The House on Tuesday took the rare step of punishing one of its members — GOP Rep. Chuck Edwards — over allegations of inappropriate behavior toward two female staffers that prompted them to quit his office.
Edwards had already been forced to abandon his reelection bid under intense pressure from GOP leaders. Now, he has been handed the most severe punishment, outside of expulsion, that a lawmaker can face in Congress, though it does not remove a member from the House and carries no explicit penalties beyond a public admonition.
The congressman’s alleged conduct toward the two women was detailed in a report that resulted from a monthslong investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which found “substantial evidence” to suggest the North Carolina Republican violated the chamber’s “prohibition on sexual harassment.”
That bipartisan ethics panel formally recommended that Edwards be punished with a House censure — its first such recommendation since 2010.
The 413 to 2 vote was a rare display of bipartisanship in an ethics process that has become increasingly partisan in the Trump era. In the end, an overwhelming majority of members of both parties — including House Speaker Mike Johnson — voted to censure Edwards.
