2026-04-19T09:00:55.644Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
随着针对众议员埃里克·斯瓦尔韦尔的性行为不端指控的传闻在国会山和网络上发酵，一名前工作人员联系了这位加州民主党人的竞选团队，告知对方有记者打来电话。
这名工作人员害怕自己隐瞒多年的秘密已经败露。
斯瓦尔韦尔的一名高级助手向她保证，记者不过是在联系斯瓦尔韦尔所有前女性助手。随后这名助手问道：“你会不会说斯瓦尔韦尔从未对你有过不当行为？”
该工作人员犹豫了一下，于是助手追问斯瓦尔韦尔是否真的有过不当举动。
“我再次犹豫了，她便说：‘其实，我不想知道’，”这名工作人员在接受CNN采访时回忆道。
上周，CNN和《旧金山纪事报》报道称，这位要求匿名的前工作人员指控斯瓦尔韦尔性侵，描述了2024年的一晚饮酒后，斯瓦尔韦尔在她无法同意的情况下与其发生性关系。另外三名接受CNN采访的女性还指控了其他不当性行为，包括斯瓦尔韦尔主动发送裸照和露骨信息。
斯瓦尔韦尔随后退出了州长竞选，辞去了国会职务，目前正面临刑事调查。他多次誓言要反击所谓的“针对我的严重虚假指控”。
斯瓦尔韦尔的这名高级助手拒绝对这位前工作人员的说法置评，该工作人员向CNN出示了一段标注时间戳的两分钟通话记录作为两人交谈的证据。
这位前工作人员对助手轻率回应的回忆（最早由《纪事报》报道），象征着几十年来在国会山滋生的系统性文化弊病。
国会山的诸多问题根植于国会——尤其是众议院——独特的运作方式。国会办公室里挤满了年轻助手，他们熬夜加班，与议员们近距离接触，频繁参与社交活动。当性骚扰问题出现时，往往没有官方的人力资源部门可供咨询：国会办公室实质上是自我监管，而涉及议员的指控通常由进展缓慢的道德委员会处理。
自#MeToo运动以来，国会已经有近十年没有直面国会山猖獗的性骚扰问题了。那场运动导致多名被控性骚扰的议员辞职，并且在2018年通过了一项法律，旨在为国会大厅带来问责新时代。
但在党派对立严重的华盛顿，权力动态和对老板忠诚的压力仍然根深蒂固，无论出台何种改革，这个机构似乎都无法摆脱丑闻。
“国会是一个充斥着膨胀男性自我的污水坑，滋生了掠夺性行为——不幸的是，#MeToo运动之后，这种情况并没有改变，”一名要求匿名的众议院民主党议员在接受CNN采访时直言不讳地谈论同事。“男人们常常利用他们的权力地位和无处不在的饮酒文化来掠夺女性。”
超过36名现任和前任议员及助手告诉CNN，国会山持续存在的性骚扰问题——正如CNN在2017年广泛报道的那样——并没有因为制度改革而消失。许多助手要求匿名，以便详细谈论各自办公室内的问题。
前员工和现任员工表示，根本问题在于国会本质上存在一种永远不会消失的权力从属关系。议员在获得数万张选票和强大捐助者的紧密支持后当选，助手们担心，无论开展多少强制性性骚扰培训或报告改革，都无法解决议员凭借远超助手的权力故意实施不当行为的问题。
国会山如今正在直面本周斯瓦尔韦尔和德克萨斯州共和党众议员托尼·冈萨雷斯双双辞职的余波。冈萨雷斯上月承认与一名后来自杀的助手有染。
两起辞职事件均由议员们的自我监管引发——佛罗里达州共和党众议员安娜·保利娜·卢纳和新墨西哥州民主党众议员特雷莎·莱杰·费尔南德斯威胁称，如果斯瓦尔韦尔和冈萨雷斯不辞职，他们将提出特权驱逐决议提交全院表决。
众议院道德委员会在一些案件中实现了问责，尽管其工作进展缓慢。
众议员马特·盖兹在2024年辞去国会职务，此前他曾短暂被唐纳德·特朗普总统提名为司法部长人选。此前历时数年的委员会调查发现证据显示，这位佛罗里达州共和党人为女性提供性交易，其中包括一名17岁女孩。盖兹多次否认有任何不当行为。
在CNN和《纪事报》报道相关事件后，众议院道德委员会开始对冈萨雷斯展开调查，并对斯瓦尔韦尔的指控展开调查。
一些助手和议员辩称，这两人不能代表整个众议院，任何大型工作场所都难免会有几颗害群之马。
但除了上周引人注目的辞职事件外，许多议员和助手表示，太多的违规行为未受惩罚，助手们常常感到无处求助。
“这两名男子的离开还不够。我们该如何改变报告系统？如何改变结构？如何让道德委员会的程序推进得更快？”佛蒙特州民主党众议员贝卡·巴林特告诉CNN。
在这些改革落实之前，巴林特担心更多的骚扰或性侵肇事者可能会逍遥法外。
“我现在环顾整个会议厅，两党都有，心想‘好吧，还有谁在利用我们这里缺乏严密结构这一点占便宜？’”她告诉CNN。
本月早些时候斯瓦尔韦尔的相关报道浮出水面后，众议院民主党妇女核心小组的一个大型群聊开始充斥着震惊的反应，以及如何改进严重受损体系的想法。例如，华盛顿州众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔就表示，她在群聊中谈到了尽快“创建一种新的流程”的必要性。
该小组此前一直在讨论如何改革国会山性骚扰举报流程，议员们称这项工作已经大幅提速。他们的最大诉求是加快道德调查速度，以免举报变成“不了了之”，据一名参与其中的议员透露。
“我们一直在调整以让体系运转得更好，但上周的爆料和辞职表明我们还有大量工作要做，”宾夕法尼亚州众议员玛丽·盖伊·斯坎伦说道。她在2018年共和党众议员帕特里克·米汉辞职后当选，米汉此前被指控性骚扰，被指称一名前助手为他的“灵魂伴侣”。（米汉表示，他相信自己会在道德调查中“被证明无罪”。）
当被问及2018年通过的保护国会工作人员的法律是否足够全面时，她表示：“显然不够。”
众议院议长迈克·约翰逊誓言要在近期丑闻后恢复“国会机构的尊严”。他还表示，众议院将惩罚骚扰和攻击工作人员的议员，尽管是其党团中的普通议员——而非约翰逊本人——在冈萨雷斯辞职前威胁要提出驱逐动议。
“我们已经收紧了道德规则和适用于这里的法律，我们将继续尽可能积极主动，确保此类事件不再发生，”这位共和党领袖在周三的新闻发布会上被问及众议院如何更好地保护工作人员时说道。
“除此之外，我无话可说，这令人憎恶，”他补充道。
通常是国会山最年轻、资历最浅的助手与老板们进行最多的一对一接触，比如开车载着议员在华盛顿特区穿梭、值守深夜投票，或是在下班后陪同他们参加电视采访。此外还有频繁的工作晚宴和筹款活动，这些场合往往涉及酒精，社交氛围浓厚。前助手表示，这里往往是不当行为的温床。
“任何工作场所如果熬夜加班，你与工作伙伴相处的时间比普通家人还多，都可能变得非常有毒，”一名有十多年工作经验的女性民主党助手告诉CNN。“但国会山有一些独特的结构，可能会让你陷入被掠夺的境地。”
这份工作全天候的性质很容易模糊界限，尤其是对于努力证明自己的年轻助手而言。
“当议员给你发短信、打电话时，你必须放下一切。不管你在私人生活中正在做什么，”这名助手说。“看似与工作相关的事情，可能会演变成调情。”
在众议院任职近10年的贾亚帕尔表示，“这里有一种文化，你必须一直出去喝酒，和老板一起参加派对之类的。”但她坚定地补充道，她的助手也点头表示赞同，有些办公室拒绝参与这种活动。
“我们不这么做，”她说。
“你知道我晚上投票结束后会做什么吗？我去睡觉，”德克萨斯州共和党众议员特洛伊·内尔斯说。“如果你坐在这里，晚上到处闲逛，参加这些场合，开始喝酒，开始做出愚蠢的行为，你知道吗，这就是将要发生的事情。你总会自食其果。”
助手们告诉CNN，性骚扰问题不仅出现在华盛顿，还存在于议员们的海外访问行程中，即所谓的“国会代表团（CODEL）”。几名助手描述了在这类行程中亲眼目睹议员的不当行为。
“国会代表团是议员及其助手获取第一手资料和开展监督的重要工具，但也很容易被不良分子滥用，”前资深共和党助手莱斯利·谢德说道，她补充道自己在国会代表团行程中并未亲身遭遇骚扰。
助手和议员们告诉CNN，民主党议员圈子里关于斯瓦尔韦尔不忠的传闻“已经流传多年”，这也是一名民主党人决定不支持他州长竞选的原因之一。
“我从未听说过像上周爆料这么严重的事情，但这算是一个公开的秘密，他是那种和人过于亲近的议员之一，”一名前民主党助手说道。
特朗普在2018年12月签署了一项法律，以应对席卷国会山的#MeToo浪潮后出现的性骚扰问题。
该法案对以往的规则做出了多项修改——包括首次要求议员自行支付性骚扰和解金，终止了曾允许议员向指控歧视、骚扰或其他职场违规行为的助手支付保密款项的“秘密基金”。
根据《国会问责法》的改革条款，该法律要求公开披露这些付款，包括披露议员姓名。
该法律还旨在帮助指控者，简化投诉流程，取消30天的“冷静期”和调解要求。多名指控者告诉CNN，这些要求曾阻碍正式举报不当行为。
该法律通过国会职场权利办公室提供保密顾问，帮助员工指导投诉流程。
但该法案并未达到许多人期望的程度，因为众议院和参议院长达一年的谈判期间删去了部分内容，导致双方妥协。
即便有了改革，举报的障碍仍然很高。国会山仍然没有集中的人力资源部门，每个办公室都像一个独立的封地或小型企业，拥有各自的休假政策、报告结构、文化和规则。
“国会山有句话，众议院里你见过一个国会办公室，也就只见过一个国会办公室。它们都是435个独立的封地，”一名众议院办公厅主任告诉CNN。“这不是一个刻意设计的集中化系统。”
除了职场权利办公室外，国会助手还可以求助于个人办公室之外的资源，包括提供法律咨询的众议院就业法律顾问办公室，以及为众议院员工提供保密咨询的员工维权办公室。
但即便有外部帮助，助手们在正式投诉时仍面临艰难选择，尤其是针对议员的投诉。一名曾就老板问题提交投诉的前高级助手告诉CNN：
“归根结底，同样的权力动态依然存在。”这名前高级助手说。“一名助手必须选择指控自己的老板或国会议员，这会让他们在这个高度依赖人际关系、规模极小且人人互通消息的圈子里树敌。”
这名助手补充道：“雇主出于自身利益，会驳回或淡化原本非常合理的骚扰或歧视指控。”
在许多情况下，消息人士告诉CNN，通常与议员关系最密切的办公厅主任会处理许多与人力资源相关的问题。
“办公厅主任并未接受过人力资源主管的培训，”一名前办公厅主任告诉CNN。“你要为竞选活动筹款，要担心雇佣优秀员工、解雇不合格员工，安排议员的日程，还要确保议员配偶满意。”
在斯瓦尔韦尔和冈萨雷斯辞职后，改革的努力已经展开。
包括科罗拉多州众议员劳伦·博伯特在内的几名共和党女性已经开始传阅一项计划，该计划将剥夺因丑闻辞职的国会议员的养老金。其他人则表示，他们正在考虑修改2018年通过的法律。
巴林特表示，其他亟需的改革包括完善报告结构和为员工提供支持。她还希望修改规则，禁止议员与任何员工建立关系。目前唯一的限制是，议员不得与向自己汇报工作的员工建立关系，这意味着议员可以与不同办公室的员工约会。
卢纳表示，她认为众议院道德委员会处理性行为不端指控的系统“显然不起作用”，尽管她主张改革而非创建全新的流程。她还认为，一些议员过于急于保护自己人，不愿“让本党同僚陷入险境”。
“这不是国会山应该持有的立场，”卢纳说。“我的立场没有改变。我认为未来我们会看到更多驱逐投票，我不会庇护任何人。”
驱逐决议十分罕见，需要全院三分之二的投票才能罢免在职议员。
尽管一些助手表示，议员们不愿充当同事的法官和陪审团，但如果不是彼此监管，目前尚不清楚谁会对他们负责。
议员们表示，他们希望从斯瓦尔韦尔和冈萨雷斯近期的丑闻中看到一些改革成果，但许多人对国会是否会投票制定更严格的规则以自我监管持怀疑态度。
“看看普通议员是否会开始强硬表态，这会很有趣。我们也都身处玻璃房中，”一名要求匿名的民主党议员自由讨论国会动态时说道。“有很多议员可能不喜欢真正问责的先例。”
CNN的MJ·李、马努·拉朱和艾莉森·梅恩为本报道做出了贡献。
‘Cesspool of inflated male egos’: Congress reckons with a culture of persistent sexual harassment
2026-04-19T09:00:55.644Z / CNN
As rumors of sexual misconduct allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell swirled on Capitol Hill and online, a former staffer reached out to the California Democrat’s campaign about a call from a reporter.
The staffer was terrified the secret she held for so many years had gotten out.
A senior Swalwell aide reassured her that reporters were simply calling all of Swalwell’s former female aides. Then the aide asked: Would she say that Swalwell had never been inappropriate with her?
The staffer hesitated, prompting the aide to ask whether Swalwell had actually been inappropriate.
“I again hesitated, and she said: ‘Actually, I don’t want to know,’” the staffer recalled in an interview with CNN.
Last week, CNN and the San Franscisco Chronicle reported that the former staffer, who has asked to remain anonymous, accused Swalwell of sexual assault, describing a night of drinking in 2024 that ended with him having sex with her when she could not consent. Three other women who spoke with CNN alleged other sexual misconduct, including that Swalwell sent unsolicited nude photos and graphic messages.
Swalwell subsequently dropped out of the governor’s race, resigned from Congress and now faces criminal investigations. Swalwell has repeatedly vowed to fight what he called “the serious, false allegation made against” him.
The senior Swalwell aide declined to comment on the account from the former staffer, who showed CNN a timestamped, two-minute phone call as proof they talked.
The former staffer’s recollection of the aide’s flippant response, which was first reported by the Chronicle, is symbolic of the systemic cultural problem that’s festered on Capitol Hill for decades.
Many of the issues on Capitol Hill are built into the unique way that Congress — and especially the House — operates. Congressional offices are filled with young aides who work late nights and social events in close proximity to members. When harassment issues arise, there’s often no official human resources department to consult with: Congressional offices effectively police themselves, and allegations involving members are typically handled through the slow-moving ethics committees.
It’s been nearly a decade since Congress reckoned with rampant sexual harassment on Capitol Hill in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which saw the resignations of multiple lawmakers accused of harassment and a 2018 law that was intended to usher in a new era of accountability to the halls of Congress.
But the power dynamics and pressure to stay loyal to the boss in hyper-partisan Washington remains embedded in an institution that just can’t seem to rid itself of scandal no matter the reforms in place.
“Congress is a cesspool of inflated male egos that breed predatory behavior — and unfortunately, that hasn’t changed after #MeToo,” a Democratic House member, who requested anonymity to candidly discuss colleagues, told CNN. “Men too often weaponize their positions of power and the pervasive drinking culture to prey on women.”
More than three dozen current and former lawmakers and aides told CNN that the persistent problems with sexual harassment on Capitol Hill — like those documented extensively by CNN back in 2017 — have not gone away as a result of the institutional changes. Many aides requested anonymity to speak in detail about issues within their offices.
The underlying issue, the former and current staffers said, is the fact that Congress inherently has a power deferential that will always endure. A lawmaker is elected after having received tens of thousands of votes and forged close relationships from powerful donors — and staffers fear that no amount of required sexual harassment training or reporting reforms can solve for the problem of a member intent on acting inappropriately when they wield much more power than their staff.
Capitol Hill is now reckoning with the fallout from the resignations this past week of both Swalwell and Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales, who last month acknowledged an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
In both instances, the resignations were sparked by members policing themselves – it was Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Democratic Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico who threatened to bring privileged expulsion resolutions to the floor if Swalwell and Gonzales didn’t resign.
The House Ethics Committee has brought accountability in some cases, though it works slowly.
Rep. Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress in 2024 after he was briefly tapped to be President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general — ahead of the release of a years-long committee investigation that found evidence that the Florida Republican paid women for sex, including a 17-year-old girl. Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
The House Ethics Committee was investigating Gonzales and opened an investigation into the Swalwell allegations after CNN and the Chronicle published their stories.
Some staffers and members contend the two men were not representative of the entire House, arguing that any large workplace would inevitably have some bad apples.
But the high-profile resignations over the past week aside, many lawmakers and aides say that too many transgressions go unpunished, and staffers too often feel they have nowhere to turn.
“This isn’t enough for these two men to be gone. How do we change the reporting system? How do we change the structures? How do we make the ethics process move more quickly?” Rep. Becca Balint, a Vermont Democrat, told CNN.
Until those changes are made, Balint fears that more perpetrators of harassment or assault could be getting away with it.
“I find myself now looking around the chamber on both sides of the aisle thinking, ‘Ok, so who are the other people who are taking advantage of the fact that we don’t have tight structures here?’” she told CNN.
After the Swalwell reports surfaced earlier this month, a massive group chat among members of the House Democratic Women’s Caucus began lighting up with horrified reactions — and ideas on how to improve the badly broken system. Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, for one, said she chimed in about the need to “create a new sort of process” as quickly as possible.
The group was already talking about how to reform the process for reporting sexual harassment on Capitol Hill, an effort lawmakers say has kicked into overdrive. Their biggest demand: Speeding up ethics investigations so that it does not become a place where “allegations go to die,” according to one member involved.
“We’ve been working on adjustments to make it work better, but the revelations and resignations of the last week show we have a lot more work to do,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania, who was elected following the resignation of GOP Rep. Patrick Meehan in 2018 after he allegedly called a former staffer his “soulmate” and was accused of sexual harassment. (Meehan said he believed he would have been “exonerated” in an ethics probe.)
Asked if she felt like the law passed in 2018 to protect congressional staff went far enough, she said: “Clearly it didn’t.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to restore the “respect of the institution” following the recent scandals. He also said the House would punish lawmakers who harass and assault staffers, though it was rank-and-file members in his conference — not Johnson himself — who threatened expulsion ahead of Gonzales’ resignation.
“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,” the Republican leader said in a press conference Wednesday when asked how the House can better protect staffers.
“I don’t know what else to say about it, other than it’s detestable,” he added.
It’s often the youngest, most junior staffers on Capitol Hill who spend the most one-on-one time with their bosses, whether it is driving lawmakers around Washington, DC, staffing a late-night vote, or accompanying them to a television appearance after hours. Then there are the frequent working dinners and fundraising events that involve alcohol and can turn social. Former aides say it’s often a breeding ground for inappropriate behavior.
“Any workplace can become a very toxic one if you have late nights, and you’re spending more time with your work family than your regular family,” a female Democratic staffer for more than a decade told CNN. “But there are some structures on Capitol Hill that are unique that can lead to situations where you can be preyed upon.”
The 24/7 nature of the job can easily blur boundaries, particularly for younger staffers trying to prove themselves.
“You drop everything when a member texts you and calls you. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing in your personal life,” the staffer said. “What might start out as seemingly work related can become flirtatious.”
Jayapal, who has served nearly 10 years in the House, said there’s “a culture here that you’ve got to go out and drink all the time, go party with your boss or whatever.” But she added firmly, with her aide nodding in agreement, some offices refuse to take part.
“We don’t do that,” she said.
“You know what I do when I get done with votes at night time? I go to bed,” said Rep. Troy Nehls, a Texas Republican. “If you’re sitting up here and you’re gallivanting around in the evenings, and you’re at these places, and you start drinking, you start acting foolishly, you know, this is what’s going to happen. It’s going to catch up to you.”
Staffers told CNN that sexual harassment has also been a problem far from Washington, on foreign trips that lawmakers take, known as a CODELs, which stands for congressional delegation. Several described firsthand experience with inappropriate behavior from members on such trips.
“CODELs are important tools for members and their staff to gain firsthand knowledge and conduct oversight but could easily be abused by bad actors,” said Leslie Shedd, a former veteran Republican staffer, who added that she did not personally experience harassment on CODELs.
Among Capitol Hill Democrats, there had been rumors about Swalwell’s infidelities “for years,” staffers and lawmakers told CNN, which factored into one Democrat’s decision not to endorse his gubernatorial bid.
“I never heard anything as serious as what came out last week, but it was sort of an open secret that he was one of the members who gets a little too familiar,” one former Democratic staffer said.
Trump signed a law in December 2018 to address sexual harassment in the wake of the #MeToo wave that hit Capitol Hill.
The legislation made numerous changes to previous rules – including requiring lawmakers for the first time to pay for sexual harassment settlements themselves, ending a slush fund that had once allowed members to make confidential payments to staffers who alleged discrimination, harassment or other workplace violations.
Under the reforms made to the Congressional Accountability Act, the law required public disclosure of those payments, including naming the member.
The law also sought to help accusers by streamlining the complaint-filing process and eliminating 30-day “cooling-off period” and mediation requirements, which multiple accusers told CNN would discourage formally reporting foul play.
The law made available confidential advisors through the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to help guide an employee through the process of filing a complaint.
But the bill did not go as far as many would have liked, as it was caught between year-long House and Senate negotiations that stripped elements out as the two sides compromised.
Even with the reforms, the barriers to reporting remain high. Capitol Hill still does not have a centralized HR department, and each office operates as a kind of fiefdom or mini-corporation complete with its own set of leave policies, reporting structures, cultures and rules.
“The saying goes on the Hill, if you have seen one congressional office in the House, you have seen one congressional office. They are 435 fiefdoms,” one House chief of staff told CNN. “It is not a centralized system on purpose.”
Congressional staffers have resources outside their individual offices to turn to in addition to the Office of Workplace Rights, including the Office of House Employment Counsel, which provides legal advice, and the Office of Employee Advocacy, which provides confidential counsel for House staff.
But even with outside help, it’s a difficult choice for aides to make formal complaints, especially against members, a former senior staffer who filed a complaint about their boss told CNN.
“Ultimately, the same power dynamic exists,” the former senior aide said. “A staffer has to make the choice to accuse their boss or congressman, which will then make those people enemies in a highly relationship-based business that is incredibly small and where everyone talks to each other.”
The aide added: “It is in their own interest to dismiss or explain away an otherwise very valid claim of harassment or discrimination.”
In many cases, sources told CNN it is not uncommon for the chief of staff — who typically has the closest relationship with the member — to handle many of the HR related issues.
“Chiefs are not trained to be HR heads,” one former chief of staff told CNN. “You are raising money for your campaign. You are worried about hiring good staff and firing bad staff, and making the member’s schedule work and making sure their spouses are happy.”
In the wake of the resignations of former Swalwell and Gonzales, efforts are already underway to try to make reforms.
Several GOP women, including Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, have begun circulating a plan that would revoke pensions from members of Congress who leave office as a result of scandals. Others say they are thinking about changes to the law that was passed in 2018.
Balint said other much needed reforms include tightening up reporting structures and support for staff. She also wants to change the rule so that no member can have a relationship with any staffer. Currently, the only restriction is that members cannot have relationships with staff who report to them, which means members are allowed to date staff from different offices.
Luna said she believes that the system run by the House Ethics Committee for addressing allegations of sexual misconduct is “clearly not working,” though she advocated for reforms rather than creating an entirely different process. She also argued some lawmakers are too eager to protect their own and not “put people in jeopardy” from their own parties.
“That’s not the perspective that needs to be had up here,” Luna said. “My position has not changed. I think that we’re going to see more votes for expulsion in the future, and I’m not protecting anyone.”
Expulsion resolutions are rare and require a two-thirds vote to remove a member in office.
While some staffers said members are wary of being judge and jury for their colleagues, it’s not clear who would hold them accountable, if not each other.
Lawmakers say they are hopeful to see if some reform can come out of the recent scandals involving Swalwell and Gonzales, but there’s plenty of skepticism that Congress will vote to institute tougher rules to better police itself.
“It will be interesting to see if rank-and-file members just start putting their foot down. We also live in a bit of a glass house,” said a Democratic lawmaker, who requested anonymity to freely discuss congressional dynamics. “There are a lot of members who may not like the precedent of actual accountability.”
CNN’s MJ Lee, Manu Raju and Alison Main contributed to this report.