Lawmakers on Wednesday sidestepped an effort by Rep. Nancy Mace aimed at publicly releasing documents related to sexual harassment allegations investigated by the House Ethics Committee.
The South Carolina Republican had moved to force a vote on the floor, but instead the House opted to refer her resolution to the Ethics Committee, where it has little chance of advancing.
Earlier in the day, Reps. Michael Guest and Mark DeSaulnier, chair and ranking member of the committee, argued Mace’s proposal “could chill victim cooperation and witness participation in ongoing and future investigations.”
“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,” Guest, R-Miss., and DeSaulnier, D-Calif., wrote in a statement.
Most House members appeared to accept that reasoning, with 182 Democrats joining 175 Republicans in favor of the motion to refer. The final tally was 357-65.
The push from Mace to release the internal files is part of a larger movement for accountability backed by several rank-and-file Republicans like Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., including a law last year that dislodged documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It’s an effort that’s put them at odds with the rest of their party, years after the #MeToo movement roiled Capitol Hill.
Their calls have grown louder in recent weeks after new reporting emerged about how Rep. Tony Gonzales treated a former staffer who later died by suicide. On Wednesday morning, the Ethics Committee announced it had launched a sexual misconduct probe of the Texas Republican, who has previously denied wrongdoing.
Mace said the public should be allowed to see exactly how lawmakers are investigating sexual misconduct within their own ranks, adding that her proposal includes directions to redact personally identifiable information of victims, alleged victims and witnesses.
“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,” Mace said.
Her push comes as she is also running in a crowded GOP primary for governor of South Carolina — and as she herself has attracted the attention of the Ethics panel over allegations of improper reimbursement practices for expenses related to her Washington, D.C., lodgings.
While Mace and others have called on Gonzales to step down, the Texas Republican told CNN he would not resign, saying, “What you’ve seen is not all the facts.”
House rules prohibit members from engaging in a “sexual relationship” with a staffer.
Speaker Mike Johnson, who is working with a slim Republican majority, said Gonzales should address the matter with his constituents back home and no one should jump the gun.
“None of this is proven yet. I mean, we’ve been consistent about this, whether it involves Republicans or Democrats. We have to let the due processes play out, and the investigations play out. That’s been my position all along,” he said Wednesday afternoon.
Mace’s efforts to force transparency haven’t just been limited to the House floor. At a bitterly partisan House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Wednesday over fraud allegations in Minnesota, she offered a motion to subpoena the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights for certain settlement records.
The motion, which the panel agreed to by voice vote, would subpoena the OCWR for information regarding all awards or settlements paid from a fund established by the Congressional Accountability Act to provide compensation for violations of workplace rights in the legislative branch made prior to December 2018.
The subpoena would only apply to settlements made in relation to allegations against members of Congress, however. An amendment offered by Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia, D-Calif., excluded staff-related settlements from disclosure, though it would require a report on the total amount of funds awarded related to alleged misconduct by nonmembers.
While a 2018 law required the OCWR to publish names of settling offices on its public website, no such requirement existed before then.
Hunter Savery and Valerie Yurk contributed to this report.
The post House squashes effort to force release of Ethics Committee files appeared first on Roll Call.
