On April 13, 2026, two members of Congress announced their resignations within hours of each other — not out of conscience, but because expulsion votes were already written and the vote counts were there. U.S. Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA-14) faces multiple allegations of sexual assault and harassment from former staffers, with the Manhattan District Attorney opening a criminal investigation. U.S. Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales (TX-23) admitted to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide, and a second former staffer surfaced with explicit text messages. The House Ethics Committee opened investigations into both men within days.
Call it what it was: accountability without the vote. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy admitted that "every member in Congress knows not to let any young staffer get around Swalwell." That is not a defense of an institution. That is a confession about one. U.S. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace (SC-1) summed up the moment: "Two down. Two to go," meaning U.S. Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (FL-20) and U.S. Republican Rep. Cory Mills (FL-7), are still seated under their own ethics clouds.
I spent more than 30 years in financial services. When a registered representative faced a credible misconduct accusation, compliance walked them out before lunch. They did not chair subcommittees. They did not call their accusers liars from a congressional podium. The gap between how the private sector and Congress handle their own is not small. It’s a chasm, and everyone inside the Capitol knows it.
The pattern is familiar. Former U.S. Rep. George Santos (NY-3) was expelled in 2023, just the sixth member ever ejected, only after months of documented fraud and sustained public rage. Former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was convicted on federal bribery charges involving gold bars. These are not clerical errors. They are crimes that would have produced handcuffs for any private citizen on day one.
Congressional approval sits at 15 percent per Gallup as of March 2026, yet 97 percent of incumbents were re-elected in 2024. The disconnect is not an accident. It is the system performing exactly as the permanent class designed it.
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The rot extends beyond sexual misconduct. Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick was found guilty of 25 ethical violations and faces a federal indictment alleging she funneled $5 million in FEMA disaster-relief funds to her campaign. Money collected from taxpayers for hurricane victims, allegedly repurposed as political fuel. That should end a career before the ink dries.
Then there is the STOCK Act, the 2012 law requiring members to disclose trades within 45 days. It functions as merely a suggestion. One member logged over 700 late filings. Another filed over 200. The fines are so low they are a budget line item, not a deterrent. A legislature that ignores its own disclosure rules has no standing to write rules for anyone else.
Article I, Section 5 gives each chamber the authority to expel members by a two-thirds vote — a threshold designed to demand consensus, not to protect the guilty. Two women, U.S. Republican Rep. Anna Luna (FL-13) and U.S. Democrat Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (NM-3), put expulsion resolutions on the calendar. The accused men folded. That is what it took. Not conscience or institutional honor. A scheduled vote.
Monday was not a triumph. It was the minimum viable response to maximum pressure. The real test is what comes next: the House moving on Cherfilus-McCormick and Mills, the STOCK Act acquiring real enforcement teeth, the Office of Congressional Ethics gaining genuine independence. Canadian musician and author Neil Peart said it plainly: "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." Congress has made that choice for decades. Two seats just emptied. The question is whether anyone learned anything, or whether Washington is simply waiting for the news cycle to move on.
Jay Rogers is a financial professional with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and wealth management. He has a BS in criminal justice from Northeastern University and has completed postgraduate studies at UCLA, UPenn, and Harvard. He writes about issues in finance, constitutional law, national security, human nature, and public policy.
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