• What Happened: Rep. Nancy Mace forced a floor vote to publicly release all House Ethics Committee records on sexual misconduct investigations against members of Congress, and 357 members from both parties voted to bury it by sending it to the Ethics Committee instead.
  • Why It Matters: The trigger was Rep. Tony Gonzales, who allegedly sent sexual texts to a female staffer who later set herself on fire and died. Gonzales voted to refer the resolution. The Ethics Committee will now investigate itself.
  • Bottom Line: "Both parties colluded today to protect predators," Mace said after the vote. Hard to argue with that.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives had a simple choice: let the American people see which of their elected officials have been investigated for sexual misconduct, or bury it.

They buried it. 357 to 65.

Rep. Nancy Mace forced the floor vote after NBC News and other outlets reported that Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas had sent sexually explicit texts to a female district staffer named Regina Santos-Aviles, who set herself on fire and died in September 2025. House rules explicitly prohibit members from engaging in sexual relationships with their own staff. Gonzales has denied the affair. He voted Wednesday to refer Mace's resolution to the Ethics Committee.

Mace's resolution was straightforward. It directed the House Ethics Committee to publicly release, within 60 days, all reports and materials related to investigations into members of Congress for sexual harassment or misconduct, with victim identities redacted. Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Lauren Boebert co-sponsored it.

The House killed it anyway. 175 Republicans and 182 Democrats voted to send it to the Ethics Committee, which is where accountability goes to disappear. The committee's own chair argued that releasing the records could "chill victim cooperation" and "retraumatize" survivors. The same committee that just opened an investigation into Gonzales has never released a single completed report on a sitting member.

"The American people are held to one standard and Congress is held wholly to another," Mace said before the vote. She was right.

After the vote, she was blunter: "Both parties colluded today to protect predators. Every member who voted against this resolution voted to protect the cover-up instead of the victims. This is the establishment in action, always protecting itself, never the victims. Ask yourself why."

Luna put it simply from the House floor: "We know that members of Congress are using taxpayer dollars to pay off sexual harassment."

Taxpayers fund the settlements. Congress keeps the names. And on Wednesday, 357 members of both parties made sure it stays that way.

But Mace didn't walk away empty-handed. Hours after the full House vote, the Oversight Committee passed her motion to subpoena the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights for records on every taxpayer-funded settlement tied to members of Congress. The slush fund Congress used to buy victims' silence is now under subpoena. "Every Member of Congress who used your money to silence victims they harassed will be exposed," Mace posted after the vote. "We will make sure YOU, the people, know their names." The House tried to bury it. Mace just found another door.