Copyright: Getty Images
If George Santos is successfully expelled from Congress by a two-thirds vote of the House of Representatives, the gears of the Capitol bureaucracy spring into action.
Santos will lose the ability to vote on legislation immediately.
Workers will remove his nameplate from his office in the Longworth building across the street from the Capitol. His staff there and in his New York offices can keep their jobs until voters pick his replacement, but they will report to the administrative office of the Capitol, not to Santos.
In the meantime, they can continue to provide services to Santos’ former constituents in New York’s Third Congressional District.
Santos won’t exactly become just another ordinary citizen, however.
He will continue to enjoy the privileges afforded to former members of Congress who leave under less controversial circumstances. As long as he isn’t criminally convicted, doesn’t take a job as a foreign lobbyist or isn’t advocating for a specific piece of legislation, he will be able to stroll the halls of the Congress, including access to the floor of the House of Representatives.
He can dine in the exclusive House restaurant, exercise in the Capitol gym and borrow books from the Library of Congress.
He is not eligible for the cushy congressional legislative pension, however. He would have to serve in the House for a total of five years to qualify. Of course, there’s nothing stopping Santos from running for Congress again, if he so decides. Expelled members – or even criminally convicted ones – are not prohibited from rejoining the chamber if they can convince voters to send them back.