WASHINGTON — The resignation of two lawmakers accused of sexual misconduct has drawn renewed scrutiny of the House Ethics Committee.

The 10-member committee, which is composed of five Republicans and five Democrats, had announced investigations of Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, when they resigned. The committee, which is considered the House’s place for recourse for allegations of wrongdoing against members, announced the investigation involving Swalwell Monday and announced the Gonzales investigation March 4.

The lawmakers’ resignations would effectively negate the need for the committee to investigate.

Now, with both men formally resigning Tuesday, lawmakers say they are frustrated with the length of time it takes to move investigations through the panel. They’re calling for expedited reviews and changes to how the committee conducts itself.

“My problem with the Ethics Committee is it just takes too damn long,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean.

House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said he would support an expedited process moving forward.

“I don’t know what that looks like. I don’t know if that means additional staff. I don’t know from a process perspective, what that would mean, but I think many of us would be open to that if the Ethics Committee said ‘we can handle this a different way,’ or ‘there’s an expedited route to do this.’”

The panel operates mostly behind closed doors, and its members rarely, if ever, comment on ongoing matters it is investigating and recuse themselves from floor votes related to ongoing issues in front of the committee. Speaking to reporters after House votes Tuesday evening, Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest, R-Miss., defended the committee’s lengthy and closed-door processes.

“Each investigation has to stand on its own. So some investigations can be accomplished much quicker than others,” Guest said.

Some of his fellow panel members agreed.

“The process is laid out in the rules. The process has been laid out for years, and we need to respect that,” said Texas Democratic Rep. Sylvia R. Garcia. “I respect people’s opinions, but we’re there. We’re doing our job,”

But others on the panel say change could be helpful.

‘Move faster’

“I want the Ethics Committee to move faster,” said panel member Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va.

He said he supports an “expedited review process” for all issues, not just sexual misconduct.

“If someone makes an allegation of sexual misconduct, we want to interview them directly to hear what they have to say, but we can’t just go off of a hearsay or what we’ve heard second or third hand,” he said. “So we would move as fast as we could in those situations.”

“One thing we found is when there’s one allegation and we look into it, we find many other allegations pop up. And so from the outside, it looks like we’re being slow about an investigation, but really what we’re doing is finding other things and building a larger case.”

Swalwell faces accusations from five women accusing him of a wide range of sexual misconduct, including rape, according to allegations originally reported by the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN.

He has apologized for any “mistakes in judgment” but continues to deny the allegations.

Gonzales, meanwhile, has admitted to having an affair with a staff member who later died by suicide. “I made a mistake and I had a lapse in judgment,” he said in March of the affair, adding he’s reconciled with his wife and asked God to forgive him.

A few weeks later, a second staff member accused him of pursuing her, according to reporting from the San Antonio Express-News.

House rules prohibit members from engaging in sexual relationships with their staffers.

Both men resigned after more than two dozen members called for them to step aside or be expelled. Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and Democratic Women’s Caucus Chair Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M.,had filed separate expulsion resolutions for Swalwell and Gonzales, planning to call them up on the House floor if either man remained in Congress.

Also before their resignations, 15 House Democrats wrote a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., asking for the Ethics Committee to expedite investigations into the two.

“We urge you to direct the House Ethics Committee to expedite their investigations into each of these matters with full transparency, including through public hearings,” the letter said.

Expelling a member requires a two-thirds majority vote in the House and is extremely rare; it has occurred six times, according to the House. Although censures require only a simple majority, it’s a punishment without any real weight, often described as a “slap on the wrist” for bad behavior.

“We can’t wait forever. We cannot have a committee process that lasts two years. Once the allegation is proven, once you have an admission, you should move quickly,” Leger Fernández said.

“There needs to be reform to (the Ethics Committee) as a whole,” Luna said.

Johnson Wednesday stopped short of calling for further changes to the committee, saying instead that the House “will continue to be as aggressive as possible to make sure this doesn’t happen.”

“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,” he said.

But Leger Fernández said facts emerging publicly outside of an Ethics Committee investigation should be enough to lead to action, especially when it comes to issues like sexual misconduct.

“Gonzales admitted to this six weeks ago, and the speaker did nothing,” she said. “I mean, this should have been something that would have been, it’s like you admitted to it? Check. Is this a reasonable consequence? And it should be, because if there are no consequences, men will continue to rape and abuse … because that’s what we’ve seen through history.

“So we need to say, when you’ve proven the underlying violation, then you should move to the consequences,” Leger Fernández said.

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