House Democrats are hoping to win the majority in November’s midterm elections. And they’re already looking ahead to how they would investigate sexual misconduct allegations in the chamber following the resignations of two scandal-scarred members earlier this month.

“If we’re in charge after the election, we will start doing hearings to get people’s suggestions and guidance and then try to put something together. But I think there is a general consensus here that things need to be tightened up around here,” Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, told NOTUS. His committee establishes the rules that govern the House chamber.

He added: “When the rules package comes up, I want to talk to people like [House Ethics ranking member] Mark Desaulnier and others, Democrats and Republicans, to figure out how we can tighten things up here, how we can do better. I mean, clearly we need to do better.”

After the resignations of Reps. Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales following sexual misconduct allegations, members of Congress told NOTUS that there’s a persistent accountability problem making it difficult to report and punish misconduct.

Some lawmakers have expressed interest in changing the ethics investigation process in the House, but Democrats see an easier path to reform if they win the majority in the midterm elections.

At the start of every new Congress, House lawmakers adopt a rules package that governs the operations of the chamber. The House Ethics Committee, which is in charge of enforcing the House’s code of official conduct, is “run by the rules we adopt every year,” Desaulnier said, referring to the package ruling the entire chamber.

“I’ve talked to some staff, some members. I think there is a group of us, it’s probably larger, that want to work on this,” he told NOTUS.

Desaulnier talked to Rep. Joe Morelle, the top Democrat in the House Administration Committee, which oversees the House as a workplace, on the House floor on Tuesday. Morelle said it was the first conversation the two lawmakers have had about reviewing the ethics process.

“I went through a little bit of this when I was in leadership in New York, and we changed the way we operate. So I want to look at how we do it here, and look at best practices that businesses have, that other governments have,” Morelle told NOTUS.

“I talked to Mark about his staff and mine sitting down to start laying out what we want to accomplish. He and I share the same goals — make people safe, change the culture here — and we’re committed to it,” he continued.

“I’m clearly going to work with the Women’s Caucus and leadership, but Mark and I had the initial conversation yesterday, because we sort of share responsibility, but most of the actual workplace things come out of admin,” Morelle noted, referring to the panel he sits on.

The New York congressman said he’s “happy” to talk to Republicans about changing the ethics process, considering “there’s still several months in this year.” But, he added, “If there isn’t an appetite in the next several months, in January, I’m going to be ready to go.”

The Republican office for the House Rules Committee did not respond to NOTUS’ requests for comment on whether they were looking to change any procedures following high-profile resignations and cases under review. House Ethics Committee leadership also did not respond to a request for comment.

Speaker Mike Johnson said earlier this week that “we are looking at every potential avenue to tighten up the rules, and make sure that women have an avenue to report.”

“We have to protect women and anyone who feels like there’s any inappropriate behavior whatsoever,” Johnson continued.“So if there are ways to tighten the rules, suggestions, we’re seeking that from all members. We’re open to that. And I suspect you get bipartisan, almost hopefully unanimous, support to do that.”

But some Democratic lawmakers said that Johnson hasn’t prioritized ethics in the past. He notably broke the record for the longest delay in appointing board members to the Office of Congressional Conduct, formerly known as the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent, nonpartisan office created in 2008 to review misconduct allegations against members and staff.

The rules package adopted under Johnson’s speakership last year weakened the office by requiring the OCC board members to meet formally to hire investigative staff — but he took over four months to assign board members, effectively stalling the office’s ability to review allegations.

A little over a week before Johnson finally appointed board members, Rep. Chris Pappas led a group of Democrats in sending a letter to the Speaker demanding that he appoint board members. Pappas believes Democrats would be more likely than Republicans to change the ethics process to make it easier for people to come forward with allegations.

But, Pappas also told NOTUS, “regardless of your politics, you should want this to be a safe work environment. You should want members of Congress to be abiding by the law and striving to maintain the highest ethical standards possible.”

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, which is heading the discussions to update the ethics process, told NOTUS that while she wants changes to happen in a bipartisan way, House Republicans have told her that they haven’t communicated with Johnson on the issue.

Leger Fernández said she spoke with Rep. Bryan Steil, chair of the House Administration Committee, on Tuesday and Wednesday “and he said he had not yet spoken with the speaker, so he doesn’t know what his marching orders have been.”

“Republicans have done a lot to undermine, in the administration and here, the ability to hold people accountable,” Leger Fernández said. “We’ve seen President Trump gut all of the independent investigators. They don’t want to know, they want to hide it all and move forward with an agenda without accountability.”

In response to questions from NOTUS, Steil said in a statement, “Our Committee is always looking at ways we can improve compliance with existing laws, including the Congressional Accountability Act,” referring to the federal law that “requires Congress to apply to itself many of the same employment laws that apply to the private sector and the executive branch of the federal government,” according to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights.

In a recent PBS interview, Leger Fernández said that she and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican who has been calling to hold lawmakers accountable, were both asked whether they had support from their respective party leadership on their push for ethics changes.

“I don’t want to speak for [Luna], but if I recall correctly, and you might look at the interview, she said no. I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute, I’ve had full backing from my leadership,” Leger Fernández said. Luna’s office did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment.

Leger Fernández said members of her caucus are having preliminary discussions around setting up a system “for the women who work here to provide us with their suggestions” on what would make it easier for staffers to report any allegations of wrongdoing.

Some lawmakers are already starting those conversations.

One House Democrat, who was granted anonymity to address private conversations, said some members have started meeting with their staff to understand what’s not working with the reporting system, so Democrats can “be ready to hit the ground running” in January.

This lawmaker said they talked to House floor staff members, who said that the reporting system is “too complicated” because there are “three different systems”: reporting to their direct chief or manager, reporting to the OCC, or going directly to the Ethics Committee.

As Democrats try to convince voters they would change the way things work in the House, overhauling the ethics process is one area they believe will make a difference internally for staff and will raise public credibility of the institution.

“What the Republicans did with their rules package was basically make it so they could not govern,” Leger Fernández said. “When the Democrats come in, we want to govern, we want to make things happen. And so it will be a very different rules package.”