WASHINGTON — Nearly a year after the #metoo movement gripped the nation, Congress still hasn’t acted on charges by sexual harassment victims that its current procedures protect abusers from accountability.

After a wave of seedy congressmen were exposed, the House passed a bill in February and the Senate followed in May to overhaul the system for congressional staffers to report abuse in the workplace.

But the GOP leadership didn’t convene a conference committee to formally hammer out the differences between the House and Senate.

Negotiators have been working behind the scenes, still without final agreement on how to proceed.

“We’re coming up on the one year anniversary of #metoo going viral and what will Congress have to show for it?” asked Maya Raghu, director of Workplace Equality and Senior Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center. “And what will they say to the legislative workforce who deserve to work with dignity and respect and safety?”

Time is running out for Congress to act. With limited legislative days left in the year, if a final bill isn’t passed by January, the new Congress will have to start again.

Rep. Joe Crowley warned Wednesday failure is possible.

“It wouldn’t be remarkable to me if we won’t pass something, quite frankly, given the state of dysfunctionality that exists here in Washington right now,” Crowley (D-NY) said. “But I think the American people expect that the government do something about this issue. It’s been talked about for almost a year now. And it’s been really remarkable the slow progress that has been made…We should have the platinum standard for the country.”

Leaders from the House Administration Committee and Senate Rules Committee have been meeting for months to address the differences in the bills. Two aides briefed on the talks said one sticking point is how personally liable a lawmaker should be for his or her mistakes.

Both bills aim to end secret taxpayer-funded sexual harassment settlements to victims. But one key difference is the Senate bill requires lawmakers to reimburse the US Treasury only for harassment settlements, not sex discrimination or other discrimination claims, which can outnumber harassment claims, critics say.

“The House has a really strong bill and we’re continuing to push to maintain our version of the bill because it’s stronger accountability, zero tolerance and no more secret settlements or anything like that,” Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) said Wednesday. “So we’re trying to push the Senate to adopt more of our provisions (with) more accountability.”

Comstock is optimistic the differences can be hashed out and floor votes on a final version could happen as soon as “this month.”

Meantime, Comstock noted that the House was able to unilaterally change rules within its chamber to mandate sexual harassment training and to ban lawmakers from sleeping with subordinates.

Both the House and Senate bills eliminate the mandatory counseling and cooling off periods that made victims wait months before moving forward with a complaint. The Senate bill, by default, handles complaints through mediation, but parties can opt-out within 10 days. The House bill makes mediation optional and also offer legal counsel to victims.

Records show that nearly $300,000 in taxpayer dollars were spent between 2003 and 2007 to settle 13 claims of sexual harassment or sex discrimination against members of Congress or their offices.

The taxpayer funded bailouts included $84,000 to a former staffer to Rep. Blake Farenthold in a sexual harassment settlement. The Texas Republican resigned in April.

Nine members of Congress were forced out of office in the #metoo era, including Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Tim Murphy (R-Penn.) and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.).

Both the House and Senate bills would require surveys of employees to measure confidentially incidents of sexual harassment and discrimination.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has been calling for an end to the antiquated reporting system and is frustrated with the slow pace of change.

“Both bills to reform the way Congress handles sexual harassment complaints passed out of the Senate and House with unanimous support. There’s no reason why this legislation shouldn’t be conferenced. Congress continues to drag its feet and it’s unacceptable,” she said.