Bipartisan Expulsion Push Roils Congress Amid Ethics Scandals

WASHINGTON — A rare bipartisan effort to confront sexual misconduct, financial corruption and ethical failures in Congress intensified this week after forcing the resignations of two lawmakers and now targeting others in both parties for potential expulsion.

The departures of Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat accused of sexual assault and misconduct by five women including allegations of rape, and Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican who admitted to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide, did not come from internal leadership or the long-dysfunctional House Ethics Committee. Instead, they resulted from sustained pressure by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, a New Mexico Democrat, who assembled a cross-aisle coalition threatening expulsion. Their work exposed how the ethics process has for decades allowed investigations to drag on without consequence while members resign quietly to avoid accountability.

That momentum is now spreading. On Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican with her own history of clashing with party leadership, filed a resolution to expel Rep. Cory Mills, a Florida Republican under Ethics Committee investigation for allegations including violence against women, stolen valor, profiting from federal contracts and misusing campaign funds. Mace had previously attempted to censure Mills and strip him of his committee assignments on the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs panels, only to see both parties block the effort.

"The Swamp has protected Cory Mills for too long and we are done letting it slide," Mace said in a statement. "We tried to censure him. Both parties blocked it, but we are not backing down. Any member who votes to keep him here is voting to protect a woman beater and a fraud."

Mills fired back on social media, accusing Mace of political theatrics and ignoring due process while noting her own ongoing ethics inquiries and legal issues in South Carolina. He challenged her to bring the resolution to a vote immediately.

The scrutiny is not limited to Republicans. The House Ethics Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing Tuesday to recommend sanctions for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Florida Democrat found guilty of more than two dozen ethics violations after an investigation revealed she allegedly funneled over $5 million in disaster relief funds into her campaign. She faces separate federal criminal charges for the scheme, has pleaded not guilty and refused calls to resign, telling reporters she will not abandon her district.

Interviews with more than 30 House Democrats by Axios revealed widespread readiness to vote for her expulsion if the Ethics Committee recommends it. Multiple members, including Reps. Angie Craig, Eric Sorensen, Shri Thanedar and Jared Golden, described the allegations as too serious to ignore and emphasized the need to restore public trust. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has so far avoided directing his caucus but said they would review the facts after the hearing.

This marks a significant shift. Just six members have been expelled from the House in American history, the most recent being former Rep. George Santos in 2023. The Ethics Committee, established in 1967, has a track record of slow-walking cases until the political pressure becomes unbearable. In the Gonzales case, leadership took no action for weeks after his admission. Only the threat of expulsion from lawmakers across the aisle changed the equation.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Lauren Boebert, ideological opposites, both welcomed the resignations as a turning point while insisting more must be done. Ocasio-Cortez specifically named Mills as the next target. Boebert called for stripping implicated members of their federal pensions. Luna and Leger Fernandez have indicated they are already examining both Mills and Cherfilus-McCormick.

Even some of the loudest voices on the right are escalating their rhetoric. Rep. Clay Fuller, a Georgia Republican who took over former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's seat, told a conservative podcast that lawmakers who commit serious crimes like rape while in positions of public trust should face the death penalty. He framed it as part of broader legislation to impose harsher penalties on those who betray public confidence.

Whether this surge of accountability will produce lasting reform remains uncertain. For years, both parties have shielded their own while selectively condemning the opposition, allowing a culture of impunity to fester. The current efforts, driven by a small group of determined lawmakers from opposing sides, represent the most serious challenge to that status quo in recent memory. With an Ethics Committee hearing Tuesday and expulsion resolutions pending, Congress faces a test of whether it can finally police itself or will once again retreat into partisan protection rackets.

The coming days will reveal if the bipartisan outrage is performative or if it can translate into the structural changes needed to restore credibility to an institution badly in need of repair.