The Senate quietly revealed nearly $1.5 million in taxpayers' money has been spent over the past two decades to cover harassment claims against lawmakers and other Senate offices.

The Senate's Rules and Appropriations committees released the information on the evening of Congress' final work day this year

Its two-page release contained no names of senators or victims and said $599,000 was for 13 settlements involving 'member-led' Senate offices, while the remaining $853,000 was for 10 settlements involving 'other' Senate offices.

Release of the figures came as Senator Al Franken of Minnesota made his final speech on Capitol Hill after stepping down amid allegations of inappropriate touching made by multiple women.

Scroll down for video:

U.S. Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, made his farewell speech following allegations of inappropriate touching by several women

Figures released this week revealed how much the House paid out in claims, including for sexual harassment

The document, which covers the period 1998 through to 2017, said the largest Senate settlement was $421,000 and was for 'race discrimination and reprisal.'

Similar figures released this week show $342,000 in federal funds has been used to settle workplace discrimination cases involving House members between 2008 and 2012.

That included almost $175,000 for sexual harassment and discrimination allegations.

It came during a period that has seen several lawmakers resign or announce their retirements following sexual harassment accusations, and growing condemnation for the secrecy with which Congress has guarded information about such cases.

While the release called the information 'harassment settlement data,' none of the terse descriptions of each case used those words.

Four of the cases involved sex discrimination, including two that also involved 'reprisal,' while most of the rest were for race, age or disability discrimination.

Rules Committee Chairman, Alabama Republican Richard Shelby, said in the statement, 'Harassment in the workplace should not be tolerated, particularly not in the United States Senate.'

He said his panel wanted to release the information 'in a transparent manner' but its priority was to protect victims 'from further harm.'

Meanwhile, the House Ethics Committee expanded its investigation of Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas beyond its inquiry into sexual harassment allegations to determine whether he lied to the panel.

The House Ethics panel said it is also reviewing whether Farenthold or someone acting on his behalf directed his congressional staff to work on his campaigns.

House employees are free to work on campaign activities on their own time, but doing so at the direction of a lawmaker is an impermissible campaign subsidy.

Farenthold, who has announced he won't seek re-election to a fifth term, is already the subject of an investigation into whether he sexually harassed a former member of his staff and retaliated against her for complaining of discriminatory conduct.

The House Ethics Committee expanded its investigation of Blake Farenthold beyond its inquiry into sexual harassment allegations to determine whether he lied to the panel

Texas Republican Farenthold (right) is facing a fresh ethics probe over old charges that he sexually harassed a former staffer - and now claims about how he ran his office are being made

The accusations against Farenthold first surfaced in 2014, when a former aide sued him over sexually suggestive comments and behavior, charging that she'd been fired after she complained.

Farenthold, a seven-year House veteran, had said he'd engaged in no wrongdoing when he settled the case in 2015.

But after congressional sources said he'd paid a $84,000 settlement using taxpayers' money, the House Ethics Committee said last week it would investigate him and public focus intensified, even though he said he'd reimburse the Treasury Department.

In that announcement, the Texas lawmaker denied the sexual harassment accusations, but he apologized for an office atmosphere he said included 'destructive gossip, offhand comments, off-color jokes and behavior that in general was less than professional.'

The Ethics panel also said Thursday it had created an investigative subcommittee to determine whether Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen of Nevada engaged in sexual harassment.

Kihuen was already the subject of an ethics investigation, but the subcommittee's formation is necessary for the most serious sanctions in ethics matters.