WASHINGTON — It’s taken nearly 30 years, but Dorena Bertussi may finally get Congress to overhaul its sexual harassment policies.

Bertussi, 65, was the first congressional staffer to win a sexual harassment case against a member of Congress back in 1989.

The process before the House Ethics Committee was a “joke” back then, Bertussi said, and the settlement amounted to a halfhearted apology from her former boss, Rep. Jim Bates (D-Calif.).

But now, in the midst of a cultural shake-up in Congress, Hollywood and the media, lawmakers are making a legitimate attempt at rewriting sexual harassment rules that for too long protected the predator with taxpayer-funded settlements while marginalizing the victim.

As a former legislative assistant who came to Washington to write laws, Bertussi now is working with Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) on legislation to overhaul the reporting process for sexual harassment.

There’s growing consensus around Bertussi’s idea of creating an ombudsman to guide victims through the agonizing complaint process.

“You need an advocate to take you through this,” Bertussi said.

Comstock, a former congressional staffer, has thanked Bertussi for stepping forward years ago, despite facing personal threats and political backlash.

“She got little support from this body,” Comstock said before Congress recently. “She went on her journey alone. She received nasty phone calls, and even threats … Fortunately she prevailed and men and women in the workplace should know her name.”

Bertussi was a young aide looking for a life change when she moved to Washington to work for Bates in 1987. But as soon as she arrived at the Capitol, she started to worry whether she had made the right choice to sell her home in California.

Bates commented about Bertussi’s breasts and said that she must “like it done rough.” One day, he straddled her leg in the office and started to hump her. An angry Bates once yelled at Bertussi and got so close that he was spitting on her face, she said. Another time, Bates described how he wanted to beat up a female co-worker “until blood trickled from her mouth.”

Scared for her safety, Bertussi decided she had to get out, and in 1988 she reported Bates’ behavior to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct — the precursor to the Ethics Committee.

Back then, a staffer could only file a complaint for harassment with the permission of a member of Congress, she said.

“It became an opportunity to stop it,” Bertussi said of why she was determined to file. “I didn’t want him to escalate and hurt more people.”

The committee report released in October 1989 found that the allegations brought by Bertussi and another staffer, Karen Dryden, who alleged Bates would hug her and grab her butt, were indeed sexual harassment.

The committee ordered Bates to apologize.

Bates denied humping Bertussi’s leg but apologized for “kidding and flirting with women on my staff.” He said he never intended to harass his staffers.

Bates was re-elected in 1988, when Bertussi made her charges. After the House ethics panel rebuked his conduct, Bates lost his next election in 1990.

In the years since, Bertussi has lived with guilt for not standing up to Bates at the time or even “decking” him.

“I just laughed my way through it,” she said of her real-time reaction over fear of making waves.

Last Thursday, Bertussi returned to Congress for a hearing on rewriting sexual harassment laws. That same day, Sen. Al Franken and Rep. Trent Franks announced they are stepping down over sexual harassment claims.

“I’m speechless,” Bertussi said of the cultural change between her staffer days and now.

“There’s no comparison.”

Today there’s a bipartisan effort among lawmakers to correct the problem. Both the House and Senate passed mandatory sexual harassment training and female and male lawmakers alike have agreed that more reforms are needed to shift the focus to protecting victims.

“I think these people are serious,” Bertussi said.