Several of the young men who accused disgraced New York Democrat Eric Massa of sexual harassment were secretly paid nearly $100,000 in taxpayer funds in exchange for their silence, according to a report. 
 
 Multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that the Congressional Office of Compliance paid out settlements to at least two of Massa's ex-staffers after he resigned in 2010 amid disturbing allegations that he had groped and sexually harassed young male coworkers. 
 
 A spokesperson for the Compliance Office declined to confirm or deny the report, citing confidentiality concerns. 
 
 Massa, who represented the 29th Congressional district in upstate New York, stepped down while he was still under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. The 59-year-old ex-congressman eventually admitted to groping at least one male staffer. 
 
 News of the previously unknown settlements in the Massa case come amid revelations that the Compliance Office have paid out more than $17 million in taxpayer funds to settle workplace complaints in Congress over the past two decades. 
 
 Politicians accused of sexual harassment or assault 
 
 Since 1995, the Compliance Office has been able to take taxpayer dollars from the Treasury Department to settle harassment claims against Congress members. 
 
 California Rep. Jacki Speier, who first flagged the $17 million figure earlier this month, has spearheaded an effort to overhaul the Compliance Office's policy. 
 
 Earlier this week, Speier and a bipartisan coalition of House members introduced a bill that would require Congress to divulge the names of representatives whose sexual harassment cases are settled by the Compliance Office. 
 
 The shadowy operations of the Compliance Office have come under particular scrutiny in light of the recent avalanche of sexual harassment accusations against male politicians. 
 
 Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! ||||| The Congressional Office of Compliance secretly paid close to $100,000 in taxpayer funds to settle sexual harassment claims from at least two young male staffers who worked for disgraced former Congressman Eric Massa, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter told ABC News. 
 
 The claims were settled after Massa, a Democrat from upstate New York, resigned in 2010 amid a pending ethics investigation into allegations he groped and sexually harassed members of his staff. 
 
 "This is exactly why there should be transparency," said Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., who blasted the payouts in an interview with ABC News. Rice, who is co-sponsoring legislation that would remove secrecy from the payouts, added, "There is no reason why these settlements, these accusations should be done in secret once they're adjudicated." 
 
 When asked for comment on the specific settlements paid to Massa’s staffers, a spokesman for the Office of Compliance would neither confirm nor deny any of the terms, saying they are required by law to keep those records secret. 
 
 The Office of Compliance, now in the spotlight amid new bombshell accusations of sexual harassment by sitting members of Congress, says it has paid out more than $17 million in taxpayer dollars over 20 years to settle workplace complaints in the halls of Congress 
 
 That revelation, first provided by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who now is leading an effort to reform the claims process in Congress, set off a fierce public backlash about the process by which Congress handles its own cases of harassment and its use of taxpayer money to secretly settle those claims. 
 
 The 1995 Congressional Accountability Act gave the Office of Compliance the ability to use taxpayer dollars from the Department of Treasury to settle harassment claims against members of Congress. 
 
 As Congress and the rest of the American workforce faces a cultural reckoning around the issue, Rep. Rice and a bipartisan group of House members introduced legislation this week that would require Congress to disclose the names of any members whose cases of sexual harassment cases are settled with taxpayer funds. 
 
 As of now, there is no way to know how many cases resemble those of the staffers who were allegedly harassed by Massa. Congress says the $17 million it's paid out has been used in 264 individual cases, but it’s not clear how many of those cases dealt specifically with sexual harassment. The Office of Compliance will not release that data. 
 
 Making the process even more opaque, accusers who resolve sexual harassment complaints in Congress are almost always made to sign non-disclosure agreements as a part of the terms of their financial settlements. That agreement prevents them from talking about the money or the allegations of sexual misconduct. 
 
 “The entire process is designed solely to protect the institution of Congress,” said a person intimately familiar with Massa’s cases, who asked not to be identified. 
 
 Shortly after his resignation in March 2010, Massa admitted in interviews he was "guilty" of engaging in inappropriate behavior with his staff, but said that he did nothing sexual and nothing criminal. In an interview with Fox News at the time of the scandal he admitted to groping one of his staff members. "Yeah, I did. Not only did I grope him, but I tickled him until he couldn't breathe," Massa said. 
 
 That admission about tickling staff drew national scrutiny and landed Massa in the crosshairs of late-night comedians. 
 
 James D. Doyle, Massa’s attorney in New York, said the former congressman had no knowledge of the payments to his staffers from the Office of Compliance. Doyle said the process is unfair to both the accuser and the accused. 
 
 ABC News' Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
– People who argue that Congress needs to be a lot more transparent about sexual harassment cases may have a new Exhibit A—the Eric Massa case. Sources tell ABC News that the Congressional Office of Compliance quietly paid around $100,000 in taxpayer funds to settle sexual harassment claims against the Democrat, who resigned from the House in 2010 after being accused of harassing and groping male staffers. Since 1995, the Office of Compliance has been able to use Treasury funds to settle workplace complaints in Congress, reports the New York Daily News. Some $17 million has been paid out by the office, which refuses to disclose how many of the 264 separate cases involved harassment claims. Sources say the claims against Massa involved at least two young male staffers. "This is exactly why there should be transparency," Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice tells ABC. "There is no reason why these settlements, these accusations should be done in secret once they're adjudicated." She is co-sponsoring legislation to end the secret payouts. Lawmakers from both parties say they support requiring Congress to disclose the names of representatives who have harassment cases settled by the Office of Compliance. (Rep. John Conyers was hospitalized for stress-related issues after being accused of sexual misconduct by multiple staffers.)