Texas Republican under investigation by House Ethics Committee

The House Ethics Committee announced Tuesday it is investigating Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas).

The Ethics panel did not disclose the topic of the investigation, but Nehls in a statement said the probe is focused on his campaign’s finances. The Texas Republican said he will assist the panel in its investigation.

“I look forward to assisting the House Committee on Ethics inquiry into my campaign’s finances,” Nehls said in a statement. “My campaign has complied with every Federal Election Commission (FEC) law, and my books are open.”

House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) and ranking member Susan Wild (D-Pa.) said Tuesday that they began an investigation into Nehls after receiving information about the congressman from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on Dec. 11. The OCE is an independent, nonpartisan entity that reviews allegations of misconduct regarding lawmakers and staff members.

Guest and Wild said the committee will announce its course of action on or before May 10.

“The Committee notes that the mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee,” the pair said.

It was not immediately clear what aspect of Nehls’s campaign finances the committee is looking into.

Nehls was first elected to Congress in 2020, easily winning an open seat to represent Texas’s 22nd Congressional District. Before that, he served as sheriff of Fort Bend County.

The last high-profile case from the House Ethics Committee focused on former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), which led to his expulsion from Congress. The bipartisan committee concluded in a highly anticipated and scathing report that Santos “violated federal criminal laws and other standards of conduct within the Committee’s jurisdiction.”

Shortly after the release of the report, the House voted to expel Santos in a bipartisan 311-114-2 vote.