A House in Disgrace: The Urgent Need for Institutional Integrity in Congress

The Breaking News: Resignations and Reckoning

In a stunning one-two punch on a single Monday evening, the United States House of Representatives was rocked by the announced resignations of two of its members. California Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell and Texas Republican Representative Tony Gonzales both declared their intentions to leave Congress, each amid a swirling cloud of sexual misconduct allegations. Swalwell’s announcement came just a day after he suspended his gubernatorial campaign over allegations of sexual assault. His statement framed the resignation as a choice to prevent his constituents from having a “distracted” representative, while also condemning the prospect of an expulsion vote without due process. Gonzales, citing God’s plan, stated he would file for retirement. These are not voluntary departures in the normal course; they are retreats under the gathering storm of credible, horrifying accusations.

This drama did not emerge in a vacuum. The weekend prior, debate had resurfaced about potentially expelling four House members, a move requiring a two-thirds majority. The catalyst was Swalwell’s exit from the California governor’s race. The House Ethics Committee announced it had opened a formal investigation into Swalwell regarding allegations he “may have engaged in sexual misconduct, including towards an employee working under his supervision.” Gonzales was already under investigation by the same committee for allegedly engaging “in sexual misconduct towards an individual employed in his congressional office.”

The Broader Context: A Potential Purge

The potential expulsion resolution casts a wider net. It may also include Florida Democratic Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, whom the Ethics Committee voted to find guilty on more than two dozen ethics charges in late March, and Florida Republican Representative Cory Mills, who has been under investigation for months over allegations of sexual misconduct and dating violence. The calls for accountability are bipartisan and forceful. Representative Teresa Leger Fernández, chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, issued unequivocal statements, calling the reports on Swalwell “horrific” and declaring that neither he nor Gonzales are “fit to serve.” She demanded they resign or face her vote for expulsion, emphasizing the imperative to “believe and support survivors, and hold perpetrators accountable.” Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna publicly voiced support for the expulsion resolution.

This moment must be understood within the rare and grave historical precedent of congressional expulsion. The House has only voted to expel a member six times in its history. The most recent was the expulsion of New York Republican George Santos in December 2023 following a damning Ethics Committee report detailing federal charges including wire fraud and theft of public money. Before that, the last expulsion was in 2002 (Ohio Democrat James A. Traficant for corruption) and 1980 (Pennsylvania Democrat Michael J. Myers for bribery). The gravity of these actions underscores the severity with which the institution treats breaches of the public trust—or at least, how it should treat them.

The Core Failure: Betrayal of Trust and Human Dignity

The facts presented are not merely a political scandal; they represent a fundamental betrayal on multiple levels. First and foremost, it is a betrayal of the human beings who work within the congressional ecosystem. Staffers and interns come to Capitol Hill, often with idealistic visions of public service, only to find themselves potentially subjected to predation by the very individuals they are tasked with supporting. The power imbalance is absolute, making any allegation of sexual misconduct by a member against a subordinate an egregious abuse of authority. Representative Leger Fernández’s demand that these “courageously” come-forward individuals “must be listened to and kept safe” should be the bare minimum standard, not a revolutionary plea. That it needs to be stated so forcefully reveals a sickening institutional failing.

As a firm humanist and defender of liberty, I view any action that degrades, intimidates, or violates another person as the ultimate anti-human act. It is the diametric opposite of the principles upon which a free republic is built. Our system of government is predicated on the consent of the governed and the dignity of the individual. When lawmakers—the architects and custodians of our laws—allegedly engage in behavior that would constitute a crime and a profound moral failing in any other workplace, they do not merely break rules. They shatter the covenant between the citizen and the state. They declare that the rules they write for the nation do not apply to them, and that the people who serve them are disposable. This is the logic of tyranny, not liberty.

The Institutional Abdication: A Crisis of Accountability

The second betrayal is institutional. The painfully slow, politically fraught mechanics of the House Ethics Committee and the expulsion process demonstrate a system designed more for self-preservation than for justice. The fact that members like George Santos could serve for nearly a year under a mountain of fraud charges, or that multiple sitting members can be under investigation for sexual misconduct for months, erodes public faith to its core. Swalwell’s plea regarding “due process” is legally valid but feels grotesquely misapplied in this context. Due process is a shield for the accused against the state, not a shield for powerful representatives against credible allegations from their own employees within the workplace they control. The institution’s primary duty in such cases is not first to the member, but to the victims and to the integrity of the chamber itself.

The rarity of expulsion is often cited as a reason for caution. But this caution has curdled into complicity. A body that cannot swiftly and decisively purge itself of members credibly accused of serious crimes and ethical violations—especially those involving abuse of power and sexual predation—forfeits its moral authority to govern. It becomes a club that protects its own, even the worst among them. This is how institutions die: not with a bang, but with a thousand whispered settlements, delayed investigations, and partisan calculations about the balance of power. The bipartisan nature of the current allegations offers a bleak opportunity: a chance for both parties to agree that some lines cannot be crossed, that some behaviors cannot be tolerated, regardless of the (R) or (D) next to a name.

The Path Forward: Rebuilding on a Foundation of Integrity

What, then, is to be done? The resignations of Swalwell and Gonzales, while a start, are insufficient. They are exits on one’s own terms, avoiding the formal condemnation of an expulsion vote. The House must proceed with its investigations with unprecedented speed and transparency. If the evidence against Cherfilus-McCormick and Mills is as substantial as reports suggest, they too must be removed. The Ethics Committee, chaired by Representative Michael Guest, must operate not as a graveyard for complaints but as a swift instrument of justice.

More fundamentally, Congress needs a wholesale overhaul of its workplace protections. Independent, empowered, and truly confidential reporting channels for harassment and abuse must be established, completely outside the member-driven chain of command. Mandatory, rigorous training must be more than a checkbox exercise. And the culture itself must change—from one of impunity and hierarchy to one of respect and accountability. This is not a partisan issue; it is a human one.

The individuals mentioned in this saga—Eric Swalwell, Tony Gonzales, Teresa Leger Fernández, Anna Paulina Luna, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Cory Mills, George Santos, and the historical figures like James Traficant—are players in a recurring drama of failure. But the true protagonists are the unnamed staffers and interns, the survivors whose courage forces a corrupt system to momentarily confront itself. Our duty as citizens committed to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law is to demand that this moment not be another forgotten scandal. We must demand a Congress that is not merely a legislative body, but a moral example. The integrity of our republic, and the safety of those who serve it, depend on nothing less. The time for excuses is over; the time for integrity is now.