WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced Wednesday a new bipartisan task force to overhaul how the U.S. House of Representatives handles allegations of sexual misconduct by lawmakers.
CNN reported that the task force will be helmed by Republican Women’s Caucus chairwoman Rep. Kat Cammack and Democrat Women’s Caucus chairwoman Teresa Leger Fernandez.
“To state the obvious, all women should feel comfortable and safe working in the halls of Congress. As a father who has two daughters working on Capitol Hill – this is as personal to me as it is to anyone,” Johnson said. “I am happy that Reps. Cammack and Leger Fernández, the respective chairs of the Republican and Democratic Women’s Caucuses, will lead this bipartisan partnership to find ways we can continue to make Capitol Hill safer for women and all staff.”
“Together, we will push for bipartisan changes to make the reporting process faster and more accessible and increase education and training resources, prioritizing staff and survivors at every step,” Fernandez said. “This effort builds on the work of members of the DWC, who have pushed for better support and protections for survivors for years. We bring that expertise and dedication to this partnership.”
“This effort has the support of Speaker Johnson and Leader Jeffries because this issue transcends politics. It’s about dignity, accountability, and ensuring that every person who comes to work in the People’s House is treated with respect and protected from abuse,” Cammack said. “The reality is that coming forward is extraordinarily difficult. Fear of retaliation, damage to careers, public scrutiny, and institutional pressure often silence victims long before justice has a chance to speak. We cannot claim to support women while ignoring the very real barriers that prevent them from reporting misconduct in the first place.”
The announcement follows scandals in which members of both parties have been forced out of office for sexual misconduct allegations.
In April, Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas announced his resignation over allegations he had an extramarital affair with former aide Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who spiraled into depression after it ended, culminating in killing herself in September 2025 by lighting herself on fire outside her home. Gonzales was alleged to have “abruptly cut her off” after her husband discovered the relationship. He initially denied the story but eventually admitted he “made a mistake.”
The denials proved unsustainable after 24 Sight News obtained dozens of additional text messages, allegedly from Santos-Aviles’s phone, depicting direct communications between herself and the congressman, who (according to the screenshots) requested a “sexy pic,” which she refused, followed by questions about “sexual preferences and positions” that made her uncomfortable to the point of telling him “this is going too far, boss.”
Also last month, Democrat U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell of California announced his own resignation after four women came forward to accuse him of varying degrees of sexual misconduct. An anonymous former staffer claims he sent her unsolicited obscene images and sought similar images and sexual acts from her, culminating in her blacking out on one occasion after drinking with him in 2019, then waking up in his hotel bed and believing she had been raped.
Two other unnamed women allege that Swalwell also targeted them with unwanted touching while a fourth, Ally Sammarco, accuses him of sending her “very inappropriate” Snapchat messages. After they went public, another woman, Lonna Drewes, came forward to claim Swalwell drugged, choked, and raped her. CNN reported that it “found corroboration for key elements of each of the (first four) women’s claims, including the former staffer who said she was sexually assaulted.”
Through it all, Swalwell maintained his innocence of the specific charges while acknowledging unspecified “mistakes in judgment in my past” that were “between me and my wife.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a libertarian who is less than a week away from the GOP primary for reelection to his seat, is currently fending off accusations by former congressional aide Cynthia West that they had an “emotionally abusive” relationship after the death of his first wife, that it ended shortly after he got her a job in Rep. Victoria Spartz’s office, and that he offered her $5,000 to withdraw a complaint she filed against Spartz. Massie denies West’s story, and Spartz says she was let go due to “unsatisfactory job performance.”
“You know, we’ve tightened up ethics rules and the laws that apply here, and we’ll continue to be as aggressive as possible to make sure this doesn’t happen,” Johnson said of the overall situation last month. “We will bring exact punishment upon those who violate that sacred obligation they have to be a good steward and a boss over their staffs and to not use that position for that kind of terrible activity. I don’t know what else to say about it other than it’s detestable. I’m very grateful that Representative Swalwell decided to resign quickly. As you know, a Democrat did and then a Republican did, Representative Gonzales, and we’re gonna continue to police this as aggressively as we can.”
