House barrels toward rare double expulsion votes
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Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) and Cory Mills (R-Fla.) are next in line this week for the House's wave of expulsion votes.
Why it matters: The two Florida lawmakers could become the seventh and eighth members to ever be expelled from Congress.
- Cherfilus-McCormick was found guilty by the Ethics Committee on a litany of charges, most notably for funneling $5 million in COVID relief funds to her congressional campaign. She has denied wrongdoing.
- Mills faces allegations including financial misconduct, campaign finance violations and sexual misconduct, all of which he denies.
- Reps. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) resigned last week ahead of imminent expulsion votes over alleged sexual misconduct. Both denied the allegations.
Zoom in: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) signaled support last week for Greg Steube's (R-Fla.) plan to introduce a resolution Tuesday to expel Cherfilus-McCormick — after the House Ethics Committee makes its disciplinary recommendations.
- Johnson declined to answer last week when pressed on whether Mills — still under investigation by the Ethics Committee — should go too.
- Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution Monday evening to expel Mills at the same time as Cherfilus-McCormick. It could be months until the Ethics Committee releases findings on Mills.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is declining to stake out a position before Cherfilus-McCormick's sanctions hearing, telling reporters his caucus will meet afterward to discuss the matter.
- House Democrats will "proceed in a manner consistent with our approach to these types of ethics matters, which is to always ... follow the facts and apply the relevant law without fear or favor," he said.
Jeffries signaled he is not prepared to support a retaliatory expulsion measure against Mills before he receives full due process, telling reporters he is "waiting for the Ethics Committee to report out what's going on in terms of the investigation."
- He called for that investigation to be "expedited" so that "we can take up his fate on the House floor."
The bottom line: Expelling a member of Congress takes a two-thirds vote, a high bar in a narrowly divided House in which neither party is eager to lose seats.
- The vast majority of Republicans will vote to expel Cherfilus-McCormick.
- Mills' allies can argue he has not received due process, giving lawmakers grounds to sideline an expulsion vote.
