House Representative George Santos has legislation named after him less than a week after his tenure in the House. The Santos Act will punish candidates who knowingly lie to voters about their character and background. It could be the only thing he gets accomplished.
The bill, which is short for Stopping Another Non-Truthful Office Seeking Act, was introduced by two other New York lawmakers on Thursday, January 12. Under the bill, any congressional candidate who provides voters with false information about their background will be slapped with a $100,000 fine, a year in prison, or both.
Democrat Representatives Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres introduced the bill as a direct target to Representative-elect Santos, who has been weathering a stream of revelations showing that he lied about almost every aspect of his life during his campaign in the midterm elections.
Santos lied about every part of his education, including where he attended high school. He lied about graduating from college and being a volleyball player at a university he had never attended. He lied about having worked on Wall Street, running a real estate company, being a descendant of Ukrainian Jews, and running a dog-saving charity organization.
Representative Torres released a statement calling out Santos’ lies, saying he was appalled at the lengths Santos would go to get elected by purposefully and continually lying to the American people about every detail of his life.
Torres called the deception a stain on the American democratic process and said it threatened to corrupt the institution he is proud to serve.
One of Santos’ most surprising lies was that he was married to a man and made himself appear to be the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress. Investigations proved that his purported marriage was a lie.
Santos was not seen to be wearing a wedding ring when he arrived at Congress this month. Further investigations revealed that he was previously married to a New York woman, but they divorced in 2019.
Representative Goldman released a statement saying that the lies Santos used to get citizens to vote for him threatened free and fair elections, adding that lawmakers had a responsibility to ensure it would never happen again.
According to Goldman, Santos’ candidacy was based on disinformation to deceive voters. Goldman declared he was proud to join Congressman Torres in introducing a bill to preserve the democratic process.
Santos is under investigation by the New York Attorney General’s Office, the Nassau County District Attorney, and federal prosecutors from New York’s Eastern District.
The Federal Election Commission received a complaint from the Campaign Legal Center accusing Santos of using campaign funds for personal bills like rent. Earlier this week, the House Ethics Committee received a complaint filed by Representatives Torres and Goldman asking them to investigate whether Santos violated the federal ethics law.
A growing number of people, including Congressional members and state and local Republican leaders from New York, have called on the shamed Republican to resign.
Santos is, however, standing his ground. While speaking to reporters on Thursday, January 12, he clarified that he was not considering resigning unless the 142,000 New Yorkers who voted for him asked him to.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Wednesday, January 11, he plans to move forward with seating Santos on committees even after the news of his lies broke out. He also implied that he would not be taking any action against Santos.