The House Ethics Committee is launching a subpanel to review its guidance on campaign activities.
The notoriously secretive, bipartisan committee announced Thursday that the new working group would be led by Texas Reps. Nathaniel Moran, a Republican, and Sylvia Garcia, a Democrat. The two members will “review and make recommendations to improve, clarify, and modernize the Committee’s guidance regarding campaign activity by House Members, officers, and employees.”
It’s unclear what prompted the committee to create a new body tasked with improving resources around campaign activity rules. A spokesperson for the Ethics Committee did not respond to a series of questions about the working group. However, a number of lawmakers have been dogged by allegations in recent years that they violated rules around campaigning — including, for example, accepting a campaign donation in connection to some kind of official action as a lawmaker.
In December 2024, the Ethics Committee closed several cases around allegations that members used campaign funds in a “not legitimate and verifiable” way. However, the committee also said in a release at the time that new guidance may be necessary, given the lack of clarity around rules from the Federal Election Commission.
“[T]he Committee noted that existing law and guidance from the FEC is often ambiguous and provides for significant gray areas of spending, and that it is apparent that the House community would benefit from updated guidance on personal use of campaign funds and related recordkeeping requirements,” the committee said in a statement, also releasing updated guidance.
Moran and Garcia will in these new roles be empowered to collect feedback from lawmakers, others on the Hill, or the public, according to the press release from the Ethics Committee announcing the working group.
