Chuck Edwards

The House moved to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards for allegedly sexually harassing young female staffers in his office on Tuesday. A censure is the most severe punishment the Ethics Committee can recommend short of expulsion, and amounts to public shaming on the House floor with no further threat of disciplinary action.

The 413-2 vote was an overwhelming consequence for the North Carolina Republican, who chose to forgo reelection last month after the release of a damning House Ethics Committee report detailing his misconduct.

Censures used to be a rare occurrence in the House, with a long gap between the early 1980s — when then Reps. Daniel Crane and Gerry Studds were censured for sexual misconduct with a House page — until 2010, when then Rep. Charlie Rangel was censured for actions including inaccurate financial reports and federal tax returns.

Censure resolutions have, more recently, become more frequent fixtures of House activity, though not typically as a result of House Ethics Committee investigations.

Edwards' censure comes as Congress is grappling with how to protect aides from bad behavior displayed by members amid a rash of harassment and assault allegations against lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

In Edwards’ case, the Ethics Committee found he had participated in “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers” and made inappropriate comments on the appearance of his aides, including a staffer’s weight.

According to the report, Edwards gave the female aides purses, guns, shoes and flowers.

The report also details that Edwards had skipped a House vote one night to decorate a Christmas tree with a staffer and went drinking and gambling with her. The lawmaker allegedly recited a poem at her departure celebration and cried during it, making the staff uncomfortable, the committee said.

“Neither individual felt free to reject Rep. Edwards’ attention without fear of professional consequences,” said Rep. Mark Desaulnier of California, the top Democrat on the Ethics panel, during floor debate on the censure measure.

Edwards has since denied any wrongdoing, appealing to his colleagues last week in a lengthy letter to vote against the censure resolution.

He argued “an affectionate friendship is not a sexual proposition. A gift is not sexual misconduct. A compliment is not sexual misconduct. Poetry is not sexual misconduct.” Edwards offered a similar defense in a floor speech Tuesday before the censure vote.

“I am imperfect,” Edwards said. “I have made mistakes, but I do not believe I committed sexual harassment and the factual findings of this investigation do not justify branding me as though I did.”

However, Edwards did apologize to staffers described in the report.

“I want to say something directly and publicly to the two women who have been at the center of all of this: I am sorry. I’m sorry that my actions, my judgement or the way that I expressed a friendship ever put either of you in an uncomfortable position,” Edwards said.

For many in the House Republican Conference, however, the report told them all they needed to know to inform their vote. Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia, for instance, said in advance of consideration of the censure resolution that he planned to support the measure because he “read the ethics report.”

Only Edwards and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) ultimately voted “no.”