House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he would back a bipartisan effort to ban lawmakers from engaging in sexual relations with congressional staff.
House ethics rules bar members from having such relations with their own staff but do not prevent lawmakers from pursuing other aides on Capitol Hill.
A bipartisan task force seeking to overhaul House sexual misconduct rules and reporting processes is looking to change that, and the speaker is endorsing the proposal.
Mr. Johnson said he does not believe members of Congress should engage in romantic relationships with any Capitol Hill staff, given the power dynamics at play.
“We should, at a bare minimum, in Congress have rules and traditions that are adhered to in corporate America,” he said. “So that’s an easy one for me.”
The task force was formed after Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat, and Rep. Tony Gonzales, Texas Republican, resigned from Congress early this year amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
Mr. Gonzales, who is married, admitted to having an affair with one of his aides in 2024. She died from self-immolation in September 2025.
Mr. Swalwell denied multiple allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, including claims that he assaulted a former aide on multiple occasions.
Other lawmakers facing allegations remain in Congress.
The House Ethics Committee is investigating Rep. Chuck Edwards, North Carolina Republican, for allegedly fostering a hostile work environment and sexually harassing female aides.
The New York Post reported last week that Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat who was friends with Mr. Swalwell, had consensual sexual relationships with two House aides from other offices when he served in the lower chamber and was unmarried.
That would not have been a violation of House ethics rules, but it is the type of scenario the bipartisan task force wants to prevent.
The task force is led by Reps. Kat Cammack, Florida Republican, and Teresa Leger Fernandez, New Mexico Democrat, the chairs of the Republican and Democratic women’s caucuses.
They are working with House Administration Committee leaders to make changes to House rules and processes designed to combat workplace sexual misconduct in Congress.
Ms. Cammack and Ms. Leger Fernandez have said they want to remove barriers that have prevented women on Capitol Hill from reporting misconduct and to beef up education and prevention efforts.
The work to crack down on sexual misconduct is just one of several efforts lawmakers are pursuing to police their own behavior.
The House will vote Wednesday on a bill to ban lawmakers from buying stock in publicly traded companies, in an effort to prevent insider trading or the appearance of it.
Democrats are expected to oppose the measure because Republicans refused to extend the ban to the president and vice president. They also object to Republican leaders adding a provision from the SAVE America Act that requires voters to show photo ID to cast a ballot.
“I bet you not a single Democrat in the House or Senate will support these measures,” Mr. Johnson said. “Democrats only talk about corruption. Republicans are actually delivering real solutions to actually restore the public’s faith in our institutions.”
The Senate has already unanimously passed a measure that prevents senators and their staffs from participating in prediction markets. Lawmakers also are considering broader bills to extend the ban across the federal government.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, has called on the Trump administration to enact its own ban on prediction market trading. Reports emerged last week that President Trump’s teleprompter operator made more than $90,000 by using his inside knowledge of the president’s speeches to place bets on the prediction market Kalshi.
The House Agriculture subcommittee on commodity markets, digital assets and rural development held a hearing Tuesday on how Congress can more broadly regulate prediction markets.
“To many Americans, these products look a lot like sports betting. To others, they are innovative financial products that can help aggregate information and provide insight into future events,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson, South Dakota Republican and the panel’s chairman. “Drawing that line and determining whether our laws and regulators are equipped to do so is one reason why we are here today.”
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