A House Democrat from Florida faces the prospect of losing her seat over allegations that she used Federal Emergency Management Agency money mistakenly sent to her family’s health care company to boost past congressional campaigns.
In a rare public hearing Thursday, lawmakers from the House Ethics Committee are expected to vote on whether Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Florida) violated House ethics rules for alleged crimes committed during the pandemic. If they do, the full committee would then meet and make a recommendation on whether Cherfilus-McCormick should face censure, expulsion or some other form of discipline. A fellow Florida lawmaker, Republican Greg Steube, has pledged to swiftly bring any consequence that is proposed to the full House for a vote.
Cherfilus-McCormick will have an opportunity to defend herself at Thursday’s hearing, which is scheduled to last two hours. She has called the allegations against her baseless and unjust.
An investigative subcommittee outlined 27 potential ethics violations in a 242-page document related to the episode, and Cherfilus-McCormick separately faces criminal charges and up to 53 years in prison tied to the errant FEMA dollars. The Department of Justice brought the charges against Cherfilus-McCormick and several others, including her brother and tax preparer, in November, after an investigation that began during the Biden administration.
The criminal investigation found that the lawmaker’s health care company was overpaid $5 million in 2021, the apparent result of a clerical error. Instead of returning that money, Cherfilus-McCormick distributed some of it to friends and family, who in turn later donated to her campaign committee, according to law enforcement. Such so-called straw donations are illegal under campaign finance laws.
Cherfilus-McCormick asked for more time before the House Ethics Committee hearing and for it to take place behind closed doors, worried that a public hearing could influence potential jurors in her criminal case.
She also raised concerns about due process. “I am deeply disappointed the Committee chose to move forward with this trial while denying my legal team reasonable time to prepare,” she said in a statement to The Washington Post.
The Ethics Committee panel, with four Republicans and four Democrats, unanimously denied the request for a private hearing.
The last time it held an open hearing was in 2010, when the late Rep. Charles Rangel (D-New York) was accused of violating a number of House ethics rules, among them non-payment of taxes and the misuse of stabilized apartments. Rangel was censured. He retired in 2016.
Republicans, who have grappled with a slim majority in this session of Congress, could gain some wiggle room if Cherfilus-McCormick is expelled from Congress. She represents a left-leaning South Florida district that could vote to put another Democrat in her place, but it would take time before a special election could be set to replace her.
A veteran of the committee, who is no longer in Congress, said Republicans’ ability to widen their narrow voting advantage could be motivation for a public hearing.
“They want it to move quickly is my guess, and they want to get to a floor vote on expulsion asap,” former Ethics Committee ranking member Susan Wild (D-Pennsylvania) said. “It’s faster than going to the floor and having a bunch of no votes based on ‘lack of due process’ and we ‘need to allow her to testify.’”
A committee recommendation does not guarantee Cherfilus-McCormick would be expelled: Two-thirds of the House must vote to eject a member, so many Democrats would have to get on board to make that happen.
Democrats, for their part, are in a uncomfortable position, having to defend their Democratic colleague while pushing to root out corruption among their colleagues across the aisle.
House Minority Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) has made corruption a major plank of Democrats’ agenda to win back Congress, with top Democrats on key committees already plotting how to hold the Trump administration accountable if they have the gavels next year. But Democrats’ push to prosecute Republican malpractice awkwardly runs up against Cherfilus-McCormick’s own troubles, with most dodging questions about whether the Florida congresswoman should be punished for her actions.
Jeffries has said throughout the investigation that he will let the Ethics Committee come to its own conclusion about Cherfilus-McCormick’s conduct. Privately, many Democrats acknowledge the severity of Cherfilus-McCormick’s actions and are watching the proceedings closely.
“I’m not going to prejudge the outcome that they arrive to,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-California) told reporters when asked if Democratic members would accept an expulsion. Aguilar also highlighted the uniqueness of the public hearing and the fact that the Justice Department, which typically asks the Ethics Committee to yield to judicial outcomes, has not in this case.
“You’d have to ask them as to why that change in policy and practice,” he said.
The last member of the House who was thrown out was George Santos, in 2023, only the sixth person to face that consequence. He was found to have made up some of his biography, among other misdeeds.
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