Torres wants to stop Santos from returning to Capitol Hill

An expelled member of congress sat on the House floor during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union last week. And as far as U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres is concerned, that should not happen — and should never happen again.

That’s why he’s introducing a rule that would make visits like the one disgraced former congressman George Santos made to the House floor extinct.

Santos — who was booted from the House in a bi-partisan vote after months of sharing stories about his past that many observers say are blatantly false — still retains many of the privileges enjoyed by former congressional members, including access to the House floor.

Because of that, Torres wants his colleagues to approve a new rule — which he is calling the “GEORGE” rule: “Getting Expelled Officially Revokes Guaranteed Entry.” 

“George Santos disgraced the United States congress with his embarrassing presence on the House floor during the State of the Union,” Torres said. “As you might know, former members of congress have floor privileges, and I’m of the view if you have been expelled from congress, you should be stripped of your access to the House floor.

“And an expelled member like George Santos has no business parading himself on the House floor as if he did nothing wrong.”

But even if the House accepts the rule, it could be moot come November since Santos announced he was running for congress again ‚ this time against fellow Republican Nick LaLota, although observers see such a candidacy as being a long shot.

“If you’re a former member who lobbies in D.C., you’re prohibited from accessing the House floor,” Torres said. “So, I would submit to you that the same prohibition should apply to expelled members who were removed from congress for misconduct.”

This isn’t the first time Torres has targeted Santos, however. Last year, he teamed up with U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman to introduce the SANTOS bill — Stopping Another Non-Truthful Office Seeker. It would have required any candidate for Congress, if passed, to file additional information about their educational background, military service and employment history.

Anyone who lies through that paperwork would be punished up to a $100,000 fine and a year in prison.

But Torres isn’t the only lawmaker who was trying to pass creatively named laws that involved Santos. Josh Lafazan, a former county legislator on Long Island — and a congressional candidate himself — introduced the “Get Egregious Officials Removed From Government Elections,” or “GEORGE” package, to the Nassau County Legislature.

“It would require mandatory background checks for candidates for office,” Lafazan said. “It would bar anyone with an open foreign arrest warrant from holding office, and it would make it a misdemeanor to lie about a candidate’s education, employment history, address or income source.”

The bill didn’t pass in the Republican-controlled body, and Lafazan himself eventually lost his seat. Now a state senate candidate, he hopes his former county legislators will revive his GEORGE bill, and says he’s in total support of Torres’ own GEORGE rule.

These “are legislative acts that, in a perfect world, shouldn’t be necessary,” Lafazan said. “But in the era of George Santos — the greatest fraud in the history of American politics — it’s more important now more than ever that we put safeguards in place to restore the dignity of our institutions.”

Lafazan found Santos appearance at the State of the Union antithetical to the spirit of expulsion.

“Name me any other example where you can get publicly fired from your job, leave in absolute disgrace, but maintain the right to come back to your old workplace as you view,” Torres said, in a release. “I view serving in congress as the privilege of my life time. We cannot allow those who make a mockery of this institution to keep the perks of the job after they’ve been expelled.

“I urge all my colleagues in the House to join me in putting this absurdity to rest. Many House Republicans finally found the courage last year to expel Santos. Let’s hope they find the courage once again.”