Hill

Washington, DC, March 4, 2016

EXAMINER.COM

Complaint: Feminine hygiene products missing on Capitol Hill

By Paul Bedard

In a shocking finding that amounts to a very personal war on women, feminine hygiene products haven't been stocked in the House convenience store and pay bathroom dispensers around the campus are often marked with "Out of Order" signs.

At a House appropriations hearing, Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz raised the issue on behalf of women who have complained about the situation.

Addressing the top House administration officer at a Capitol campus budget hearing, she said, "When you need a feminine hygiene product, you need one. Immediately. And so for the convenience store to stop stocking products like that is really inconvenient, the opposite of the purpose of a convenience store," she said.

Ditto in the bathrooms, she told Will Plaster, the chief administrative officer. "Every woman has faced the frustration, whether it's a staff person, a visitor, a member, who goes into one of the women's bathrooms anywhere in the Capitol complex and found a completely broken feminine hygiene product machine."

To make her point on the problems in bathrooms, she showed a picture of a broken machine. "It's right there, 'Out of Order,' that's today. These are essential items that are just as essential as toilet paper is and it's absolutely a necessity," she said.

Plaster said he was aware of the issue and working to add stock of the products to the House convenience store and fix the machines.

Wasserman Schultz, however, said that she went by the store and found the supply lacking, an issue Plaster promised to fix.

And she had another suggestion for the bathroom feminine hygiene machines. She said that the products "should be free. It's like charging for toilet paper, and we certainly wouldn't want to do that."

Wasserman Schultz has a well-deserved reputation for making the case for staffers and members when it comes to House facilities such as restaurants.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/war-on-women-house-stops-selling-tampons-bathroom-dispensers-busted/article/2584759