Since the year 2007, the Senate Ethics Committee has received close to 2,000 complaints about alleged inappropriate behavior on Capitol Hill and yet no “disciplinary sanctions” have been taken. 

Just in the year 2024, the committee got 158 complaints of allegations of violating Senate rules, according to a report that was reviewed by the NOTUS outlet. The report reviewed by NOTUS shows that there have been 1,826  complaints about alleged inappropriate behavior since 2007 and no action has been taken.

Former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez avoided punishment for his scandal from the committee due to him resigning before it could be investigated. Menendez was convicted on all 16 counts in his federal corruption case last year, including obstruction of justice, bribery, extortion, wire fraud and acting as a foreign agent.

He accepted bribes in exchange for acting to benefit the governments in Egypt and Qatar when he was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Senate Ethics Committee is led by Chairman James Lankford, R-Okla., and Vice Chairman Christopher Coons, D-Del. 

NOTUS reviewed the committee report which gave some explanation on why some of the complaints were not investigated. Regarding the 158 complaints the committee got last year, the report says that 142 of them were dismissed “for lack of subject matter jurisdiction."

Eight of the cases were not looked into due to “lack of substantial merit” and seven were not investigated due to lack of "sufficient facts as to any material violation."

In 2023, the Senate almost disciplined Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over allegations of soliciting campaign contributions inside the Russell Senate Office Building on behalf of former Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker. 

He was sent a letter that stated, "Your actions on November 30, 2022, represented a repeat violation of Senate standards of conduct."

The review conducted by NOTUS noted that the House Ethics Committee has been more proactive with investigating misconduct when the House Ethics report against former Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz was released.

The Senate Ethics Committee has not responded to requests for comment.