The House shot down two separate resolutions on Thursday seeking to publish the committee’s findings into whether Gaetz committed sexual misconduct and illicit drug use while in office, instead voting to refer the measure to the Ethics Committee. The votes indicate the report will likely never see the light of day as the Ethics Committee has remained deadlocked on whether to publish the report. 

Two Democrats introduced privileged resolutions this week to release the Gaetz ethics report, forcing lawmakers to go on the record about whether the findings should be made available to the public. 

One resolution, filed by Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL), sought to compel the Ethics Committee to release the latest draft of its report detailing the allegations into Gaetz while the other resolution, filed by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), would direct the committee to “preserve and release records” of the committee’s review as well as release the full report. Both resolutions would also compel the panel to issue any recommendations or proposed disciplinary actions. 

House GOP leaders moved to table the resolution, dismissing it from consideration before it could be brought up for a final vote. Nearly all Republicans fell behind party leadership to defer the measure, except for Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), who voted against both.

The resolutions come as the Ethics Committee has met repeatedly to deliberate on the subject, although the bipartisan panel has failed to come to an agreement. Because of the panel’s composition of five Republicans and five Democrats, any decision must have bipartisan support in order to be approved.

Hours before the vote, the Ethics Committee met behind closed doors to deliberate on the report. However, no decision was made and the panel said it would continue discussions.

The panel previously met before the Thanksgiving holiday, when it failed to come to an agreement on whether to release the report. That meeting ended in a somewhat contentious matter as Wild disputed Committee Chairman Michael Guest’s (R-TN) characterization of the conversation.

“[Guest] has implied that there was an agreement of the committee not to disclose the report,” Wild told reporters after the Nov. 20 meeting. “We often vote unanimously. That did not happen in today’s vote, and I do not want the American public or anyone else to think Mr. Guest’s characterization of what transpired today would be some sort of indication that the committee had … consensus on this issue not to release the report. That just would be inaccurate.”

Wild then decided not to attend the latest meeting on Thursday.

The committee, which has been quietly investigating Gaetz for more than three years, has been under intense pressure to make its report public. That pressure came to a head last month when the Florida Republican resigned on Nov. 13 just hours after President-elect Donald Trump nominated him to be his attorney general. 

Gaetz later withdrew his name from consideration, acknowledging he likely did not have enough support in the Senate to approve his nomination. But even after he withdrew, Democratic lawmakers did not relinquish their efforts to get the report published. 

Republicans have sought to keep the report under wraps, arguing it would be unprecedented to publish an ethics report about a lawmaker who has already left office. However, in his updated resolution, Casten listed four examples of former lawmakers whose ethics investigations were released even after they resigned.

Those examples include former Reps. Bill Boner in 1987, Don Lukens in 1990, Mark Foley in 2006, and Eric Massa in 2011. The latter three investigations all involved sexual misconduct allegations, similar to Gaetz’s inquiry.

Gaetz has continued to deny all wrongdoing in the case. The Justice Department also investigated allegations of sex trafficking but did not bring charges.