Ethics reforms won’t come easy on Capitol Hill after misconduct scandals

By Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are scrambling to meet the moment as a wave of resignations and misconduct scandals rock Capitol Hill, sparking calls for accountability.

But even those with the best intentions are realizing that the road to reforming how Congress polices itself will be much longer and more complicated than many had hoped, frustrating those who want to see swift change. The stakes for members are high, as many fear the public’s dismal view of Congress will only worsen if there aren’t clear improvements.

Making changes to how the House Ethics Committee does its work is where most members want to start, but the panel, which leads investigations into lawmakers, is often viewed as something of a black box by nature of its work.

After sexual misconduct allegations against former Reps. Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales came to light through media reports and both members resigned before the panel could finish its own investigations, a number of lawmakers who do not serve on the panel believe it now has a lot to prove.

After the ethics committee spent years investigating Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the Florida Democrat resigned this week just before the panel was set to meet to recommend punishment after finding her guilty of multiple ethics violations. Some members felt frustrated her resignation allowed her to evade an expected expulsion vote on the House floor, and feel that members should still be able to be held accountable by the chamber even if they move to resign.

“At a time when public confidence in Congress is at an all-time low, it is vitally important that the ethics committee investigates abuses of the public trust in a prompt, thorough and fair manner,” independent Rep. Kevin Kiley of California told CNN.

GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida has argued that the ethics committee moves too slowly and is not effective. “The bottom line is that a process that delays accountability to that extent does not deter misconduct, it enables it. Serious reform is long overdue,” the congresswoman wrote this week in a piece for The Spectator.

House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest defended the panel’s work in an interview with CNN, arguing that his committee is holding lawmakers accountable, but laid out three concrete changes he wants House Speaker Mike Johnson to make to speed up and simplify the process. All of the proposed changes would require bipartisan buy in to reform the House rules.

First up, Guest wants to add additional investigators to his committee so the panel can move faster and take on more work. He also wants to bring the Office of Congressional Conduct under his jurisdiction, which he argued would eliminate duplicative efforts.

Currently, a staffer complaint first goes to the Office of Congressional Conduct, an independent, non-partisan entity, and if that complaint involves a member, it will then be referred to the ethics panel, which then starts the investigative process over again. And Guest wants to consider expanding the committee’s jurisdiction so it can continue investigations after a member resigns or leaves Congress.

“I think we could simplify it. We could streamline the process and by streamlining the process, hopefully see that cases are moved through quicker. I think that’s the desire of everyone,” Guest, who wants to expedite the panel’s work without sacrificing necessary due process, told CNN.

Freshman Democratic Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, who serves on the ethics committee, said he does not see the point in expanding the panel’s jurisdiction to include when a lawmaker leaves Congress but wants the committee to be more willing to enforce its subpoenas by imposing criminal sanctions on witnesses who don’t immediately comply.

“There’s a lot I’d like to do to make the committee move faster and reformed. There’s a lot I want to do in Congress to change some of the rules and some of the laws to police us to make sure that we are an example for the American people, not an embarrassment,” he told CNN.

Earlier this week, Johnson said he would lead any effort to reform the current system as ideas come up.

“We are looking at every potential avenue to tighten up the rules and make sure that women have an avenue to report,” Johnson said at a press conference Tuesday. “We have a lot of mechanisms in place but we’re always open to making that safer and more secure. And I will lead that myself.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Democrats on the House Ethics panel on Thursday amid the discussion of other possible changes, a source familiar with the meeting told CNN.

“Congress is not subject to really any kind of oversight that it does not control,” said Donald Sherman, president and CEO of the liberal-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “They need to work harder as an institution to figure out a way to ensure that they are more responsive to building a safe, ethical and equitable workplace for the thousands of staffers that serve them and their constituents.”

The ethics committee announced an investigation into Swalwell after CNN and other outlets reported on allegations of sexual misconduct against him – allegations Swalwell has denied. And a former congressional staffer with knowledge of the House Ethics committee’s work told CNN that during their tenure on Capitol Hill no complaint was ever filed against Swalwell.

“It makes me think that people in the House don’t know they have the option to make a complaint about a member. Clearly the culture of people understanding what recourse they have with members or staff isn’t good enough. It failed incredibly,” the former staffer said.

‘It’s crazy some of the things that happen in this institution that would not be tolerated in any other workplace’

But before attempting to implement solutions, many members are finding that it’s hard to even know where to start.

Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington started researching how allegations get reported on Capitol Hill and was shocked, like many of her colleagues, to learn how complicated and convoluted the current process was.

There was an entire office that she didn’t even know existed that she quickly learned most of her staff considered their primary reporting outlet for any claim. She couldn’t believe the current rules allowed lawmakers to have relationships with staffers as long as they weren’t their own. Even members on the House Ethics Committee couldn’t unanimously tell her crucial specifics like at what point in the process the panel learns the identity of an accuser.

Jayapal is currently on a mission to build a chart of what each ethics-related office does and has jurisdiction over — a task she didn’t realize would take on a life of its own — to then present to House Democratic leadership about what tangible changes could be made.

“I’m still trying to untangle the web we’ve woven,” Jayapal told CNN. “I don’t think staff is clear either about what their rights are in each of these situations.”

Other lawmakers have already introduced their own bills, but their paths forward are unclear. Luna and Subramanyam introduced a bipartisan bill this week to prevent members of Congress from receiving pensions if they commit serious offenses.

“We felt like it was common sense,” Subramanyam told CNN. “I didn’t even realize that you could continue to collect a pension after leaving this place if you had to resign or got expelled for those types of crimes.”

Democratic Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, who came to Congress following the resignation of her predecessor after it was revealed he used taxpayer dollars to settle a sexual harassment case, introduced a bill to reform and tighten up loopholes in legislation passed in 2018 during the #MeToo movement to address workplace harassment and discrimination on Capitol Hill..

“It’s crazy some of the things that happen in this institution that would not be tolerated in any other workplace in America,” Scanlon told CNN.

In an attempt to beat back the mounting criticism, the ethics committee released a rare statement this week imploring the Capitol Hill community to report any instance of sexual misconduct and outlined 28 sexual misconduct investigations the panel has conducted dating back to the 1970s. There have only been six expulsions in the history of the House of Representatives and lawmakers on the ethics committee say there should continue to be a high bar for the rare occurrence, emphasizing that individuals must be seen as innocent until proven guilty.

Members point to the panel’s investigation into former Rep. George Santos and his expulsion from the House not long after the panel released a scathing report, and its probe of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, which was cited in pushback to his nomination to be attorney general that he eventually withdrew, as two examples where the committee’s work translated into broader accountability.

Standing with Guest moments after Cherfilus-McCormick resigned, the top Democrat on the House ethics panel, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, outlined the hard place the panel finds itself in.

“We both take a little umbrage to all the criticism the committee gets. The rules are designed by the House,” the California Democratic told reporters earlier this week. “If there are opportunities to make it better, I think we both agree that we are open to that. And clearly at least perspective from the public, there is a lack of trust in this institution and we’ve been working very hard to hold people accountable in both parties.”

Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey, another member of the ethics panel, argued that as much as people want the committee to move faster, allegations like sexual misconduct cannot be rushed.

“There’s no panacea out there,” he told CNN. “Those things take time.”

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