Ethics Committee To Hold Rare Hearing on Potential Punishments for Indicted Democratic Colleague Accused of Stealing FEMA Funds

The House Ethics Committee on Tuesday will hold a rare public hearing to consider potential punishments for a House Democrat, Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who is accused of stealing Covid-era FEMA funds in order to get rich and fund her first congressional campaign. She is currently facing a federal indictment, though the Ethics Committee has already found that she had violated House rules. Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick first ran for Congress in 2022. At the same time she was running, a health care company owned by her parents began receiving state funds for vaccine administration as part of a federal Covid response program. Millions of those dollars were used not for distributing vaccines, but instead to line Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick’s own pockets, according to both Ethics Committee legislators and federal prosecutors. She allegedly would make massive donations to her campaign shortly before filing deadlines in order to appear as a wealthy, self-funding candidate, only to then refund that money to herself in order to hold on to the cash. She has denied all allegations. On Tuesday, members of the Ethics Committee — who have been investigating the congresswoman for years — will hold a public hearing to consider possible sanctions for their colleague. The last time the Ethics Committee held a public hearing to consider sanctions for a House member was in 2010, when Congressman Charles Rangel was found to have violated House rules but not disclosing certain income and using his office to solicit contributions for a university center which bore his name. In a statement on Monday, the Ethics Committee announced Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick would be the first lawmaker in more than 15 years to face such a tribunal. “On April 21, 2026, the Committee will hold a public hearing to determine what, if any, sanction would be appropriate for the Committee to recommend to the House of Representatives regarding Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick,” the committee announced. The two most likely outcomes of Tuesday’s hearing are either a recommendation of censure or a recommendation of expulsion. It only takes a simple majority to censure a lawmaker on the floor, which would lead to that member being stripped of his or her committee assignments. Expulsion, however, is a much higher bar with a two-thirds majority being needed to kick out a House member. The panel says its lawyers have filed letters in support of punishing Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick, while the congresswoman has submitted three letters from community and religious leaders in her defense. One letter calling for Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick to not face sanctions comes from the Palm Beach County Democratic Black Caucus, which argues that only the voters of Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick’s district should decide whether or not she remains in her role. “Expulsion is a severe action which must not be used to compromise a district’s voice or its ability to participate in matters impacting its future,” the group’s president, Charles Ridley, wrote in his letter to the Ethics Committee. A second letter opposing Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick’s expulsion comes from a host of religious and union leaders in her district. They write that it would be unfair to strip the community of its voice in the House at this pivotal moment. “To remove our duly elected representative during such a pivotal time would leave our communities voiceless when we can least afford it,” the letter, signed by more than a dozen community leaders from her district, states. “We believe in due process. We believe in fairness. And we believe in the fundamental right of the people to determine their representation.”The Ethics Committee voted behind closed doors last month to find that Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick violated the House’s rules, ethical standards, and code of conduct on more than two dozen occasions as part of this alleged scheme. She is currently scheduled to go to trial at a federal courthouse in Florida in February 2027.

Ethics Committee To Hold Rare Hearing on Potential Punishments for Indicted Democratic Colleague Accused of Stealing FEMA Funds

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