March 4, 2026
An effort to expose members of congress or their staffers who are accused of sexual misconduct or harassment – was basically overwhelmingly just killed in the house of representatives. But why? That’s the interesting part of this.
Here’s how the lawmakers behind this bill reacted to their defeat.
Ok — so before I tell you how badly this bill was shot down – you need to understand what it is. The bill was brought up by Representative Nancy Mace who you just heard form. She is not only a Republican from South Carolina but she’s also a sexual assault survivor. This resolution came after another Republican Representative Tony Gonzales was accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a staffer who then later took her own life. The resolution would have directed the House Ethics committee to preserve all documents and investigative materials related to violations or alleged violations of sexual harassment rules of the House of Representatives. Then the resolution would have required the House Ethics committee to publicly release all the reports conclusions draft reports recommendations and all accompanying materials within 60 days of adoptions. The resolution also would have required personally identifiable information of victims or alleged victims would have been redacted to protect their privacy.
But as I just said this resolution was basically killed. Well – it’s not 1000% dead it was overwhelmingly referred to committee…which is like basically being dead.
And the final vote may be shocking to you. It was
357 to 65. With one lawmaker voting present and 9 lawmakers not voting. 175 Republican voted to refer it to committee and 182 Democrats voted to refer it to committee. 38 Republicans and 27 Democrats voted to pass the resolution and force the ethics committee to comply.
But why is that so many were opposed to exposing this information? Well – because of this statement from the top Republican and Democrat in the House Ethics committee. They encouraged all members of the House to refer Mace’s resolution to committee because they feared that if it passed and they were forced to release this information – it “could chill victim cooperation and witness participation in ongoing and future investigations.” It goes on to say “victims may be retraumatized by public disclosures of interim work product, excerpts of interview transcripts, and certain exhibits. And witnesses, who often only speak to the committee confidentially or on condition of future anonymity, could fear retaliation if their cooperation is made public.” The committee said that they “strive to maximize information-sharing with the public while also balancing the confidentiality rights of victims, whistle blowers and witnesses with the due process rights of respondents.” They also say they are open to considering ways to more swiftly bring accountability to bear. But they said this resolution from Nancy Mace was not the way to do it.
The House Ethics committee did however say that they are going to launch a formal investigation into Representative Gonzalez – but that doesn’t necessarily mean whatever they find or don’t find would ever be made available to the public. That’s because the Ethics committee only has jurisdiction over sitting members of congress. You may remember there was a similar sexual misconduct investigation into former Congressman Matt Gaetz. But when the committee threatened to release their findings into the accusations against him – he resigned from congress…and that report was never made public.
See how your House member voted here.
Read the Ethics Committee’s statement here.
Read Rep. Mace’s original statement here.
