Who holds Congress accountable? A look at the invisible moral system of legislators

Amna Nawaz:

Congress is charged with writing the laws that govern the rest of us, but who holds lawmakers accountable when they break the rules?

Tonight, we take a closer look at a number of sitting members of Congress facing active ethics investigations and the largely invisible and, many say, ineffective system designed to police them.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins told this story.

Lisa Desjardins:

Let’s start with Texas Congressman Tony Gonzalez.

Recently, his seat at the Capitol was mostly empty, after news emerged of text messages showing him having a sexual relationship and appearing to pressure a younger, married female staffer. Regina Santos Aviles died by suicide last fall.

Gonzalez vehemently denied the issue, until last week, the day after the Republican primary.

Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas):

I made a mistake, made an error in judgment, and there was a lack of faith. I take full responsibility for these actions.

Lisa Desjardins:

This case is a clear violation of House rules. Republicans in the House of Representatives currently have a majority of just one vote. While a few of them called on Gonzalez to resign, GOP leaders pushed Gonzalez to end his reelection campaign, but to remain in office for the time being.

a question:

Tony Gonzalez broke House rules. Why don’t we ask him to resign?

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Los Angeles):

We issued a statement today. We’ll let it speak for yourself.

Lisa Desjardins:

The independent body looking into misconduct in the House of Representatives reportedly began an investigation months ago. Its report goes first to the House Ethics Committee, made up of House members, which is now also investigating. It all happens behind closed doors and often takes months or longer.

Gonzalez’s case is not isolated. Many sitting members are under scrutiny. Corey Mills, Republican of Florida, is facing this on several fronts, including an investigation into whether he solicited gifts and received government contracts while in office, a restraining order related to threats alleged by his ex-girlfriend, and a police investigation into an assault on another woman.

Mills denies any wrongdoing and no charges have been filed in any of these cases. But the ethical process that began in the fall remains unresolved.

Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Chervilus McCormick, also of Florida, has been indicted on federal criminal charges that she diverted millions in coronavirus relief funds to her campaign. She has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to have a rare public trial before the House Ethics Committee later this month.

Kedrick Payne, Campaign Legal Center:

We are in a situation where we need more enforcement of ethics and we need more accountability when violations are discovered.

Lisa Desjardins:

Kedrick Payne served on the House Ethics Committee and now leads the ethics program at the Campaign Legal Center. He fears that ethics issues in Congress will become normalized and ignored, dynamics that he sees President Trump enforcing.

Kedrick Payne:

The tone is set at the top of the White House, and the entire administration, that ethics is not a priority.

Lisa Desjardins:

But now some House members are taking matters into their own hands.

Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina is leading a campaign to uncover the names of members of Congress who settled past sexual misconduct charges and used taxpayer money to do so. Her bill to do so was blocked on the House floor. But minutes later, she and others came up with an unusual solution.

woman:

This will serve as a subpoena for information about the Anti-Sexual Harassment Fund.

Lisa Desjardins:

He pushed the House Oversight Committee to subpoena that information.

Representative Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina):

So, we’ll get information about the bribe money, how it was paid and by which members of Congress.

Lisa Desjardins:

Mace is both accused and accused, currently facing an ethics investigation into whether she overbilled Congress for her housing allowance.

Now, what you want to reveal could be a historical event. Mace plans to release all lawmakers’ names from sexual misconduct settlements before 2019, when a new system was put into place.

Ally Coll helps sponsor the new law. She herself was harassed by a U.S. senator when she was a young staffer. While Cole respects Mace as a survivor of sexual assault, she worries that Mace’s method may cause unintended harm.

Allie Cole, founder and CEO of The Purple Method: For people who were coming forward before 2019, they were told specific information about how their information would be handled. This can really undermine confidence in employees progressing if they feel that this may not be true or can be changed in six or eight years from now.

Lisa Desjardins:

In talking with legislators, we found that there are concerns that no matter what has been revealed from the past, the system now is still not working.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio):

I have learned from some employees that even when they report their case, their case is up in the air somewhere and nothing really happens.

Lisa Desjardins:

The House Ethics Committee has not provided a recorded response to this story but is looking into the matter. Although the House process is flawed, it is more open to accountability than the Senate process.

Kedrick Payne:

Right now, if you just look at the data, you might think that all the problems are happening in one room, in the House of Representatives. But we really don’t know what we don’t know in the Senate because there’s no one there to actually investigate misconduct.

Lisa Desjardins:

The Senate does not have an independent ethics process. The all-senator ethics committee has a staff, but its findings become public only when the senators decide to release them. The committee received 181 complaints last year. We don’t know who these are.

But it has only admitted to conducting four investigations into specific members over the past decade.

Kedrick Payne:

For an ethics committee to really investigate something, it would have to be scandalous and make almost every headline, and then they would take action.

Lisa Desjardins:

There are more issues that go beyond blatant law or rule violations. One example is Democratic Congressman Chuy Garcia, who announced her retirement after the deadline to run for office and after her chief of staff filed her paperwork, essentially making her the only viable Democratic candidate.

Garcia said he made the decision late because of family concerns and followed the rules, but the House of Representatives voted to reprimand him. Although this is rare, it has only a symbolic effect.

Senator Steve Daines (R-MT):

I am grateful to God for allowing me to serve.

Lisa Desjardins:

Just last week, Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana did the same thing, announcing his retirement without having time for other candidates, except his preferred successor, to file their applications. He said the state would avoid an ugly primary.

Senator Steve Daines:

I’d rather take the arrows than take the others. So, I’m happy to do it here for my state and my country.

Kedrick Payne:

When legislators no longer view their offices as something that belongs to the public and voters, they can go into this territory where they are only looking out for themselves or their friends.

Lisa Desjardins:

There is currently no effort to reprimand Daines.

Reformers say the blueprints for a better system already exist: more transparency, independent investigators, real subpoena power and equal accountability in both chambers of the Capitol. But only Congress can decide whether to do any of that.

On the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Lisa Desjardins.