I'm Nancy Cook, Bloomberg's senior national political correspondent, and each weekday I'll be coming to you with inside-the-room reporting and insights that reveal what's really happening in Washington -- and how it impacts you.
House Cleaning
There's a bit of a reckoning going on this week at the Capitol.
Two House members, Democrat Eric Swalwell and Republican Tony Gonzales, resigned this week in a swirl of sexual misconduct allegations. With the uproar over those cases, lawmakers are waiting to see if any other colleagues under ethics clouds will be ousted or forced to resign in the coming days.
Republican Representative Nancy Mace called for an extensive "'House' cleaning," as she phrased it, specifically mentioning by name Representatives Cory Mills and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, in addition to Swalwell and Gonzalez.
The often-opaque House Ethics Committee is investigating Republican Mills over allegations of domestic violence and campaign finance violations. He's denied the allegations.
The ethics panel concluded last month that there was "clear and convincing evidence" that Democrat Cherfilus-McCormick diverted federal funds to her campaign. (She has maintained her innocence and faces a federal trial on related charges.)
Although Swalwell's fall was relatively swift, there's been some frustration about how slowly ethics cases usually unfold.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told my Bloomberg colleague Steven T. Dennis that it shouldn't have taken months for Gonzales to resign after evidence emerged that he had an affair with a member of his staff, who later committed suicide.
She said Congress needs a new process for investigating misconduct, along with wholesale institutional change.
Which raises a point that many people outside of Washington may not realize: Each office for the 100 senators and 435 representatives is, essentially, a small business.
Lawmakers run their offices as they chose, with no big HR department to set or enforce policy if a member of Congress, say, sexually harasses a staffer, is an abusive boss, or takes a very loose approach to ethics.
It must be said that most lawmakers are at least decent bosses. There are processes to make complaints, but critics contend they mostly protect lawmakers rather than staff.
And there's Washington tribalism. The House last month killed a resolution from Mace to require disclosure of all reports of sexual misconduct allegations involving members of Congress and aides. Party leaders also sometimes help shield their members to avoid losing a reliable vote.
Over the past few years there's been sporadic bursts of accountability in Washington.
The Supreme Court has had to confront it after extensive reporting over the gifts and perks justices of both parties accepted. At the Federal Reserve, a governor at the central bank, Adriana Kugler, resigned last year amid an internal probe of stock trading.
As poll after poll show Americans are increasingly distrustful of the nation's institutions, I expect we'll see more scrutiny of official conduct. Public opinion carries some clout, as we saw with Swalwell's swift resignation. We'll soon find out whether that carries over to other cases in Congress as the November elections come nearer.
Today's Top News
- The top US derivatives regulator is investigating a series of suspiciously well-timed trades in the oil futures market ahead of recent policy pivots by President Donald Trump related to the war in Iran.
- The US and Iran are considering a two-week ceasefire extension to allow more time to negotiate a peace deal, reducing the prospects of a return to fighting despite an intensifying standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.
- Trump's bid to block Iran from using the strait chokes a key Chinese energy supply and risks a showdown with Xi Jinping a month before the two leaders are set to meet in Beijing.
- The Senate rejected a Democrat-led effort to end the Iran war as the chamber's Democratic leader Chuck Schumer promised to force weekly votes on the increasingly unpopular and costly conflict.
- Some House Republicans pushed back on Trump's request to supercharge the military's annual budget at a meeting with Pentagon officials, spelling trouble for a cornerstone of his fiscal policy.
- Live Nation illegally monopolized live events ticketing and amphitheater markets, a New York federal jury found today, a blow to the nation's largest concert promoter.
- The companies behind sports gambling platforms FanDuel, DraftKings and Fanatics Sportsbook poured $41 million into a new super political action committee as part of their broader effort to expand legalized sports betting.
- Democratic Senate candidates are posting blockbuster fundraising totals for the first quarter, with Texas candidate James Talarico's campaign announcing a $27 million haul and Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff collecting $14 million.
- Trump said he would fire Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve if he does not leave that post "in time," and insisted that the Justice Department investigation into the central bank leader would continue.
- Erica Schwartz, deputy surgeon general during the first Trump administration, has become a leading candidate for the top job at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- New York Governor Kathy Hochul is proposing a new tax on second homes in New York City worth at least $5 million as a way to raise cash for the city's struggling budget.
- Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a possible 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, proposed taxing online gambling and prediction markets to fund research in fields where the US is competing with China.
- When Paul Atkins took the helm of Wall Street's top regulator, he came with a long to-do list. But a year into the job, there are few check marks next to those big tasks.
Must Reads From Bloomberg Government
- Prediction markets are reshaping the long-running fight over legal sports betting, giving bettors in holdout states a way in and complicating efforts to regulate the industry.
- The ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown has "significantly impacted" security planning efforts for this summer's FIFA World Cup, an agency official told senators.
Watch & Listen
- Today on Bloomberg Television's Balance of Power early edition at 1 p.m., hosts Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz interviewed former IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel about the state of the agency on tax day after staffing cuts.
- On the program at 5 p.m., they talk with Senators Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, and Ron Johnson, a Republican, about negotiations on a spending package, the war and Trump's pressure on the Federal Reserve.
- On the Trumponomics podcast, host Stephanie Flanders speaks with Anna Wong of Bloomberg Economics and Oren Cass of the conservative think tank American Compass about how Donald Trump's tariffs plus the Iran War may help US manufacturing.
Map of the Day
China is now on track to become the world's top tourism economy in the next few years as the US experiences a sharp drop in foreign visits. The Chinese travel and tourism economy grew 9.9% last year, more than twice the global rate and much faster than the 0.9% pace registered by the US, according to new data from the World Travel & Tourism Council, a trade group, and lead research partner Chase Travel. That's in large part due to a more than 10% pickup in spending by foreign tourists to China in 2025 -- a sharp contrast to the nearly 5% drop in outlays by visitors to the US. The US, which has long ranked as the world's top vacation destination with tourists flocking to places like Disney World and Times Square, has seen a sharp pullback in foreign arrivals amid tighter immigration restrictions and rising geopolitical frictions.
What's Next
- Industrial production in March will be reported tomorrow.
- Initial jobless claims for the week ending April 11 will be released tomorrow.
- Trump heads to Nevada tomorrow to promote his tax law and will be in Arizona Friday.
- The Florida legislature opens a special session on redistricting Monday.
- Virginia voters will decide whether to back a redrawing the state's congressional districts on Tuesday.
- Retail sales for March will be reported Tuesday.
- Pending home sales in March also will be reported Tuesday.
- King Charles is scheduled to make his first state visit to the US the week of April 27.