WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Tuesday to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., following a House Ethics Committee investigation that concluded he engaged in persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct toward two young female staffers in his office.
A censure registers the House’s deep disapproval of a lawmaker’s conduct that does not meet the threshold for expulsion from office.
The 413-2 vote was just the latest instance of the House grappling with revelations about lawmakers’ behavior toward female staffers, a trend that prompted House leaders to launch a bipartisan review this year focused on making Capitol Hill a safer job environment for women.
Rep. Michael Guest, the chairman of the House Ethics Committee, said the Edwards case did not involve what he called “quid pro quo sexual harassment,” but rather conduct and behavior that created a hostile work environment.
“While Representative Edwards denies that his conduct was intended to be sexual or romantic, his pattern of behavior would lead a reasonable person to interpret it as such,” Guest said.
Guest said that behavior included providing the aides with lavish gifts, making comments about their appearance and dress, sending notes regarding his affection and inviting them to intimate dinners and vacations. He also said Edwards was aware that the women were uncomfortable with his behavior.
Edwards apologized to the two women, who are no longer on his staff, for actions that put them in an uncomfortable position. He said his intentions were “only grounded in what I understood our friendship to be” and said he admired them. He also apologized to his wife and family, saying they carried a burden they did not create or deserve.
But he also forcefully rejected the committee’s most damaging conclusions and the recommendation that he be censured. He emphasized that the investigative report itself concluded there was no evidence he engaged in sexual activity or explicitly propositioned any staff member.
“I am imperfect. I have made mistakes, but I do not believe I committed sexual harassment,” Edwards said on the House floor. “The factual findings of this investigation do not justify branding me as though I did.”
Edwards was one of the two lawmakers who voted against the resolution. The other was Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.
Edwards told reporters after the vote that he had expected the result would not go his way. House Speaker Mike Johnson sat with Edwards for a few minutes before the vote and told him how he thought it would go.
“It would not have been politically expedient for anyone to vote against a resolution accusing someone of sexual harassment,” Edwards said.
Edwards stood in the well of the House as the censure resolution was read. When he left the chamber, he remained highly critical of the Ethics Committee’s findings and at one point said the investigation was “very much akin to a Russian show trial.”
Edwards becomes the 29th member in the history of the House to be censured. He was asked about that distinction after the vote and said he lived a terrific life before he got into politics.
“I look forward to getting my life back,” Edwards said.
Edwards is serving his second term in Congress representing a district in western North Carolina. He chose not to seek reelection after the committee issued its report.
Earlier this year, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales faced calls for their expulsion before they stepped down.
And last month, the Ethics Committee announced it was reviewing allegations that Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., may have engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with a House staffer. He said he would cooperate with the investigation but his actions were consensual in nature and didn’t violate the law or House Ethics rules. He also apologized to his family and constituents.
House members are prohibited from engaging in sexual harassment or making unwanted advances toward their subordinates. The Ethics Committee said that despite the absence of an explicit proposition, a reasonable person could interpret Edwards’ “intimate and effusive attentions, where he prioritized the personal over the professional, as thinly veiled advances.”
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, the committee’s ranking Democratic member, said the investigation spanned more than four months and included interviews of 16 people and a review of nearly 1,500 pages of documents.
He said Edwards provided the two women with jewelry, designer purses, shoes and flowers and commented on their appearance. He also sent deeply personal letters and even skipped a vote series to decorate a Christmas tree at the home of one of the staffers.
“These are not innocuous, isolated instances,” DeSaulnier said. “They are part of a sustained, unprofessional and inappropriate conduct by Representative Edwards toward two young women he employed.”
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M. said Edwards’ behavior was “outlandish and disturbing.”
“If we don’t take action today, there is no opportunity for these women to receive justice,” Leger Fernandez said.
FILE - Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., asks questions before the House Appropriations Committee, June 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert, File)
Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., who is under threat of censure, is met by reporters as he walks to a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Deadly flooding at the Grand Canyon is damaging the area's economy, with a washed-out pipeline severing the South Rim's water supply and shutting down lodging at the popular tourist vista for an indefinite period.
The national park remained open Tuesday but tourists who planned to stay overnight — many traveling long distances for reservations from a year or more ago — have had to scramble to find rooms elsewhere.
The flooding that killed two people and left a third missing washed out an already decrepit pipeline spanning the canyon that supplied every shower, faucet and spigot at the South Rim.
Now, hundreds of rooms are no longer available due to insufficient water, thwarting plans for thousands of tourists staying at the canyon or headed that way in the days ahead.
Michelle Allen, of Olathe, Kansas, got word Sunday evening she'd need to check out the next morning after just one night into a five-night stay.
“We had to hurry up and make accommodations somewhere else,” Allen said. “Luckily we were able to do that.”
As of Tuesday, it's uncertain how long the lodging would be closed. Experts warn that the economic toll of such closures would affect not only northern Arizona but southern Nevada.
Many who visit the Grand Canyon also visit Las Vegas, said Christine Vogt, a consultant on sustainable tourism and outdoor recreation in the Western U.S.
“This will be catastrophic,” Vogt said, adding that the water shut-off could last weeks.
An extended lodging shutdown could also affect hundreds of service jobs in and around the national park and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in local revenue, said Megha Budruk, an Arizona State University associate professor who studies communities near public lands.
This is the latest economic blow to the region after a wildfire last summer destroyed a historic lodge at the Grand Canyon's less busy but lusher North Rim, putting all rooms and cabins on that side of the canyon out of commission.
Grand Canyon was the fourth-most visited national park in 2025, behind Great Smoky Mountains, Zion and Yellowstone. Summer is the park's busiest time, although tourist visits typically dip under 500,000 in September. After the North Rim fire last year, visitation was just 372,000 for the month.
In 2024, the park drew almost $1 billion a year in spending by close to 5 million tourists visiting the otherwise remote northern Arizona region, according to the National Park Service.
That spending further supported almost 9,000 jobs, which in turn generated $400 million in labor income and $1.1 billion in economic output in nearby communities, according to the park service.
Besides the shuttered Phantom Ranch lodge and campground at the canyon bottom directly affected by the floods, closed South Rim accommodations included El Tovar Hotel, Bright Angel Lodge, Maswik Lodge and the Yavapai Lodge and Trailer Village, park officials said.
South Rim campgrounds remained open but without spigots. Campground bathroom faucets would remain operational, but campfires were banned since less water would be available to fight a wildfire.
Restaurants and other food and beverage services at the South Rim remain open. But only so much water will be available from tanks that were supplied by the cross-canyon pipe.
In all, some 1,600 year-round residents and the South Rim's millions of annual tourists rely on the 12.5-mile (20-kilometer) pipe built down, across and up the sheer canyon walls in the 1960s.
Grit in the water has scoured the aluminum pipe, weakening it from the inside and causing dozens of failures in recent years. A more than $200 million repair project was well underway before the flooding that had damaged about 40% of the pipeline.
Conservation will be at least part of the plan to keep water flowing from tanks that still have weeks' worth of water in them. After that, how the tanks might be refilled is an open question.
Park officials planned a public meeting Wednesday at the canyon to provide updates on the water situation.
In the meantime, the priorities will be reporting leaks, using reclaimed water for nondrinking uses, running dishwashers and washing machines only if they're full or in eco mode, Andy Stiles, South Rim general manager for Xanterra Travel Collection, said by email.
“And asking guests and staff to be mindful of things like handwashing length and running water,” Stiles said. “Actions like these across the South Rim are what’s helping the available water reserves go as far as possible.”
Unaffected was Tusayan, a tourism hub just outside the park boundary 15 minutes from the South Rim.
“We’re just heartbroken about what has happened at Phantom Ranch,” Tusayan Mayor Clarinda Vail said, adding: “We are open. Full services in Tusayan.”
The community with 1,200 lodging rooms doesn't rely on the pipeline but uses well water. Besides hotels and camping, Tusayan hosts restaurants and businesses that offer tours of the canyon by air and ground.
At Grand Canyon Camper Village in Tusayan, business had been “oddly slow” for this time of year, but now general manager Joan Marquez is seeing a surge in business at showers and laundry rooms. Both are available for the general public as well as people staying at the campground.
South Rim lodging companies such as Delaware North, which runs the 350-room Yavapai Lodge, promised to get as many customers rebooked in Tusayan as they could.
But the community’s five main hotels were filling up quickly. Grand Canyon Plaza Hotel is usually the last in town to sell out but was seeing a surge in South Rim lodgers seeking rooms, front desk supervisor Steven Ayres said.
“We’re going to have more coming, I guarantee you,” Ayres said.
Gruver reported from Fort Collins, Colorado, and Yu from Phoenix. Associated Press journalist Ty ONeil contributed to this report from Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.
Tourists check out of the El Tovar Hotel as lodging along the rim of the canyon was shut down due to flooding, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026 at Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/Josh Biggs)
Tourists check out of the El Tovar Hotel as lodging along the rim of the canyon was shut down due to flooding, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026 at Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/Josh Biggs)
Tourists look down into the Grand Canyon off of the south rim, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026 at Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/Josh Biggs)
Bright Angel Canyon, middle left, the scene of flash floods, meets with the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, at Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People stand at the rim of the Grand Canyon, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, in Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Tourists look over the rim of the Grand Canyon in the rain, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, in Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/Josh Biggs)
A sign is seen as officials at Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona have closed off access to water sources at the park after a flash flood damaged the only water pipeline that serves the canyon, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
