Former congressmen Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, and Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, may have left the House in disgrace — but taxpayers are still set to contribute tens of thousands of dollars to their pensions.
The former lawmakers, who both resigned ahead of possible expulsion votes, are eligible for pensions once they turn 62 because they served in Congress for more than five years, the threshold under current rules.
Swalwell, 45, who served in Congress for more than 13 years, could be eligible for about $22,000 per year and Gonzales, 45, who served for more than five years, could get as nearly $15,000 per year, according to estimates from experts on congressional pensions, including the nonpartisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
Swalwell faces allegations of sexual assault of a former staffer, among other misconduct, all of which he has denied. Gonzales acknowledged an affairwith a staffer who later set herself on fire and died. House rules prohibit sexual relationships between members and staff.
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Florida), a third House member who resigned in recent weeks, is not eligible to receive a congressional pension because she served for fewer than five years.
Cherfilus-McCormick faced allegations that she used Federal Emergency Management Agency money mistakenly sent to her family’s health care company during the pandemic to boost her congressional campaign. She has denied wrongdoing and described an Ethics Committee investigation into her actions as a “witch hunt.”
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill last week that would prohibit members of Congress from receiving pensions if they are convicted of specific crimes, including rape, sexual assault, theft and campaign finance violations. Lawmakers could also lose their pensions if Congress determines they had sex with members of their staff, even if a crime was not committed.
The legislation is the latest effort to tighten up how Congress polices itself. Its prospects are uncertain.
Under existing law, lawmakers can lose their pensions if convicted of a federal crime that relates to public corruption, espionage, treason or several other national security offenses.
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Virginia), one of the lawmakers who introduced the new bill, called it “baffling” that a lawmaker who commits a crime while in office would still get a taxpayer-funded pension. “That didn’t seem right to me,” he said.
Swalwell and Gonzales, who did not respond to requests for comment on the legislation, have not been charged with crimes. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has confirmed it is investigating a sexual assault accusation by a former Swalwell staff member related to an alleged encounter in New York.
Pension plans, which offer income for life based on salary and tenure, have become rarer in the private sector, where employers increasingly prefer the less generous 401(k), an account that is funded primarily by employees.
Where they still exist in the private sector, pension plans typically have rigid protections to keep employees from losing access.
Pensions are more common in the public sector. Public plans often have more restrictions based on misconduct, but the standard for forfeiture typically relies on a criminal conviction, according to experts.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) wants to add felony sex crimes to the list of crimes that result in lawmakers losing pensions. His “No Pensions for Congressional Predators Act,” introduced after the resignations of Swalwell and Gonzales, is much narrower than the bill proposed by his House colleagues.
“This is about sending a message as much as anything,” Hawley said. “It’s about saying that this kind of conduct is not going to be tolerated. And we’re not going pay you to engage in this kind of conduct.”
Some observers raised concerns with the proposals.
Andrew Biggs, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in state and local government pensions, pointed out that the House bill could strip members of their pensions even if they had a consensual relationship with a subordinate.
“I’m not saying this is good behavior. In most cases a person could lose their job for this. But no one would lose their pension over it,” Biggs said.
Olivia S. Mitchell, executive director of the Pension Research Council at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said the Hawley bill is “arguably too limited since it focuses mainly on sexual abuse offenses and excludes other serious misconduct.” Meanwhile, she said the Subramanyam bill “raises fairness and due process questions, especially where benefits could be denied without a criminal conviction.”
Subramanyam said he is caught between two points of tension. He’s a proponent of reform who sits on the Ethics Committee, the panel in charge of policing members, which some lawmakers have accused of being ineffective and working too slowly.
The freshman lawmaker believes the panel should use its subpoena power more frequently, instead of waiting for voluntary responses, and hold members who don’t respond in contempt of Congress. The committee’s job is harder when members stonewall their inquiries, he said.
At the same time, Subramanyam said, investigations take time.
“The Ethics Committee is never going to move as fast as the news cycle,” he said. The committee’s pace is “not because I’m trying to block and tackle for members of Congress who did bad things. It’s simply because we have to investigate things.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has said he is open to suggestions from members about how to “tighten the rules,” but his office did not reply to a request for comment on whether he would support particular legislation.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) did not respond to a request for comment on whether he would support Hawley’s bill or believes its passage is realistic.
Rep. George Santos (R-New York) was the last member of Congress to be expelled and one of only six in U.S. history. He was ousted in 2023 in response to an array of alleged crimes and ethical lapses that came to light after the freshman lawmaker was found to have fabricated key parts of his biography.
Following that, Congress passed legislation that made lawmakers convicted of crimes related to public corruption ineligible for pensions.
An unsuccessful House bill introduced at the time would have limited the pension eligibility for lawmakers who were expelled, regardless of the circumstances.
Hawley argued that there’s no reason for sex crimes not to be included in the list of offenses that result in forfeited pensions.
“There’s already a list of prohibitions for other felonies. It only seems rational to me to say that you’re convicted of a sex offense … why should you be getting a pension?” Hawley said.
Hawley intends to try to pass his bill through a Senate procedure that tees up a bill for unanimous passage — unless a senator comes forward to block it.
“I’d love to see who’s going to come object,” Hawley said. “If we can’t agree on this, that tells me you want to protect people who are convicted offenders. I just think there’s no argument here.”
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