The House on Wednesday decisively rejected an effort by Rep. Nancy Mace to force public disclosure of internal investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and improper relationships between members of Congress and their staff.
In a 357-65-1 vote, lawmakers moved to refer Mace’s resolution to the House Ethics Committee — a procedural step that effectively ends the push for now. Thirty-eight Republicans and 27 Democrats broke with leadership to oppose the referral, voting instead to advance Mace’s measure.
The resolution would have required the Ethics Committee to make public, within 60 days, “all reports, including any conclusions, draft reports, recommendations, attachments, exhibits, and accompanying materials,” related to investigations into alleged sexual harassment or sexual relationships with staff. The proposal specified that personally identifiable information of victims or alleged victims would be redacted.
Mace framed the effort as a transparency measure aimed at ending what she described as a culture of secrecy surrounding misconduct investigations on Capitol Hill.
“Congress has been sweeping this under the rug for far too long. Tony Gonzales may be the latest example, but he’s not the only one,” Mace said earlier this week. “Staff deserve to come to work without being harassed by their bosses. Women deserve to be safe. And the American people deserve to know when their so-called ‘representative’ is abusing power instead of serving their constituents. No more hiding. No more excuses. It’s time to end the cover-up and drag the truth into the light.”
“Any Member who votes against this resolution is voting to protect the cover-up instead of the victims,” she added. “Nobody in Congress gets to play by a different set of rules. We are going to shine a light on every single case this committee has been sitting on.”
The Ethics Committee announced Wednesday morning that it had formally opened an investigation into the allegations against Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), one day after his Texas primary election determined he will advance to a runoff in May. House rules prohibit the committee from taking certain actions against members within 60 days of an election.
Advertisement
Shortly before the vote on Mace’s resolution, the Ethics Committee publicly opposed the measure, warning it could undermine its investigative work.
The panel said the proposal “could chill victim cooperation and witness participation in ongoing and future investigations.” It added that House Resolution 1072 “could have a negative impact on the Committee’s ability to investigate and eliminate sexual misconduct in the House” and urged lawmakers to refer the matter back to the committee.
House rules prohibit members from engaging in a sexual relationship with a staffer in their personal office or on a committee they serve on, and bar sexual harassment of staff. The prohibition on sexual relationships with staff was added in 2018 amid the national “Me Too” movement.
While certain substantiated cases are publicly disclosed, the Ethics Committee is not required to release every complaint or investigative document it reviews.
Mace argued that her resolution would not endanger victims, noting that it mandated redactions of personally identifiable information.
“It’s not just the investigations that have concluded. It’s ones that are ongoing right now, and quite frankly, I don’t give a damn. So this has been a hidden secret for a long time,” she said.
Beyond the floor vote, Mace has sought additional transparency measures. During a House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday, she successfully advanced by voice vote a motion to subpoena the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights for records of certain settlements paid under the Congressional Accountability Act prior to December 2018. The subpoena would apply only to settlements involving members of Congress, not staff, following an amendment offered by Oversight ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., which limited disclosure but required reporting on total settlement amounts involving nonmembers.
Before a 2018 law change, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights was not required to publicly disclose the names of settling offices in misconduct cases. Since then, names of offices involved in settlements must be published online.
Wednesday’s vote underscores broad bipartisan reluctance to force wholesale public release of investigative materials, even as calls for greater transparency continue to reverberate across Capitol Hill.
