House Ethics panel finds Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick guilty of 25 violations

A bipartisan House Ethics subcommittee found Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL-20) guilty of 25 of 27 ethics charges on March 27, 2026, per . The ruling followed a seven-hour televised public hearing that was the House Ethics Committee's first public tribunal in nearly 16 years. The last public hearing was held in 2010 when the committee investigated Rep. CRCharlie Rangel, who was ultimately censured for tax evasion and financial disclosure violations.

The subcommittee found 18 counts of campaign finance violations, five counts of filing false financial disclosures, three counts of misusing official congressional resources, and one count of lack of candor with committee investigators. Two charges were not proven. The subcommittee vote was bipartisan.

The violations centered on Cherfilus-McCormick's family healthcare company, Transitions Healthcare, which received a $5 million FEMA overpayment under a COVID-19 vaccination contract during the pandemic. The subcommittee found that Cherfilus-McCormick structured the movement of those funds through family members and conduits before funneling the money into her 2022 Democratic primary campaign, in which she defeated longtime incumbent Rep. AHAlcee Hastings by 5 votes, per .

The FEMA overpayment was made under a contract to provide vaccination services. Pandemic-era emergency funds were disbursed with fewer administrative controls than standard government contracts, creating vulnerabilities that multiple fraud investigations have since identified. The $5 million figure represented the full amount of the improper payment that investigators tracked through the series of transactions.

Cherfilus-McCormick pleaded not guilty to parallel federal criminal charges filed by the Department of Justice in 🌴Florida in November 2025, per the . Federal criminal charges and House Ethics violations are legally separate proceedings. The DOJ can indict and convict a sitting House member, and Congress can expel or censure that same member, and both processes can proceed at the same time.

She has refused to resign throughout the proceedings. The Ethics Committee held a public hearing in part because Cherfilus-McCormick did not agree to a settlement or a non-public resolution, forcing the committee to proceed with a formal tribunal.

The House Ethics Committee is the only body with jurisdiction to sanction a sitting House member for official misconduct. It has two phases in this case. The subcommittee's guilty finding goes to the full Ethics Committee, which must hold a separate sanctions hearing after the April congressional recess. The full committee can recommend a sanction ranging from a public letter of reprimand to a fine to a public censure to a recommendation for expulsion, per the .

A censure requires a simple majority vote of the full House. Expulsion requires a two-thirds majority vote of all House members present. No House member has been expelled since the Civil War era, when three members were removed for supporting the Confederacy. Rep. George Santos was expelled in December 2023 by a vote of 311-114, the first non-Civil War expulsion in American history.

Cherfilus-McCormick represents FL-20, a majority-Black district in South 🌴Florida centered on parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties. Her district was previously represented by Rep. AHAlcee Hastings, who died in office in April 2021. She won the special election to fill his seat in January 2022, defeating her primary opponent by five votes, per .

A House expulsion or resignation would trigger a special election in FL-20. Because the district is heavily Democratic and majority-Black, a special election would likely produce another Democratic representative, but the process could take several months, leaving the district without full representation in Congress while the proceedings continue.

The House Ethics Committee is a self-policing body. Its members are elected House members, not independent prosecutors or judges. The committee has historically been reluctant to bring public proceedings against members, preferring private resolutions. The decision to hold a public hearing in the Cherfilus-McCormick case was unusual and reflected both the severity of the alleged violations and her refusal to cooperate with a private resolution, per .

The committee's bipartisan composition, with equal numbers of Republican and Democratic members, is designed to prevent purely partisan use of ethics proceedings. The bipartisan nature of the March 27 guilty finding makes it harder for Cherfilus-McCormick to argue the charges were politically motivated.

The parallel federal prosecution by the DOJ adds a second track of accountability. If convicted in federal court, Cherfilus-McCormick could face prison time. Federal prosecutors in 🌴Florida can proceed with the criminal case regardless of what the House Ethics Committee recommends. A federal conviction would likely accelerate House action, since a sitting member with a federal conviction faces even greater pressure to resign or faces a more straightforward expulsion vote, per .

Federal campaign finance violations are prosecuted under the Federal Election Campaign Act. Making false statements on House financial disclosure forms is a separate federal crime. The DOJ indictment filed in November 2025 charged both categories.