WASHINGTON – Lawmakers' love lives are coming under a microscope as part of the next phase of a broader ethical reckoning on Capitol Hill.

Prohibitions on legislators dating their own staffers have long been in place – but amid a spate of recent scandals, some prominent voices in Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, say stricter rules are long overdue. Bipartisan momentum is driving a new push to ban all members from having intimate relationships with any lower-level Hill employees, regardless of their boss.

"It's inappropriate, as it would be in any workplace," Johnson, R-Louisiana, told reporters this week. "We should, at a bare minimum in Congress, have rules and traditions that are adhered to in corporate America."

Such relationships aren't unheard of, though. Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, met his wife Julia Hart, at the time a Senate staffer for a separate office, in 2002 while traveling with a congressional delegation. The pair have been married since 2005 and have a daughter.

But the days of those types of workplace romances may be long gone. After two congressmen – Republican Tony Gonzales and Democrat Eric Swalwell – resigned this year amid allegations of sexual misconduct involving subordinates, leaders in Congress are prepping a potential overhaul of the legislative branch's ethics rules. Women lawmakers, in particular, are leading a bipartisan charge to hold themselves and their male colleagues to higher standards.

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-New Mexico, the chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus, said a ban on members of Congress dating any staff has been a main focus of bipartisan ethics reform negotiations.

"Congress is a place you come to serve, not to date," she said in a statement to USA TODAY. "We're looking forward to passing this ban and enacting greater reform measures that will not only protect young staffers but change the culture on Capitol Hill."

Amid a flurry of record-breaking shutdowns and seemingly entrenched gridlock, those possible changes to how Capitol Hill operates could ultimately become one of the most lasting legacies of the 119th Congress.

Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Florida, the chair of the Republican Women's Caucus, is working with her Democratic counterpart to ready ethics legislation that she hopes will be introduced as soon as September, after the House returns from August recess.

"If you are looking to proposition or date or get involved with another staffer on Capitol Hill, you still exhibit a tremendous amount of influence on that staffer's career, and that's just wrong," she said in a recent interview with 535 News.

'Fish in the sea'

Part of the flurry of new interest in lawmakers' dating habits was prompted by a July 16 story in a conservative tabloid.

Citing unnamed sources, the New York Post accused Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, of having consensual relationships with lower-level staffers years ago while he was single. When asked about the veracity of the Post story by an NBC News reporter, the senator said he was "not going to engage in gossip." Gallego's office told USA TODAY he would support a broad ban on lawmakers having intimate relations with staffers (but did not comment on the Post story).

Most of the ethics concerns of the 119th Congress have come from the other side of the Capitol, which has more lawmakers, many of whom are younger than members of the Senate.

After Swalwell and Gonzales were pushed out of the House, more scandals came to light. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-North Carolina, came under investigation by the chamber's ethics panel amid allegations of sexual harassment within his own office. Edwards' campaign spokesperson, Paul Shumaker, told the USA TODAY Network in May the congressman welcomes the review and insisted Edwards "has done nothing wrong."

Johnson has called the accusations against Edwards "serious," however, and none of his colleagues have been quick to defend him. Instead, Republicans like Cammack have said it's past time to address the "creepiness factor" on Capitol Hill.

Democrats agree with her.

"There are a lot of fish in the sea," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, told reporters this week. "If someone is seeking a partner, we don't necessarily have to do that here."

Zachary Schermele is the congressional correspondent for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.